by Robin Thorn
It was strange, but her presence still calmed me somehow. It was an odd feeling to have, considering everything that I knew. Considering everything that she’d done to me.
But it was Leonard who whispered into my ear, “You’ll see soon enough.”
It was almost impossible to see more than three feet in front of me. The bar was dark and full of bodies knocking into me and blocking my path. I could feel Collette behind me as I followed Leonard through the crowd. People started to the part when they noticed Leonard approach, allowing him space to walk freely ahead. I noticed some bow their heads at the sight of him.
This place was nothing like the campus bar or the Briarwood nightclubs where I’d met Will. The energy here was different, congested, dark, and the people were cold, their gazes ravenous. I caught the glowing crimson gaze of an older female and noticed the two-pointed teeth that overlapped her bottom lip. I kept my eyes trained on the floor after that, numbly trailing Leonard towards the back of the smoky establishment.
“Don’t be so afraid,” Collette whispered into my ear as we forged our path through the crowd. “They can sense fear. They feed off it.”
If her comment was meant to help, it failed. Big time.
Ahead of us, a section of the bar was cordoned off by a red rope. A woman in a metallic-looking dress and a man in a black suit guarded the VIP area. The woman unhooked the rope at the sight of Leonard and gestured for us to pass through. She clipped the rope back onto the pole once all three of us were inside the secluded area. Leonard took a seat at one of the private booths. He reclined back on the leather bench and put his boots up on the glass table. Collette perched uncomfortably beside him and signalled with her eyes for me to do the same.
I slid into a seat beside her and clenched my teeth.
A few moments later, a barman approached our table, tray in hand. He was a weedy looking guy, pale and sweaty. I could tell by the eager glint in his sunken eyes that he was excited to be serving us, and by the way, his hands trembled as he set down three iced whiskeys on our table.
Once he finished, he stood tall and waited, hovering at our booth with a hopeful expression.
Leonard dropped his feet down from the table. “Come here,” Leonard commanded, curling his finger inward. The barman stepped closed to him, then knelt before him and closed his eyes.
Collette turned her gaze away, staring at her whiskey glass, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from the scene playing out before me. Leonard leaned forward and placed a kiss on the barman’s mouth. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, not like the kisses I’d shared with Will. Leonard’s cool eyes were open as he held his lips to the barman’s mouth. Then he pulled back, and with him came tendrils of black smoke, pulled from the barman’s mouth. The barman let out a choked sound, as though he were gasping for air. I almost cried out as I watched Leonard draw the breath from the barman’s body. And then, suddenly, everything stopped.
“Leave,” Leonard said simply, his voice cold.
The barman, stunned, staggered to his feet and stumbled away from our table.
I recoiled in my seat.
Leonard took a slow swig of whiskey. “Once humans get a taste,” he murmured, “they can’t get enough. Filthy.” He trailed his thumb over the rim of the whiskey glass, then drained the rest of the drink.
I stared at him, dumbstruck.
He ran his tongue over his teeth as he looked at Collette and me. “Drink,” he said in a deep voice.
I looked down into my glass. Ice cubes danced in the amber liquid. Was it even whiskey? Now I was beginning to wonder.
“You don’t have to drink it,” Collette whispered into my ear. “Not if you don’t want to.”
Leonard slammed his hand on the table and bellowed, “Who are you to undermine me? I said drink.”
I froze, and Collette let out a gasp. Her raven hair fell forward onto her face as she bowed closer to the table, cowering from him. A few bystanders turned to look at us with sneers on their faces, clearly entertained by Leonard’s anger, clearly ravening for more.
Leonard clasped his hand around Collette’s face, forcing her gaze up to him. “You,” his hissed, “are my child. I am your Sire. You may have sired this,” he crooked a finger in my direction. “But you are not a master. You understand me?
“Yes,” she rasped. “Yes, Sire.”
He bared his teeth. “Never disrespect me again.”
I could see his grasp tightening around her face, and she was shaking, terrified.
