Hidden in the blackness, each one pressed against a dark tree trunk, they watched a pair of college-aged kids stroll closer, hand in hand. There were no other people within view. Snatching these two into the darkness would be child’s play. Kristi could smell their sweet, hot blood. She licked her lips.
“You take the boy,” Marcio told Kristi. “Genevieve and Dara can share the girl.”
The two women smiled. They had shared many a meal over the centuries.
As the humans drew nearer, the vampires crouched to leap. Before they could, Kristi straightened up.
“I can’t do it,” she said.
Marcio pulled her farther back into the trees. Dara and Genevieve followed, looking angry and disappointed, respectively.
“What do you mean, you can’t do it?” Marcio asked. “You must do it. The alternative is agony you don’t even want to contemplate.”
Kristi was torn. The intoxicating scent of the young lovers’ blood still hung in her nostrils. But something was holding her back.
“They’re the same age as my friends back in college,” she said. “They seem so nice—and so happy together.”
“They are nice,” Genevieve said. “That’s why their blood smells so sweet. Bad people’s blood doesn’t smell quite as sweet.”
“Or taste as sweet,” Dara added.
“I’m sorry,” Kristi said. Her shoulders slumped. “I want to do it. I know I need to. But I just can’t.”
Genevieve turned to Marcio. “Perhaps her time stranded between living and undead softened her in some way.”
“Perhaps,” Marcio agreed. He looked at Kristi thoughtfully. They should just leave her here. If she chose to feed, fine. If not, then she would suffer the consequences. But something would not let him abandon her.
“I have an idea,” he said at last. “You only have to feed on human blood but once. It must be soon, though. Do you think you could feed upon someone who wasn’t so nice?”
Kristi thought for a moment. “You mean, like a gangbanger or something?”
“Yes. Someone evil. Could you do it then?”
Kristi nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I could do that.”
Marcio smiled. “Then let’s go find one.” He glanced toward Dara and Genevieve. “Or a couple of them,” he added.
The four vampires turned away from the park and headed south, where a soft yellow glow over the horizon told them they would find a town. Any place with more than a few hundred humans in it would certainly contain at least a couple of bad ones, of that they were certain.
They didn’t even need to go all the way to town, however, stopping instead outside a rundown roadside bar. The gray brick building was the only structure along this wooded stretch of highway. Blue neon letters across the top proclaimed the place to be The Thirsty Dog, although the g was dark. Kristy smiled, thinking that The Thirsty Do was not a bad name for a bar, either. A red Budweiser sign and a silver Coors Light display glowing in the blacked out front windows were brighter and obviously newer than the letters on the roof.
What drew the vampires here more than the seedy condition of the place was the fifteen or so gleaming motorcycles parked in front of the building, clear evidence of the kind of clientele inhabiting the bar.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll find someone in here who won’t offend Kristi’s tender sensibilities,” Genevieve said. “Dara and I go will go in and find the nastiest guys we can. We’ll invite them outside for some fun.” She grinned at the thought. “Marcio, why don’t you disappear into the trees for bit? We don’t want our guests thinking they have any competition out here. Kristi, you wait over by the corner.”
Marcio and Kristi walked to the edge of the building while Dara and Genevieve went inside. Marcio laid his hand of Kristi’s shoulder.
“You can do this,” he said. “You have to do this.”
Kristi nodded. “I know. And I will.”
Marcio kissed her on the forehead and then vanished silently into the shadows of the woods.
A moment later, Dara and Genevieve emerged from the bar. Each had her arm linked around the arm of a burly biker. Both of the men were well over six feet tall, with thick, powerful bodies. Dara’s guy had a tangled brown beard and long hair held in place by a blue bandana. Genevieve’s was taller by two inches, with a shaved head and a dark, drooping mustache. Both wore jeans with thick silver chains dangling into the pockets and black leather jackets adorned with a picture of a wolf’s head on the chest. The back of each jacket bore a large round patch with a bigger wolf’s head and red letters reading “Gray Wolf Motorcycle Club.”
