Sins of the Blood: A Vampire Novel

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Or perhaps he knew and didn't care.

  Living with someone who was turning was hell. That the roommate still had bitterness in his voice meant he had survived it, but not happily.

  Cammie swallowed. Perhaps she smelled the blood because she expected to. Cow-bars like this shouldn't exist in the Northwest, not if vampires were scarce. She would check—quickly.

  She pushed open the door, and stood for a moment in the doorway, letting her eyes adjust to the red-tinged darkness. The smell was stronger here, so thick that she nearly choked on it. It coated her nostrils and her mouth, making her swallow to prevent herself from losing the contents of her stomach.

  The people who sat closest to the door did not look at each other. No one tried to talk over the pounding music. They stared at the next room, their eyes glassy, their expressions longing. In the next room, she could get glimpses of red-tinged bodies, moving in an obscene parody of the sex act. The bartender turned to her and she stepped back, letting the door close in front of her.

  She couldn't go in. To go in there unprotected would be suicide.

  She hurried up the stairs, forcing herself to walk. She didn't want to call any more attention to herself by running. By hitting the button on her key ring, she shut off the car alarm. The car chirruped at her, and the sound was like the voice of a friend calling out into the darkness. She unlocked the door, got in, and locked the car again, starting it while she watched the bar in the rearview mirror.

  The oak door opened, and the bartender came out. He was a stout man with pasty skin, but not too pasty. He wasn't one of them himself. He was a collaborator, a human who benefited from that kind of debauchery. She yanked the wheel a hard left and peeled down the street, driving in darkness so that he couldn't read her license plates.

  She drove as fast as she could, feeling as if the hounds of hell were on her heels. But no car followed her. It was as if no one had seen her, no one had noticed. The bartender probably thought she wandered into the wrong bar by mistake.

  Or maybe he remembered her earlier phone call and figured she had all the information she needed.

  When she reached the downtown, with its expensive high-rise hotels and well lit streets, she stopped for a moment and rested her head on the steering wheel.

  A nest.

  A functioning nest. A nest where someone named Steve spent most of his time. Steve, an old friend of Ben's. Steve, who had put Candyce in touch with Ben. Had Candyce gone in there alone? No wonder she was missing. No unprotected human would escape untainted.

  Maybe Ben had gone there looking for Steve too. Maybe Steve was luring his friends into that world, bringing in easy prey for the vampires within.

  Perhaps Ben had been one of those blank faces she had seen. Perhaps she had stared at her own brother and not even known it. She sat up and wiped her eyes with her left hand.

  Perhaps he had been in there with Steve, waiting for his old girlfriend. Perhaps—

  (he's mine now)

  —he had turned too.

  Oh, god. Not Ben. Not her baby brother.

  She made herself take a deep breath. This was now too big for her to do on her own. She would need some help, and she would have to do some digging to find it.

  Problem was, she lacked the time. If Ben were trapped in there—if Ben and Candyce were trapped in there—or even Steve, not a vampire but a host, luring his friends for his master, were trapped in there—they wouldn't last long. A place like that had a steady turnover of hosts. They died, or stumbled out the back door, broken, frightened,[C&F100] and unable to function in society again.

  Cammie didn't have the strength to be a one-woman savior. Even if she did, she couldn't go after a nest alone. The bartender would protect it in the daytime, and she wouldn't be able to kill all the vampires by nightfall.

  Best to get out of Portland. She would return to Eugene, call the Center, find help, and go from there.

  It was the only thing she could do.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  "She had absolutely no right!" Ben slammed the library door behind him. He was shaking. It was one thing to see the body of someone he didn't know. But he had grown up with Candyce. He had loved her once. In her too-white, bruised face, he had seen the girl he had laughed with, the girl he had held.

  Mikos and Van walked ahead of him, their bare feet leaving small bloody prints on the polished wood floor. They had left Candyce's body in his bed. He wanted it properly buried. They hadn't even given him time to cover her face.

