by Kailin Gow
“All the best people do,” Jaegar smiled. “Now, we assumed we'd be sleeping in your room – but I see you have company. We'd hate to intrude on an evidently private moment.”
So, he was jealous! Kalina felt herself blush. This relative good humor – tinged with envy – about the trading of partners among vampires embarrassed her – she had not yet learned to treat her love of Jaegar and Octavius (and Stuart!) as things capable of being held side by side. Jaegar and Octavius certainly didn't see the betrayal – they, not she, were responsible for ensuring her love, but Kalina thought of her Catholic adoptive mother and grew scarlet.
Justin, too, looked eminently uncomfortable. One vampire getting handsy with his sister was enough – more than two was a brother's nightmare.
“Don't be silly,” said Octavius. “Of course you can sleep here if you like. Or down the hall, near Kalina's room, there's a few guest bedrooms.”
Kalina's room. She sighed. Not here, then. The moment was over.
“Shall we get someone to eat?” Jaegar smiled. “The housemaids all seem quite willing – I assume they like it...”
Justin looked a bit green, and Kalina shot him an encouraging smile. She hadn't quite adjusted to that element, either.
“No, thank you,” said Octavius swiftly. “You know I avoid the human.”
“I can see that.” Jaegar raised an eyebrow.
“Justin, shall I order you some more pilaf?” Octavius turned to him.
“You know what? I'm not hungry.” Justin looked like he wanted to avoid the topic of food around vampires altogether.
“I'll go arrange you a room,” Octavius swept out of the room.
No sooner had Octavius gone from view than Jaegar strode forward, evidently aware that his rival was out of earshot. “Hello, m'dear!” He looked down at Kalina. “Missed you.” He took her hands and kissed her roughly on the mouth. “Hope you haven't gotten into any trouble while I've been gone?” He winked.
She allowed him to kiss her, feeling her mouth open to his rough and insistent tongue. She longed for Octavius – in the next room! Already gone from her! But Jaegar's arrival had put her back into reality. She had her affection for Jaegar, their witty repartee, their easy friendship. Couldn't that be enough? If only she could be sure....
“I missed you too,” she said softly. Then she decided to keep things light. “Thank you for babysitting Justin,” she said with a wink.
“I'm no baby!” Justin looked like he had just about enough of vampire humor for the evening.
“Oh, but you are.” Kalina smiled, but she was serious. “To these old hands, we both are, aren't we? And you especially. So ignorant of vampire life! All so human.” But she wasn't human. The feeling of strangeness shook her once again. Her brother – her own brother! - was an entirely different creature. The man she had grown up with, who had protected her and loved her and tucked her in at night, was a thoroughly different thing than she was herself. The idea terified her.
“Hey, can I have a moment with Justin?” She turned to Jaegar with pleading eyes. She just needed a moment, she felt – just some time without vampires in the room, clouding the air with hormones and desire, to take stock of herself, to remind herself that she was just a girl called Kalina Calloway, that she had a brother. Panic rose up in her throat; she looked down at her hands and they seemed that they weren't even hers. They belonged to another creature now. A Carrier.
She remembered how she had jumped and run and walked up walls, how her fighting blood had taken hold, how she had performed acrobatics...like a dance, she thought, choreographed by some unnamable force within her.
“As you wish!” Jaegar brushed closer. “But meet me on the balcony when you can.” His voice was low and lilting and against herself Kalina bristled with desire as his lips brushed against her ear. “I want some time alone with you.” His fingers traced the contours of her hip.
It took a while after Jaegar left for the balcony, facing the inside of the courtyard, for Kalina to regain a sense of balance. Why were these vampires always doing this – flying in and out of her life, confusing her as her blood called out to each of them in turn! She sighed. “Well, big brother,” she began. “I'm glad you came along. But you will need more babysitting, you know – if you want to stay safe.”