“I’ll drink it,” I blurted out, steering Leonard’s focus back to me. “It’s fine.” I knocked back the whiskey and tried not to grimace as the alcohol stung the back of my throat.
Leonard cricked his neck and relaxed into a smile.
Something was unnerving about the way the drink coated the burning hunger within me. Almost as though it had numbed it, or dulled it, at least.
Another round of drinks made it to us we sat in silence as the night unfolded. Leonard’s stare moved sinuously over the crowd, taking everything in. As for Collette, she wouldn’t look my way; her gaze stayed latched to the table.
After the third drink, it wasn’t only my hunger that had dulled— so did my desire to leave. All thoughts of Phoebe, May, and Michael, the Guardians gradually melted away. I remembered them, in a hazy, distant way, but I no longer felt the urgency to get back to them. And why should I? I thought now, my stomach tightening. Phoebe lied to me. She told me that death was the only option. She’d been willing to let me die. Well, maybe I did have another option. At least here, tonight, there was another option.
I swallowed hard as I looked out into the seedy crowd, all moving in time to a pulse of the music. Like it or not, I was here. I was in this, and worse, I realised…it was in me.
“Look what the hounds dragged in,” Leonard’s voice jolted me from my reverie. I followed his gaze to the woman heading in our direction through the smoky air.
Amerie. My heart started beating faster.
Her long flaxen hair swayed as she walked our way. She moved like water through the crowd, her slip dress clinging to the curves of her body. And the moment she stepped into the soft glow of the VIP lights, I noticed something chilling.
Amerie’s lips were deep red. It could have almost passed as lipstick if it wasn’t for the dribble leaving a red track on her chin.
It was blood.
My hands started to shake around my whiskey glass, my mind blurry from the intoxicating drink.
Blood. Amerie was a vampire. That’s what Collette had told me, and now I could see it, right before my eyes.
“Leo,” Amerie purred as she slipped into the seat between Leonard and Collette, the hem of her dress riding up to her thigh. “What a surprise to see you tonight.”
Leonard simply arched an eyebrow.
Amerie trailed her fingers along his jawline, then slid her hand down his shirt and over the zipper on his jeans. “I’ve haven’t seen you here in a long time,” Amerie simpered. “I thought this wasn’t your scene. I do hope my children have made you feel very welcome. You, at least.” Her hand moved lithely over his jacket.
Leonard pushed her hand away. The relaxed expression no longer painted on his face. Instead, he snarled as he locked eyes with her.
“I can bring my children here if I so choose,” Leonard said, and I flinched when I realised that he was referring to Collette and me. His children?
Amerie threw back her head and laughed. “Your children? This one is yours,” she said, pointing a long fingernail towards Collette. “But this one,” her finger moved to me, “is hers.”
A wave of nausea washed over me. Amerie’s focus was on me now. Everyone’s was. Collette had sired me—she’d been the one to turn me into an Incubus. So that made me, what? Collette’s property?
“He’s mine,” Leonard seethed through gritted teeth. “She may have sired him, but he belongs to me now. He’s under my control.”
I held my breath, afraid of what would happen nex
t.
Amerie sat up straighter, gone was the playfulness of her demeanour. “Watch your tone,” she spat. “This is a place for vampires, not your rogue soul suckers. Haven’t we spoke about staying out of each other’s way? We wouldn’t want any more little accidents now, would we?” Her eyes wandered to me, and I looked away.
Vampires, I realised. The people in the bar were all vampires. Suddenly I felt as though the walls were closing in on me. Hundreds of sets of scarlet eyes, noticing me, watching me, waiting for me to step closer to them.
“Now, Amerie,” Leonard drawled, at ease again. “There’s no need to be hostile. You always were snappy after a feed.” He leaned in closer to her and licked a smear of blood from the corner of her mouth.
Disgust rolled like a wave in my stomach.
I turned to Collette, and she stared helplessly back at me.