  No one answered him. They hadn't spoken to him since Mikos commanded them all to meet in the library. They kept walking until they reached the sitting area in front of the fireplace. No fire burned in the grate, and the room was cold. The library smelled of old books and long-dead fires.

  Ben clenched his fists. He wanted to grab Van and slam her into the wall. But he remembered the ease with which she had controlled him earlier.

  Mikos leaned against the marble mantel. "She had a right, Ben."

  Van sank into the easy chair and stuck her feet out in front of her. Her eyes glittered. Her skin was flushed with the kill. "You brought her into the nest. We share here."

  "She was pregnant."

  Van shrugged. "I hate hereditaries." She kept her gaze level on his. He could feel the anger waving off her. She had done it on purpose. She hadn't picked Candyce at random.

  "You had no right!" Ben stopped beside the chair. He wasn't sure he could control himself. Candyce had only been twenty-four. She had an entire life ahead of her. But he couldn't let them know he had cared for a cow. He had to appeal to Mikos. "We needed that child. It may be my last."

  Mikos tugged at his black sweatshirt. His face seemed to have more lines in it than it ever had before. "It might," he said, "but you jeopardized her by bringing her here without understanding the rules."

  Ben took a step toward the chair. His muscles were taunt. "I did not believe any of you would kill her. I thought we all had the same goals."

  Van pushed herself out of the chair. Her movements were lithe and quick, like a cat's. "Then you think wrong, virgin. We form a nest for safety, but our definition of safety varies. That's why we have rules. You broke the rules. I merely restored order."

  "You created chaos—"

  Mikos held up his hand. Ben and Van stopped yelling. "You both hurt order," Mikos said. "Ben should not have brought that child here, and you, Van, should have talked with me before taking matters into your own hands."

  "I did talk to you." Van rocked back and forth on her feet like a fighter maintaining her stance. Although she watched Mikos, she seemed to be keeping an eye on Ben as well. "When Ben first brought her here. I told you the girl was a danger. I told you that she might break free, but you said it was worth the risk. We needed the hereditary. I merely showed you that we didn't need the hereditary that much."

  Ben moved within inches of her. A vein pulsed in her throat. He longed to rip it open, even though her blood would taste spoiled. He would let it run to the ground like so much poison. "You had no right to kill her."

  "I had the same right as I always do with hosts in this nest. I had the right to try her. You drained her so badly that a normal feeding killed her." Van lifted her chin as she spoke. A single drop of blood had dried on her lower lip.

  "It wasn't an accident, Van," Mikos said. He walked over to them, and grabbed both of their arms. His grip on Ben's upper arm pinched the skin. "Don't make it sound like one."

  Ben wrenched himself free and walked over to the fireplace. He pulled the metal curtains back and grabbed wood from the pile, letting the methodical chore of building a fire calm him. Wood, kindling, paper. Wood, kindling, paper. Then he lit a match against the marble, letting the faint scent of sulfur soothe him, and touched the flame to the protruding pieces of paper. The paper caught. He closed the curtains and stood, the light heat of the paper fire warming his legs.

  "I need to know what we are going to do with her," he said, "and what I
can do to prevent this from happening again." Although it would never happen in quite the same way again. He had cared for Candyce for years. Odd how he had forgotten that in the last few days, and how the caring had returned since he saw her cold, still body. Old dreams. He had thought that with the child, he might be able to make a home with Candyce. But the thought had never been on the surface of his brain. He had just known that she would be beside him, raising the child, while he lived his new life.

  "Know the rules." Van crossed her arms in front of her chest. The muscles rippled in her too-thin skin.

  "I'm trying to learn," he snapped. He would kill her. Somehow. He would get even with her for spoiling his chance at raising a powerful child.

  For Candyce.

  "Nothing will happen to Van," Mikos said. He still had his arm around Van's shoulder. He would take her side against Ben. In everything. "She was within her rights."

  "I wasn't referring to Van." The heat had grown more intense. Ben moved away from the fireplace. "I meant Candyce."