“Nah, I'm a big boy.” Justin embraced his little sister, enveloping her in a great bear hug. It was a comforting feeling, Kalina thought, to be able to be embraced like that, to give herself over to a true, genuine warm hug, free of confusion, free of her other interactions – tinged, as they were, with desire. Her blood was safe here.
No, she thought. Whatever happened, whoever she was – whatever she was – Justin wa sher brother.
“I'm always careful,” Justin continued. “Believe or not, I can even fight for myself now. Jaegr's been teaching me how to fight. He's not so bad – for a vampire. And for my sister's...”
Boyfriend? Friend? Companion? Lover? None of those words seemed to fit any of them.
“Special gentleman caller,” Kalina laughed.
“Sounds old-fashioned.”
“They're old-fashioned.”
“I say,” Justin said. “If I had so many girls, you'd slap me and call me a playboy.”
“If you had so many girls,” Kalina smiled, “you'd be too full of yourself to care what I had to say about it.”
“True,” Justin shrugged. “I guess I'd rather have you picking among three or four guys than the alternative?”
“What's that?”
“Sitting around, waiting to be picked. The way I spent my high school years.”
Kalina laughed. Looking at the handsome man who stood before her now, Kalina found it hard to believe that this confident, vibrant brother of hers had ever been too terrified to even try speaking to a girl.
“At least I know they'll treat you right,” said Justin. “As long as they don't eat you.”
“Well, there is that.”
“But don't go breaking too many hearts, yeah, sis?”
Kalina flushed. “It's not so simple,” she said. There was her heart in the balance – her constantly changing, fluttering, fast-beating heart, this heart that pulsed blood that everybody else wanted, that she herself did not know how to control. How to explain to Justin this magical hold that these vampires had over her – this calling of a nature she hadn't even known she had? How to explain the way she felt – her heart being shunted back and forth like a ping-pong ball from one of them to the other.
And Octavius – so far away from her. Octavius whom she could never have – Octavius whose remoteness, whose distance, whose beauty floored her.
“Eh, you're still a teenage girl after all.” Justin could see right through her, even now. The thought made Kalina feel a little better, a little more human.
“What do you mean?”
“You always want the one you can't have.”
Kalina did not respond. “Take Octavius up on his offer,” she said. “The food's very good, and you'll need to keep your strength up. We've got a lot of work to do. And we can't have you passing out on the steppes.”
“Right,” said Justin.
And it would give her time to meet Jaegar on the balcony. She wasn't sure what she'd say to him when she got there – she was never sure. She could tell herself a hundred times that she was going to cut herself off from romance with all the vampires until she could settle her heart and soul and mind on one, but it was impossible. Even as a Carrier, she was not immune to the hot and honey-scented aura that seemed to surround all of them, that sparking of desire that left her a helpless prisoner to the calling of her own body.
And, of course, the Life's Blood, whose powers of restoring humanity would only work as long as she didn't give herself to any one of them.
“Stupid bloody curse,” she muttered as she went out to the courtyard. She saw a figure on the balcony, its face turned away from her, and went over to it. Just as well, she reasoned.
The figu
re turned to her. It was a vampire – she could tell by the pallor. He had red eyes and a hungry expression.
One of the servants? Kalina felt uneasy and took a step back, masquerading her chariness with feigned confusion. “Hey, have you seen Jaegar? I told him I'd meet him out here and I can't find him anywhere!” She gave a high, false laugh. “Oh, that Jaegar, always running off – never keeps a single appointment! Don't know how he...”
She managed to unhook her stake from her waistband, feeling her fingers curl around its handle.
“Didn't you hear?” The vampire sneered. “There was an alert going out. Some of Mal's men appeared on the steps – required all hands on deck, as it were.”
Kalina felt a sudden queasiness in the pit of her stomach.
“Or at least – that's what they all think.”
The vampire grinned, flashing sharp yellow teeth.
And then he attacked.
Chapter 2
Kalina stepped back, brandishing her stake high in the air. The vampire leered at her, his glistening red eyes wet with lascivious greed. His smile sickened her as he clambered towards her, revealing as he did so the fine points of the ugliest, most rotten set of teeth Kalina had ever seen. Kalina winced at the sight, her heart pounding faster from fear.