Both men sported wide grins and walked the slightly unsteady lurch that came from a bit too much to drink. Their smiles widened when they saw Kristi waiting for them by the side of the building.
“You weren’t kidding when you said your friend was hot,” bandana guy said.
Kristi felt the saliva beginning to moisten the inside of her mouth as she smelled the men’s blood. Neither smelled anywhere near as sweet as the college kids’ had, but the scent was still inviting.
Genevieve looked at Kristi. “Your choice, Kristi. Which one of these fine specimens do you want?”
Kristi breathed in their scent one more time. The bald guy’s smell was a bit less sweet than his friend’s. She placed her hand on his thick forearm.
“I’ll take this one.”
Bandana guy’s grin widened. “Too bad, Tumor,” he said as he linked his free arm around Genevieve’s. “Looks like you get only one, while I enjoy a doubleheader.”
Kristi smiled. Tumor. The guy’s nickname seemed a pretty good indication of the type of person he was.
Tumor put his hand on Kristi’s cheek. “That’s fine by me,” he said. “I’ll just do this one twice.”
“So,” bandana guy said. “Where we gonna do this?”
Dara smiled her sexiest, most inviting smile, developed back in the Parisian bordello.
“How about around back, where we won’t be interrupted?”
“You sure you don’t want to put on a little show for our buddies inside?” bandana guy asked. “They’d love to watch.”
Genevieve tightened her grip on his arm slightly.
“Positive,” she said. “Your friends might be tempted to join in the fun. We want to give you two our full attention.”
“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Tumor said. “Let’s go get this party started.”
The three vampires all smiled. They led the bikers around the side of the building to the back. There were no windows here and they were hidden from view from the road.
Genevieve looked at Kristi. “Whenever you’re ready,” she said.
Kristi nodded. She let her fangs drop, thrilled at the feeling of power the simple act sent surging through her. Tumor’s eyes widened. Before he could move, Kristi’s fangs pierced his neck. She lowered him to the ground as she drank.
The taste and feel of his hot blood flowing down her throat was beyond anything Kristi could imagine. Her senses and her strength, already magnified many times over, seemed to expand even further. A kaleidoscope of swirling colors bloomed inside her head as she sucked down Tumor’s blood. The feelings were indescribably delicious, yet what she was doing pricked at something deep in her psyche. Despite how good the blood tasted and how it made her feel, she was glad she would never have to do this again.
In less than two minutes, it was over. She looked up and saw Marcio, Genevieve and Dara looking down at her and smiling. The two women had already finished with Tumor’s friend. Blood still dripped from the sides of their mouths. Kristi wiped her own mouth with her sleeve and stood up.
“Congratulations,” Marcio said. “You are now one of us.”
Kristi took his hand. “Thank you.”
“Did you enjoy your first meal?” Dara asked.
“Yes. It was amazing. But I hope I never have to do it again.”
20. PERMISSION
The four vampires headed back towa
rd their cavern. With several hours left before dawn, they were in no particular hurry, especially Kristi and Marcio, who trotted side by side. Dara and Genevieve were not in any rush to leave the cool, fresh open air either, so they did not begrudge the slow pace of their companions.
Eventually, with less than an hour before the gray fingers of dawn began to paint the eastern horizon, they arrived near the entrance to their sanctuary. Marcio drew to a halt a few hundred feet from the opening, out of sight of anyone who might be watching from inside. The others stopped beside him.
“We’re here,” he told Kristi. “The entrance to our cavern is just ahead.”
“You live underground?” Kristi asked, surprised.
Genevieve grinned. “Where did you think we lived, in some beautiful glass house in the middle of the woods? You’ve been watching too many movies.”
“I, uh, hadn’t really thought about it,” Kristi said.
