Bitch.
“I heard that,” she snapped.
I felt the blood drain from my face. What else had she heard. Could they all hear me?
Riah’s laughter echoed off the ceiling and her heels clicked across the floor as she and Meridian left the room, and I was once again very aware of the fact that I was naked in front of a lot of people I didn’t know.
Lux pushed past a group of punks with a pair of leather pants in his hands. He shoved them at me and pointed to a door. “Get changed. We’re leaving soon.”
Mr. Maddern, so good to see you looking so... upright.” Bishop said. I suppose that was the kindest way to describe me at this point in time. I felt sick to my stomach and I was leaning on Lux more than I wanted to. Literally and figuratively. “I know that the last 24 hours haven’t been kind to you, but that’s all behind us now.”
“Behind us? You... do you even know what happened to me?”
Bishop brushed some invisible dust from the sleeve of his impeccable suit. “Of course I know,” he replied. His eyes met mine with that now-familiar moonshined glow.
“And you let it happen?”
“Of course. You signed the contract.”
“The contract? Waaaait, what the fu—“
Bishop leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the edge of the dark wooden desk. “Everything was laid out in the contract, Mr. Maddern. You’ve tied yourself to Mutually Assured Destruction, and this... afterlife.”
“What!”
It felt like my head was going to explode.
Bishop opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of paper. He dropped it on the desk and tapped his finger on my signature.
Fuck.
“What if I’ve changed my mind?”
Bishop spread his hands. “What if you have? Meridian’s blood is in your system now. If you don’t feed tonight, it will kill you. If you feed, you will be one of us... and you will have the rest of your immortality to hone your craft... to be the voice of the new revolution. A symbol.” He dismissed me with a wave of his hand. “You have until dawn to decide.”
Lux grabbed me and yanked me towards the door. I stumbled after him, my brain churning and my stomach in knots. The office door closed behind us and as soon as the latch clicked, Lux slammed me against the wall. “So. What’s it going to be?”
White-hot pain ripped through my guts, but Lux held me tight against the wall and all I could do was groan.
“What other choice do I have?”
5
I did what I was told for five years. I fed at Spiral; I performed with Meridian, Shade and Lux… We went into the studio Bishop built for us in the depths of the club. M.A.D. released an album, the ‘quintessential punk aesthetic album’ the reviewers screamed.
I’d been on the cover of Rolling Stone, and the sight of the photo sickened me when I saw it. Meridian loomed over my shoulder like a predatory bird and I looked like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. I’d always been thin, but I just looked haunted now.
The magazine covers were framed in Bishop’s office, hung alongside our gold records on the wall behind his desk. We had a photoshoot with a new London-based magazine called Kerrang next week, and fans were clamoring for a new album.
Five years ago, if you’d asked me what I wanted from life, I would have talked for hours about every single thing that was happening right now. Except for the part about being turned into a vampire and feeding on the living every night to sustain my ghoulish afterlife. That part could fuck right off.
Meridian’s Blood Outlaws had grown, and Riah had become more powerful. She ran the gang of punk kids like a queen, giving them tasks to complete for her… random acts of vandalism and petty crime mostly. I didn’t know why she did it, but I could only assume that she was bored.
We all were.
I could tell that the older Laudan’s at the club were starting to get suspicious. Church especially. The burly bouncer and I had come to a sort of understanding, but I knew that he was watching and listening all the time, and more than likely reporting everything to Bishop. He saw the crowds of kids as they left the club, and he knew that they returned to Meridian’s loft in the early hours of the morning just before dawn.
I knew that Riah wasn’t stupid enough to think that Bishop didn’t know what was going on, but I wondered if she was baiting him.
“You know I don’t care what kind of trouble you and the děti get into, but you have to be more discreet,” Meridian had told her. Their exchange had been tense, and when I’d tried to leave the room, Meridian had stopped me. “I want you to know,” he’d said to me. “When Bishop comes to you asking questions, you can tell them that I warned her.”