  Van smiled mockingly and brought a hand up to her breast, mimicking Candyce's movements. Ben slapped it away.

  "She's being taken care of," Mikos said.

  "She's got a family. People will be looking for her."

  Mikos' mouth formed a straight line. "We know what to do, Ben. We've been doing this for lifetimes."

  The implication was that he didn't know. "Look," he said. "My hometown's probably in an uproar with me missing. With Candyce gone too, someone will be looking. I just wanted to warn you—"

  "You should have thought of all of that before bringing her here." Van spat on the floor near Ben's feet. "You threaten us all, virgin."

  "Are we done talking to Van?" Ben asked Mikos. Ben couldn't stand having her in the room any longer. The bitch had ruined his life. With one simple movement. With one uncontrollable action.

  "No," Mikos said, looking at Van. He drew her closer and spoke softly, like a lover. "But hear this, Van. I will not tolerate such behavior in my nest again. Is that clear?"

  Vangelina glanced at him sideways through her slightly slanted eyes. The look emphasized her catlike appearance even more. "You prefer that virgin to me, Mikos?"

  "We need him. He's hereditary."

  "I have known you since you turned. You would throw that away?"

  "We have never been on opposite sides before, Van." Mikos said.

  Ben didn't move, trying not to reveal his pleasure at Mikos' show of support. He had expected Mikos to continue backing Van.

  "Then you are a fool, Mikos." Van eased out of his embrace. She shook her shoulders as if to shake the feeling of him off her skin. "You need old friends whom you can trust, not children with no knowledge of the rules."

  "We have always disagreed about hereditaries, Vangelina."

  "Yes, we have," she said, "but the past has always supported my argument. What has an hereditary gotten you except pain and near death?"

  "They have gotten me here, to now," Mikos said. "To a future that I can control."

  "Can you?" Van asked. She glanced at Ben. Ben met her gaze. She was smart and she was powerful, but he would be smarter. Someday.

  "You think you can control him now," Van said. "But wait until he makes more mistakes. Wait until he exposes the entire nest."

  She turned and walked along the polished floor. Her footsteps were quiet and by the time she reached the doorway, the crackling of the fire drowned out any noise she made. She let herself out and Ben felt himself relax.

  "The rules." Mikos' voice boomed in the stillness. "You shall not jeopardize the nest. It is the supreme rule and central to the survival of any nest."

  Ben gripped the side of the armchair. Its fabric was soft under his fingers. The fire gave off the smell of wood smoke and warmed the room.

  "You shall be forgiven this time," Mikos said, "but another infraction and you shall be thrown out without support. Is that clear?"

  "Clear," Ben said. He made sure he sounded calm.

  Mikos paced around the armchair as he spoke. "Humans jeopardize the nest. The only humans allowed up here are experienced cows. Cows must be in use over a month before we are sure of their strength. There are bars for cow-training, or, if you prefer privacy, you may rent an apartment, as long as you let the lease lapse when the cow leaves."

  Ben nodded. So that was why there were so many vampires in Steve's bar. They were training cows.

  "Second," Mikos said. "I make the rules here, and you shall listen to me. You shall ask my permission before bringing a cow up here. Any cow."

  Ben licked his lower lip. His body was trembling. That rule would change, and Mikos would be surprised when it did.

  "Finally, there will be no disagreements between nest members. If there are, the youngest member shall leave the nest."

  "That's not what you said to Vangelina." Ben was gripping the chair so hard his nails had pierced the fabric.

  "What I do with Van is my business," Mikos said. "You will not second guess me, nor will you go against me. The second rule."

  He stared at Ben, his dark eyes bright in his lined face. Ben was holding his breath. He finally released it. He still needed the nest. As long as he needed them, he would have to use their rules. Still, he could not let everything rest with orders.

  "You said we would change things. You said I was the most important person to join this nest in a long time, maybe ever."

  Mikos nodded. "You are important. But not so important that you jeopardize all of our lives."

  Mikos walked closer to the chair. He smelled of musk and something drier, as if the age of his body affected his aroma. "You must agree to the rules or I will make you leave," he said.