“When the sun comes up, you’ll be glad for our little hole in the ground,” Dara said. “The sunlight hurts.”
Marcio took Kristi’s hands in his. “It’s more than a ‘little hole in the ground,’ I promise.”
“Why are we stopping here, then?” Kristi asked. She watched as Marcio’s eyes moved to Dara and Genevieve.
“Just being careful,” he said after a moment.
“What Marcio is trying to say, dear,” Genevieve said, “is that you may not be welcome here.”
Kristi’s eyes grew wide as she looked at Marcio.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be welcome? I’m a vampire now, just like all of you, aren’t I?”
“You are,” Marcio assured her.
“The coven has rules about creating new vampires,” Genevieve explained.
“And Marcio did not get permission,” Dara added.
“I’m going to ask them to accept you now,” Marcio said.
“What does that mean?” Kristi asked worriedly. “What will happen to me if the coven won’t accept me? They won’t kill me, will they?”
“No, you will not be harmed,” Genevieve said. “You will merely be banished, far away, so that anything you do that calls attention to yourself will not endanger us.”
“Call attention to myself? How would I do that? I’m never going to drink human blood again.”
“Which is one of the things I will tell them,” Marcio said.
“How are you going to do it?” Dara asked him. “The Council will be angry you did not ask before you turned her.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. I want you and Genevieve to go inside and find Stefan. Ask him to come out. I think I can convince him. And if I do, I believe the rest of the Council will go along.”
Genevieve nodded. “You’re right about that. Stefan has never been in higher regard than he is now, after his role in destroying those two unusually powerful vampires.”
“A battle in which I fought at his side,” Marcio reminded her. “I risked my life. Stefan will not forget that.”
Genevieve nodded again. She and Dara had taken part in the first disastrous contest with the two magically enhanced vampires and knew firsthand how powerful they had been.
“I think you’re right. We will be back as quickly as we can.”
Kristi watched as the two vampires flashed through the trees. She did not fully understand her position, but trusted that Marcio would make everything right. As if he had been reading her mind, Marcio took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
They did not have long to wait before Stefan came striding through the trees. From the look of surprise on his face when he saw Kristi, it was clear Genevieve and Dara had not told him why Marcio wanted to see him. The two women had remained behind in the caverns, so it was just the three of them who gathered under the moonlight.
“I was told you wished to see me,” Stefan said to Marcio, though his eyes remained fixed on Kristi.
Kristi had trouble meeting Stefan’s gaze. The black-haired vampire’s eyes were like black mirrors, unreadable. And while Marcio had an air of confidence and power, the aura surrounding Stefan took those qualities to a whole different level.
“I seek a favor,” Marcio said. “I’m hoping my role in our last battle will persuade you to grant it.”
Stefan pulled his eyes from Kristi and looked at Marcio. Kristi immediately felt as if a weight had been lifted from her.
“Your part was an important one,” Stefan acknowledged. “You risked much, at my request. I think I can guess what it is you wish, and I will not deny you.” He glanced briefly at Kristi and smiled, before turning back to Marcio. “And I can see why you want this one to join us.”
As soon as Stefan smiled, a sense of relief flowed over Kristi. While he still gave off an air of strength, he no longer seemed overbearing. She smiled back at him.
“Her name is Kristi,” Marcio said. “You need not worry about her. She has no craving for human blood. It was all I could do to get her to feed once.” He took Kristi’s hand. “Besides, I will keep her by my side always.”
Kristi’s smile widened. She liked the sound of that.
Stefan nodded. “Come, it will soon be light. Bring her to your chamber, while I clear her presence with the Council.”
Stefan turned and headed toward the caverns. Kristi and Marcio followed behind him. When they crossed the opening, and stepped into the dimness, Kristi knew she had found a home.