But he wasn’t really warning her. I could tell by the way they looked at each other. Riah was anything but contrite, and the smile on her face was conspiratorial. This was definitely not a lecture. Meridian was proud of her, and she knew it.
* * *
A few weeks later, I was sitting in Bishop’s office poring over figures I didn’t understand and couldn’t give two shits about. The plans for our second album were well underway and Bishop wanted us in the studio as soon as possible, but for some reason, Meridian was digging in his heels.
I was pretty sure I knew what that reason was. She had long dark hair and cold eyes and she hated everyone who wasn’t Meridian, and everything that the Laudan’s stood for.
Bishop was droning on about the cost of sound equipment when a loud knock interrupted us and one of Bishop’s goons appeared in the doorway.
“Meridian’s here,” he said quietly.
“Finally,” Bishop growled. He laid down the papers he had been waving around and leaned back in his chair. “Let him in.” He looked at me sharply, his silver-shined eyes flickering slightly. After all this time, the sight of them still unnerved me, and I wondered if my own eyes had that same effect on people. The girls I fed on in the middle of Spiral’s dance floor said I hypnotized them… but I just assumed that was something they always said. “Wait in the hallway, Mr. Maddern. I need to speak with Meridian.”
I passed Meridian in the doorway, and he fixed me with a meaningful stare. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open, he whispered in my mind. My lip curled, I hated being told what to do.
Some things never change.
“I sent for you three days ago,” Bishop said sharply as the door closed behind me.
I turned to go into the club to wait to be called back, but one of the goons laid a hand on my shoulder. “Bishop told you to wait here, you wait here.”
I pushed his hand off me and fixed him with a glare. He just smiled at me as I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest.
“You need to put a leash on your děti.”
That was Bishop’s voice. I looked around, but the goon outside the door wasn’t looking at me. Did he want me to listen in? Why did I get to know all this shit? I didn’t want to be involved in this crap. I just wanted to perform. “They’re causing more problems than I can keep under wraps. How many are there now?”
“Six… you know I haven’t broken any Caedyr laws, Bishop,” Meridian replied.
Liar. Liiiar. The loft was getting more crowded every day… but was Meridian turning them, or had Riah been breaking laws right under their noses?
“You were permitted to turn Maddern because I applied to the Caedyr on your behalf… but you’re a terrible liar, my old friend.” Bishop’s voice was tense; I could hear him clearly, as though they were standing next to me.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Meridian replied. He was calm, almost unnaturally so.
“Be that as it may, the Caedyr are beginning to ask questions. We are here in New York without their direct supervision for a reason, and I will not allow you to jeopardize that.” Bishop paused briefly and I realized that I was holding my breath. “We don’t have the resources to support what you’ve fostered here. I won’t tell the Caedyr, on the condition that you will rein in Riah. Her actions ar
e getting out of hand, and I’m having a hard time determining what her motives are.”
I could almost hear Meridian smile.
“I’ll speak to Riah, I’m sure she has an explanation for all of this,” Meridian replied. “In fact, I’ll send her down to apologize for her behavior in person and beg the forgiveness of the Caedyr.”
“You know the děti are held to a different set of rules than the rest of us.”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
“Get out of here; I’ve wasted enough time on this.”
I looked up as the door opened and Meridian strode out. I went to move away from the wall, but Meridian pinned me against it, his forearm across my chest. “I know you heard everything,” he hissed, his mouth close to my ear. “Keep your mind blank when you’re around Bishop. You still haven’t learned to protect your thoughts from us, and I can hear everything like you’re shouting in my face.” He released me as the goon stepped forward to pull him away. “Keep your mouth, and your mind, shut. Understand?” He pointed a finger in my face and slapped the goon’s hand away. “I know the way out,” he shouted, stalking back into the cavernous club and towards the stairs that led up to street level. His limousine would be waiting at the curb. I knew he had no intention of going back to the loft to talk to Riah.