“Leonard,” another voice snapped all four of our attention across the VIP area. “Drop that. You don’t know where it’s been.”
A younger guy was heading towards us. The VIP security unhooked the rope to grant him access. He was handsome, dark hair and a little stubble along his jaw. He couldn’t have been much older than me, and even in the dim lighting, I could see the glow of his golden eyes.
Incubus eyes, I recognised.
Leonard and Amerie turned to him, silently.
“I’ve been looking for you, Leo,” he said, stalking towards our booth.
For the first time even, Leonard looked uncomfortable. Powerless, almost. “Sam,” he greeted the newcomer. “I thought you were out of town.”
Sam’s gaze flickered to me for a moment. “Well, I’m back. We need to talk.”
Collette cowered in her seat, her hands balled into fists as she rocked back and forth.
Who was this guy?
Leonard cleared his throat. “Collette, my love, take Stefan back to the warehouse.”
Her voice trembled. “But, Sire, I—”
“Now,” Leonard barked. His eyes never left Sam, his mouth twisted into a sinister smile.
I felt woozy as Collette pulled me to my feet and guided me towards a door at the back of the VIP area. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed the same opaque smoke I’d seen leave the barman’s mouth dance in Leonard’s palm as he eyeballed Sam.
“What’s going on?” I murmured to Collette as we made for the exit.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We need to leave.”
Suddenly there was a commotion across the bar. Lights danced on the walls and ceiling, and screams began to erupt.
“Guardians!” someone hollered.
Collette’s grip tightened as she shoved me to the door.
Leonard, Amerie and Sam jumped to their feet, their eyes trained on the blinding lights in the bar area. Leonard’s threw his arms wide and black smoke poured from his body, darkening the whole area.
Collette dragged me to the back exit. Stunned, I tried to turn to see the three we’d left behind, but once she ushered me through the door, the floor fell from under my feet, and I landed on my hands and knees back in the warehouse.
“What the hell happened back there?” I shouted at Collette. My heart was beating fast, pumping double time.
“I don’t know,” Collette said, running her fingers quickly through her hair as we stood alone in the dull room in the warehouse. “It happens. There are Guardians everywhere…”
Guardians. My thoughts jumped back to Phoebe and her family, and my stomach knotted at the thought that it could have been them in the bar. I don’t know who I was more afraid for, Phoebe in a bar full of vampires, or myself in a room full of Guardians. After all, I was just another Demon now, wasn’t I? To them, at least.
“We have to be careful when we feed,” Collette said, wringing out her hands. “Maybe they were following Amerie. The Guardians would need no excuse to slaughter us all though.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Can you blame them? You’re talking about feeding,” I echoed her wording with revulsion. “You’re talking about killing, taking human lives, like it’s okay. Like it’s normal.”
“We don’t kill,” Collette snapped back. “Not all of us. After the first transition, we don’t need to kill to survive. It’s a choice. It’s a compulsion, and you can choose to ignore it.”
I didn’t believe for a second that Amerie hadn’t killed someone tonight. I’d seen the murderous look inside her blood-red eyes.
“I can’t do this,” I murmured. “I can’t be this.”
“It’s too late,” she said. “It’s either become one or—”
“I know,” I cut her off. “Or die.”
Silence hung between us, and the crackle of the dying embers of the fire sounded deafening in my ears. I rubbed my temples. My head was throbbing.
“What was in those drinks?” I asked, my voice scratchy. “It wasn’t just whiskey, was it?”
Collette cast her gaze the floor. “It’s an enactment, like a drug. It’s supposed to sedate you. I don’t know,” she sighed, “Leonard wants to lure you into this world, but he wants it on his terms.”
I grimaced. Even if I had felt sedated in the bar, that certainly wasn’t the case now.
“You’re sick and twisted,” I muttered. “All of you.”
“You think I wanted this?” Collette said, at last, drawing my gaze back to her. “You think I chose this?”
I gritted my teeth and said nothing.