  "I do not understand why you tell Van one thing and me another. If what I did was so wrong, then why didn't you toss Candyce out in the first place?"

  Mikos' body did not move at all. Yet his face seemed to go flat. Ben had seen that expression once before, the night he had made his first kill. Mikos did not tolerate much opposition.

  "I wanted to observe her. She threatened our nest, but the child of an hereditary was fifteen times more valuable than you are, Benjamin. A child I could raise myself, and train from birth,[C&F101] had a certain allure that made your cow's presence worth the risk." Mikos shrugged by moving one shoulder. "I was willing to take that risk. Van was not. Both responses are valid. My quarrel with her comes from her disobedience, not her actions."

  "She killed Candyce," Ben whispered.

  Mikos nodded. "And judging by your response, it was a good thing. The cow meant more to you than a cow should. You would have gotten careless. You might have even hurt her worse than you did. You are still new. You might yet father another child. But I warn you. Any new cow you train must be raised outside the nest. I will not tolerate this kind of upheaval in my home again."

  The fabric bit into Ben's fingertips. He was staring at Mikos, breathing shallowly. It would take so little to throw the chair aside, to attack Mikos unprovoked. But Van had defeated him, and Ben had surprise on his side then. He would have to wait until he was stronger, until he was more clever. When they least suspected.

  They had no right to control him.

  No one did.

  "Do you understand?" Mikos asked.

  Ben understood. He just wasn't sure if he agreed.

  "Do you understand?" Mikos repeated.

  "I understand," Ben said. His tone was sullen, the tone he had used when his father made rules he didn't want to follow. Let Mikos know he was upset. Mikos would not rule the nest forever. "Aren't you going to punish Van for killing someone so precious?"

  Mikos took a deep breath. "Van was within her rights, Ben. She founded this nest, not me, although she lets me run it. She is not someone to take lightly. Van and I may disagree, but we do not fight. For the good of the nest. Do you understand?"

  "Oh, I understand," Ben said. The message wasn't as subtle as Mikos thought it was. He was warning Ben not to fight him too. But Ben w
ould do as he pleased. No one had the right to kill anyone he brought into the nest. No one had the right to order him around. Someday they would all understand that.

  Maybe the day he killed Van.

  Mikos turned his back on Ben, and then stopped. Mikos shoulders were broad. His body held so much power in check that it looked as if it would burst through him. "I have given you a home, food, clothing, and wealth," Mikos said. "Do not betray me. If you do, my people will slaughter you in your sleep."

  If they chose to remain faithful to Mikos. Ben smiled, knowing that Mikos could not see it. "I will not betray you, Mikos," Ben lied.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The hotel room no longer felt safe. Only Cammie's exhaustion let her sleep until ten the following morning. Even then, nightmares of blood and vampires rearing out of movie-coffins made the sleep restless and unfulfilling.

  Before she showered, she called DeeDee and asked for any records the Center had of former employees or similar centers in the area. DeeDee put her on hold for what seemed like hours before coming back with the name of an addiction counseling office in Roseburg, to the South, and the detectives the Sadlers had mentioned: DeFreeze & Garity. DeFreeze & Garity were not known for their vampire work, but they had handled odd cases and had a reputation for results and discretion. Other than that, the Center had no information that would help Cammie.

  She was on her own.

  By ten-thirty, she was dressed and out of the room. She now carried a pouch of garlic and the protection kit she had [C&F102] used to use when she was in Eradication. When she had come west, the idea of carrying one felt silly, but now it seemed necessary. She also wore jeans and tennis shoes, much more sensible attire when vampires were in the area.

  She carried her briefcase the half-block to the small coffee shop she had discovered. Delbert's was a homey concoction of tables and benches with artwork on the walls, and a knack for making delicious breakfast muffins. A comic shop graced one wall, and upstairs was a large used bookstore. The wood and brick design gave the building a non-commercial feel. She liked it better than either of the restaurants in the Hilton.