“I can hear that, sweetheart!” He leered. “The more afraid you get – the nicer it sounds. And it smells awfully good.”
“I'm not afraid!” Kalina lied.
“Don't deny it – I can hear every one of those delicious beats of your heart.” He ran towards her, but Kalina feinted to the right, climbing up onto one of the courtyard's many columns. She felt her body take over, her Life's Blood take control. She would not let one of these creatures subdue her – not this time or any other. She would survive. She closed her eyes as she jumped, her body sailing down to the bottom story of the courtyard.
“Not so fast!” The vampire sailed down after her. She could smell the scent of death on him – smelled the numbers he had killed. “I've come to make a profit, my pretty, and you're worth a lot more in vials than you are to me right now. Or come softly – I'll let you live for a while yet, so that you keep pumping.”
Kalina tackled him with a spinning kick to the groin. “Not....interested...” she declared through gritted teeth.
The vampire fell back, but he rose almost immediately, his lips contorting into a grim expression of hatred. “Quit causing trouble...”
She prepared to charge him, her body prickling with rage as she raised her stake higher. “How about you quit digging around in places that aren't yours?”
Suddenly, she felt a great, whirring weight at her side. Before she could charge, another vampire had leaped out at her from behind.
“Come on, Tomas, she's mine!”
“Fortune favors the brave!” The second vampire had his arms tight around Kalina, squeezing her hands to her sides so that she could not struggle, only kick and scream in vain. “And the hungry, I should think. And she smells so good.”
Kalina struggled harder, trying to jam her stake into the vampire's leg. She could smell the ugliness, the hatred on his breath, and she closed her eyes as his teeth veered closer to the small pulsing throb at her throat.
Before the vampire could bite, however, he collapsed into dust, causing Kalina to tumble to the ground, her face and nostrils filled with noxious dust.
“That's my sister you're talking about!” Justin looked down from his stake to Kalina and back again, as if in wonder that so small a weapon could do such a great thing. His eyes widened in surprise. “Kalina, I did it!”
“Justin, watch out!” But it was too late. The first vampire, his eyes gleaming like rubies, had taken hold of him. Justin shouted in pain as the vampire raised him up from behind, so that he stood as a virtual shield between Kalina and the red-eyed vampire. Justin kicked and wrestled with the vampire, but it was no use. His stake fell to the ground with a clatter.
“How about you reconsider the whole coming quietly option?” The vampire laughed. “Or else I take this one before I take you. I've never had siblings before.”
“Run!” Justin was shouting, his elbows striking time and again against the vampire's cold, immobile chest. “Kalina, get out of here.”
Kalina's heart beat faster still. No, she told herself – she could not become afraid. She could not falter. She had to trust in the Life's Blood, in the dark beating pulse that threatened at every moment to take possession of her. She could feel it taking hold, feel it calling to be let in, feel her body shake and shiver as the Life's Blood demanded victory over its prey.
The world seemed to go dark as this other-Kalina, this new-Kalina took hold.
“I'm reconsidering.” Her expression darkened as the vampire's teeth poised over Justin's lightly tanned neck.
“Careful, or I'll just eat him right away...” The vampire laughed.
“Reconsidered.” With a flying leap, Kalina leaped onto the vampire, her body colliding with Justin's as she did so. Before the mass of bodies hit the floor, she swung her arm around Justin and the vampire together in what felt like an embrace, her stake plunging around the back into the vampire's spine. He crumbled immediately into dust as Kalina rapidly moved the stake away as they fell, managing to remove it from under Justin's chest just moments before they fell.
They collided with a harsh sound on the floor.
“Ow...” Justin rubbed his elbows, now skinned and covered in vampire-dust.
“That was a close call,” she sighed.
“You're telling me.” Justin rose.
“We'll need to get some bandages on those.” Pockets of blood were forming at his elbows and his knees, soaking through the skin.