21. VERIFICATION
Sunday night, it was all over the news. Just as Leesa had foreseen in her dream, zombies had attacked people in a mall in Columbus. Fortunately, the police managed to destroy the creatures before they hurt too many people. At least one of the cops had known enough to shoot for the zombie’s heads, and the other cops had followed his example. At first, the officers had tried to stop the things by pulling them away, but after one policeman got his arm ripped open by a vicious bite, the police had turned to their weapons. The wounded officer was being held under close observation at a local hospital. The media had not been allowed to see him.
Only one person had died—an Ohio State football player who had been at the front of the group of shoppers trying to hold the door closed against the zombies. The authorities were not calling them zombies—the official line was they were people who had been ravaged by some fast acting flesh-eating bacteria—but the most of the news people were not so discreet. The more reserved among them were calling the attackers “zombie-like creatures.” The rest had no such reservations and called the attackers zombies, plain and simple. Leesa wasn’t surprised. Zombies made for juicier headlines and sound bites than even flesh-eating bacteria.
Sitting on her bed, she glumly watched the reports on her television. Cali sat beside her, having come racing upstairs as soon as she first heard about the story. She was one of the few people who knew about Leesa’s zombie dreams, and she realized that anything concerning zombies would have an effect on her friend.
“I can’t believe this,” Cali said when the latest report went to commercial. “It’s like something out of a freaking horror flick.”
“I know,” Leesa replied. She turned and looked at Cali. “I dreamed about this Friday night.”
Cali grabbed Leesa’s forearm.
“Oh, no! Really?”
Leesa nodded. “Yeah. I even knew that if it happened, it would be in Columbus.” She breathed a deep sigh. “There wasn’t anything I could do, though. Who could I tell? And who would have believed me, anyhow? And besides, I didn’t know when it would happen, or even if it really would.”
Since Cali didn’t know about Leesa’s magic powers, Leesa didn’t say anything about how her efforts to summon a far different dream had resulted in this one instead.
“Of course you couldn’t do anything,” Cali said consolingly. “People would have thought you were a nut job.”
“Yeah, I know,” Leesa replied. “And they wouldn’t have done anything, anyhow.”
“Nope, they wouldn’t. But now that it’s happ
ened, people would have been all over you, wanting to know how you knew. I’m pretty sure you don’t want that kind of attention—especially with Rave being what he is and with what happened to your mom and brother.”
“That’s for sure,” Leesa said.
Beyond the reasons Cali had mentioned, there was no way Leesa could afford to bring attention to anything that smelled of wizard powers, not with three black waziri out there alert for any hint of magic. She needed to keep as low a profile as she could. Talking about reanimated corpses was most definitely not the way to do that, even if her vision had not come to pass.
“Do you think those black waziri guys you told me about were behind this?” Cali asked.
“Probably.” After the zombie attack in their dorm, Leesa had told Cali about the black wizards, but not anything about her own magic powers, and nothing about Dominic being a wizard, either.
“Well, I’m glad they’re far away from here, then,” Cali said. “And I hope they stay far away.”
Before Leesa could reply, Bruno Mars’ voice sounded from her cell. She pushed herself up off the bed and grabbed the phone from her desk. Not unexpectedly for her generic ringtone, the screen read “unknown caller.”
“Hello?” she said.
She was surprised to hear Dominic’s voice on the other end. She had spoken to him just two days ago and had said he probably wouldn’t be calling for awhile. She hoped nothing was wrong.
“I can’t talk long,” Dominic said. “I assume you’ve heard about the incident in Columbus?”
“Yeah. Me and Cali were just watching it on the news.” Leesa nodded toward the door, indicating she wanted some privacy for the call. “Just for a minute,” she mouthed silently.
Cali nodded and got up. “Hi, Dominic,” she said loudly. “I’m leaving, so you and Leesa can talk about whatever it is she’s not telling me.” She smiled at Leesa, to let her know she wasn’t upset, then left the room and pulled the door closed behind her.
“She’s gone,” Leesa said into the phone.
Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) Page 12