He was leaving town. That’s what I would do.
“Eli, I apologize for the interruption,” Bishop said as he appeared in the doorway. “Please, come and sit down.”
“I don’t think so, Bishop,” I said. “I know why you wanted me to wait out here. I heard everything and you want to read my mind and find out if Meridian is telling the truth.”
Bishop blinked at me.
“I feel like an idiot even saying that out loud. This is some bullshit, and I don’t want any part of it. I didn’t sign up to be the middle man in any kind of ‘blood feud’ or whatever overdramatic title you vampires end up giving these kinds of things.”
Bishop surprised me by smiling. “I understand, this is all a little too… much.”
“A little? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I sometimes forget that our ways can be… disorienting at first. Take your time, Mr. Maddern. Everything will come to you in time and Meridian will teach you everything you need to know about being Laudan.”
“But I’m not really a Laudan, am I? I’m a děti or however you say it. Second class.” Those were Riah’s words, but I felt her bitterness just a little. It was bad enough that I wasn’t human anymore, but to see myself on the cover of magazines, hear my voice on the radio, and know that I was a slave to someone else’s rules? That was some straight up bullshit.
“Take some time to think about what you heard tonight. I’ll be here when you’re ready to get back to work.”
The door closed and I walked away in a rage, my heart pounding in my throat. How could he be so calm? I felt like my skin was peeling off my body. I slammed open Spiral’s red door, surprising the bouncer who was just starting to set up for the night. A few kids milled around smoking, their hands jammed deep into the pockets of their torn jackets. A few of them recognized me and I turned quickly before they could get their hands on me. Church stepped in to hustle them into line and I made my getaway down the sidewalk.
Ordinarily I loved meeting fans, that’s why I’d started performing in the first place. But right now I just wanted to sink my teeth into every throat I could see. I wanted to tear, I wanted to shred; I wanted to forget what it was like to be human once and for all.
* * *
It took me a few weeks to cool down enough to sit down in front of Bishop again to talk M.A.D. business. It seemed ridiculous to me that this band was going to be the focus of the rest of my eternity.
“I understand your confusion, but you have to trust that I have a bigger plan in place for you, Eli,” Bishop had tried to soothe me, but I wasn’t buying it. Trusting this guy wasn’t something I’d be doing anytime soon. “Ten years of performance, a few albums… and then we wait. Let a mythology grow up around M.A.D., and then boom,” he slammed his fist down on the desk, rattling the perfect silver pens in their shining silver cup next to the pearl-handled letter opener. I raised an eyebrow.
“Boom?”
“We’ll come back with a new album, a new tour, they’ll never expect it. The kids will lose their minds. M.A.D. is back to inspire a new revolution...”
“And how long will that take?”
Bishop tossed the pen he was holding onto the papers. “Details, we’ll figure that out later. Cross the bridge when we come to it… whatever cliché applies.” He smiled at me, flashing his sharp teeth. Bishop smiled so rarely that I was surprised to see him in a good mood.
“Don’t look so nervous, this album will sustain M.A.D.’s legacy. I’m sure of it. I just need your help to get Meridian back into the studio. Where is he now?”
“New Orleans, I think anyway. Riah wouldn’t say.” I was guessing. I hadn’t asked Riah, but she’d been locked away in the bedroom she shared with Meridian since he’d left town. She was either planning something, or she was sulking at being left behind. I was inclined to believe that it was something more sinister. Riah wasn’t the type to sulk. She was a stone-cold killer, and no one fucked with her. Bishop’s rules… the Caedyr… they were fucking with her.
I’d heard the others talking about it. A change in management.
Bishop’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me.
Shit. I was still really bad at masking my thoughts.
“Bishop,” a goon at the door again.
“Let her in,” Bishop snapped, his eyes still boring into mine. I swallowed thickly and turned to see Riah and Lux walk into the room. “Maddern, you stay put.”