“Figures, doesn't it?” Justin gave a dark laugh. “We get attacked by vampires and I get hurt by falling over while you try to save me.”
“Better bled than dead,” said Kalina. “Now let's get upstairs. There might be more where these two are from.”
They ran back up to the top balcony, making their way to Octavius’ room.
They heard the sounds of footsteps in the courtyard, and Kalina's heart stopped short once again. “Who’s there?” She leaned over the balcony, her stake in hand. “If you've come for a piece of Life's Blood, I’m warning you, I’ll turn your miserable corpse to dust in as little time as...”
“It's us!” Jaegar's cheerful voice called from the courtyard as he and Octavius ascended the stairway. “We realized it was a trap as soon as we'd arrived.”
“I did tell you,” Octavius muttered.
“They managed to get past the guards,” said Octavius. “Who were diminished in number – we had taken some with us.”
“What happened?”
Jaegar sighed as the four of them entered Octavius’ rooms; Octavius quickly locked the door, after sweeping the rooms with his gaze for hidden vampires.
“A servant girl arrived at the house – an unfamiliar one. Said she was the cook's niece, that a whole group of vampires had been spotted south of the palace, that they had already attacked and made mincemeat of the whole nearby village and that they were coming for us next.”
“By the time she led us to the village in question, she managed to vanish – how a creature can simply vanish in this steppes is beyond me, leaving us alone in the heart of a village in which there was not a soul – vampire or otherwise. And then we knew that something was wrong.”
“We hurried back as quickly as we could!” Jaegar insisted. “But we couldn't get our hands on that servant girl – whoever she was. Probably some little vampire minx sent by the enemy.”
“No, I don't think so,” said Octavius darkly. “No, I think she sent us for a reason.”
“What are you talking about?” Justin turned to him. “You said yourself there was nobody there?”
Octavius shook his head. “I said not a soul.” But he said no more.
Jaegar rushed to Kalina, covering her with kisses. She blushed – seeing Octavius and Justin both
in the room was too much for her – but she did not stop him. “And when I think of how stupid I almost was,” Jaegar sighed. “How stupid I was – letting you here by yourself. You could have been killed.”
“We did all right on our own,” Justin clapped him on the shoulder – in part, Kalina thought, to keep him from pawing his sister as much as to reassure him.
Jaegar turned around. “Really?”
“I mean, I wouldn't recommend leaving us alone with vampires – but we managed to polish off a few of them!”
“We?” Jaegar looked dubious.
“It's true!” said Kalina. “Justin saved my life – a vampire came out of nowhere while I was fighting another one, and he got it by surprise, straight in the back!”
Justin beamed with pleasure, his ears turning ever so slightly pink with embarrassment. “I'm not saying she didn't save my poor human behind a few seconds later,” he said. “The other one managed to get me – and she staked it just in time. Gave me a few nasty bruises though.”
Jaegar smiled. “It looks like your brother's good for something after all,” he said, turning to Kalina. His cocksure smile was enough to make her melt.
“I doubted it for years and years,” she laughed. “Always figured Mom and Dad had him just to annoy me. But now I'm not so sure…” She grew quiet. Mom and Dad. Such strange, remote, mysterious figures now.
“And I haven't even got Life's Blood in me,” said Justin. “Just saying – you all have an unfair advantage.”
“Careful,” Octavius said darkly, “you're just asking to be turned.”
The group turned in surprise to face him. Never before had Kalina heard Octavius speak of such a thing – turning anybody, let alone Kalina's own brother, was a topic of great sensitivity for Octavius. But his face was unsmiling.
“It was a joke, man!” Justin laughed uncomfortably. “I don't want to turn – no offense to all of you.”
“I shouldn't think you'd want to,” said Octavius. “But who knows what we might have to do – if what I think is true. That village made me realize – this place, this beginning of our journey, could not be in a more unfortunate location. These steppes are ancient – the powers here are ancient. And an attack on the palace so soon means that we have been detected. And that one far more powerful than I am is against us.”