“I didn’t,” she said emphatically. “I was as much a mistake as you were. Leonard didn’t intend to sire me, but he did. It happened. I was just a soul filth, like the barman we saw tonight. I was a dumb girl who thrived off the rush of an Incubus. Leonard breathed into me because I begged him to.”
I turned away from her in disgust.
“But Leonard took it too far one night,” she went on. “He almost killed me—he could have killed me if he’d wanted to. But he stopped himself. He brought me back from the brink. So then, just like you, I was left worse off than death.”
A deranged laugh slipped past my lips, “I’m not like you,” I said, my voice hollow. “I’m nothing like you. Because I won’t choose to kill to satisfy my survival.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” she murmured. “That’s what I kept telling myself—”
I raised my palm to stop her. “This may have happened to me,” I accepted, “but I’m not going to make the choices you’ve made. If I can’t live without killing someone, then I won’t live at all.” I moved to the door.
“You can’t keep running away from this,” Collette called after me. “You may think you’re stronger than me, better than me. But remember, I was where you are, not so long ago. I know how hard it is to ignore the urge. It only gets worse.”
I cringed, trying to block out the gripping hunger inside of me.
“I was strong,” she said.
I didn’t turn back as I replied, “But I’m stronger.”
I hovered on the staircase with my hand folded over the oak rail. Dad stepped into the house and shrugged out of his coat. He hung it on the rack and let out a slow breath. I don’t think he realised that I was watching him.
“Where have you been?” my voice sprung from the shadows on the lamp-lit staircase.
Dad turned and looked up at me from the hallway. “I was following a lead,” he said. “There’s a bar in Colmark, just off the highway. A few of the ministry were tracking vampires…”
A Guardian ambush on an underground bar? It wasn’t like my dad to get involved in that kind of thing.
“Brave,” I said quietly. I was unable to hide the note of irony in my tone. Stupid, more like. What was he thinking?
And then it made sense. Of course. I swallowed. Dad was looking for the liar. They all were. Well, a vamp bar off Route 6 sure as hell wasn’t it.
Footsteps thudded on the upper floor and Mum appeared at the top of the staircase.
“Michael,” she breathed as she rushed down the stairs, sidling past me.
>
“May.” He met her in the hallway and wrapped his arms around her, his tall frame enveloping her. “Don’t worry. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
“There were too many,” she said, her voice muffled as she spoke into his shoulder. “I saw it in a vision, but I was too late to warn you. I was too late.”
He stroked her silver hair, soothing her. My shoulders tensed.
“Any casualties?” I asked. The words sounded far away, lost somewhere in time.
Dad met my eyes over Mum’s shoulder, his arms still locked around her. “Yes,” he said, sombre. “There are always some.”
A Guardian died tonight. Maybe more than one. I could feel the admission pulsing on his energy.
Mum slipped free of him. She turned to me now. They both did. “Please, Phoebe,” she whispered. “Please. Let’s end this.”
How many more people had to die before I gave the game up? How many lives lost already?
What was I fighting for? Sam? Stef?
Myself?
And then the words just escaped, as if they’d found their way to the surface, defying whatever messed up logic had kept them hidden for so many years.
“There’s a warehouse,” I said in a trembling breath. “On the border of Briarwood and West Haven. It’s hidden in marshland.” There. The words were out, and they were cold and black, and broken.
I watched my mother nearly crumple to the floor in relief, and my father exhales for what seemed like the first time in years.
It was over.
I didn’t hang around after that. I couldn’t. It was all I could do to make it to my bedroom and collapse onto the floor, silent tears spilling down my cheeks and a knot of grief twisting inside of me. Well, that was that. They knew where the illusive hideout was now. They’d slay Stef if it were not already too late. They were just doing what we do; killing demons. They were stopping this from happening to any more innocent people.
Now they knew, would they kill them all. Leonard, Sam, Stef. Part of me hoped they’ll have time to escape. My fleeting thought goes against everything I know.