Riah glared at me and then smiled sweetly at Bishop. “Vůdce,” she said, her voice like honey wine.
Bishop finally looked at her, and there must have been something in his gaze, because Lux took a step back. Riah stood firmly in place, but I saw her jaw clench. “Do you have something to say to me, zrádce?” Riah winced at the use of that word. Traitor.
“I do,” she replied, her voice shaking just a little. But her hand tightened into a fist and I knew that she was preparing herself for something. “Meridian told me that you wanted an explanation… an apology for the behavior of my… friends—”
“I know you turned them, Riah,” Bishop snapped, interrupting her. “You’ve broken the laws of the Caedyr, and you will face their judgement.” Lux took another step back and I heard footsteps outside the office. Dozens of pairs of boots thundering down Spiral’s wooden staircase.
A smile crept across Riah’s beautiful face. “You’re right, Vůdce. I’ve been busy. Do the Caedyr know what you’ve been doing here in New York? Away from their eyes? Do they know what you’ve done to our kind?”
“Our kind? We are not your kind, zrádce,” Bishop spat the words out as though they tasted foul.
Riah’s eyes flashed and she hissed quietly. “You might not be, but we still have to live under your rules. This is not what we were meant for!” she shouted. “To be pushed into the shadows, to feed on whatever dregs you bring in for us like some kind of prison buffet?”
“How many have your turned?” Bishop’s voice was deadly quiet. Whatever Riah was saying, he wasn’t listening, and I wanted to get the fuck out of here before the tension in the room wound any tighter.
Riah smiled again, the expression almost deranged, and I felt my blood slow down in my veins.
“Enough to stand up against you,” she said.
6
Bishop stood up, his chair skidding back against the wall. He shouted for the goons who stood outside the door, but before they could come to his aid, they were overpowered by a wave of Riah’s followers.
Dark Laudan blood painted the walls of the hallway outside the office and Bishop’s jaw tightened. Riah’s smile was confident and cruel.
“You’re outnumbered, Bishop,” she purred, walking forward slowly. Her hips swayed a
nd her lips were sultry, but her eyes were cold silver moons. “I might spare your afterlife, but you have to swear allegiance to me as the leader of this društvo and announce me to the Caedyr as your successor. Effective immediately.”
Bishop spat on the floor. “Never.”
“I was hoping you would say that,” she said with a smile. Lux looked over at me and tapped Riah on the elbow. “What about him?”
Riah’s focus swept to me and her eyes narrowed. “What about him?”
“What do we do? He’s part of the band… we need him.”
“Do we?”
Lux glared at her and Riah shrugged. Outside the office, the sound of the club being destroyed, shattering glass and bottles, exploding lights, rang in my ears. I wondered suddenly if they’d gotten to Church.
Riah sighed heavily. “What side are you on, Maddern? Are you one of the děti, or do you want to die a second time with this utlačovatel.”
“Oppressor?” Bishop shouted. “You believe you are being oppressed here? I should never have allowed Meridian to turn you. Do you really think you can just walk in here and start some kind of mutiny with your plague rat followers?”
Riah snarled, her hands clenching tightly into fists.
“Eli,” Lux hissed at me. He looked desperate, his gaze flickering between Riah, Bishop, and me.
I didn’t want to be in the middle of any of this bullshit, but it didn’t look like I was going to be given a choice.
Bishop lunged for Riah at the same time I moved to intercept Lux. He pulled a switchblade from his pocket, something he’d picked up downtown on one of Riah’s ‘missions’ no doubt. He slashed at me, the blade opening a wound on my chest that bled hotly down my shirt before closing.
The moment the switchblade connected with my skin, something primal boiled up inside me and took hold. It drove my punches, surging and zapping through my veins every time my fists connected with Lux’s unfortunate face. His ribs cracked, his jaw shattered and before I knew what was happening he lay in a broken heap at my feet, blood pooling under his head.
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