by C. L. Quinn
Shanks, however, fell into a different category altogether now. As a point of courtesy, honor, vampires never touched another vampire’s blood-bonded humans. It just wasn’t done. Generally. But there were prick vampires, too, and one of them had changed Shanks. Bas was still trying to find out who, but so far, had not been successful. Shanks hadn’t exactly been in a conversational mood when they’d tangled recently. What it had done to the blood bond, however, had been unfortunate. It had made Shanks capable of tracking Bas. Which was very not good for Bas. And not good for any of Bas’s blood-bonds…he could track them too. The bonds were murky for Shanks, not exact, took him time to figure them out, but it could be done. It had been done. Bas could no longer track Shanks like he used to be able to, but Shanks couldn’t track him as easily either. But it could be done. This Bas had discovered when the only other living blood-bond he’d had, an elderly woman living out her final days in peace in sunny Florida, had been brutally murdered. Viciously, as in drained and torn apart. It was an offense that could not go unavenged…Bas vowed Shanks and his sire would not survive. But before Bas could eliminate Shanks, he had to find out who sired him. So far, he’d hit dead ends.
First, now, he had to get Park back. Find her, before Shanks did. Luckily, his bond with her was sharp. He could track her far more quickly than Shanks ever could. But he couldn’t risk Shanks getting to her first. With Park being something more than human, who knew what it meant. He had to get to her now. He decided to risk the time for a shower, which he accomplished with the super speed most vampires mastered, and was out of the dingy room inside twenty minutes. Luckily, the sun had dropped and he was able to move through the dusky light that lingered at the end of day. He wished he was more comfortable with driving, but he’d never really bothered with it. It was so much easier to compel someone to drive him, and then send them home. It hadn’t worked as well this time as it always had before. So he looked around the lot, dismayed to realize not only was there little to choose from, but the choices were awful. He didn’t ride in a ten year old rusted out hatchback. He’d fucking walk first. So he headed to the road when an oversized earth-destroyer SUV cruised toward him and he stared at the driver only partially obscured by the glass window. The driver slowed and looked out, his eyes catching Bas’s. That was all it took. Bas was impressed by the sheer size and features of the massive car. Yeah, this was his ride. He leaned in.
“Take me to L.A.”
The driver, a twenty eight year old Internet wizard who had more money that sense, smiled, nodded, and turned the huge vehicle around in the middle of the road, then headed back the way he’d come. Properly compelled, the man, whose name was Timothy, spoke nonstop about his business, a computer service site that made Bas commit his name and address to memory for the future. He realized this guy had skills he would have need of in this battle. He realized it was time for him to fully embrace the modern world…cars, computers, the internet, jet travel, and so much more that he had been avoiding this century. Time to grow, or be left in the dust. No matter how powerful his vampire skills, there was an enormous power in technology. Bas was behind the time, but he wasn’t an idiot.
It was deep into the late night, early morning, when a very tired Park pulled into her underground parking space and watched the highly alarmed, highly secure door drop into place and safely seal her and her car. She was home, and thank god, because she was exhausted, hungry, and still a little off with the events of the past twenty four hours. But the familiar surroundings of her beautiful home went a long way towards helping her recover normality. The first thing she did, the first thing she always did, was open the double French doors onto her balcony that displayed the Pacific ocean. Nothing brought her back to her state of serenity better than that gently rolling magnificent body of water. She was grateful her chosen profession provided her a good enough living to make a house like this her own. The view, the space, the privacy…her lovely bed with curtains of tulle hanging from it…made her feel at peace, happy, when she had never expected to be happy in her life.
So, after a quick heating of a frozen vegetable lasagna, her favorite satin pajamas, and a few moments of local news on a twenty four hour cable channel, she let her eyelids drop and fell asleep on the couch. When she awoke abruptly some time later, she didn’t have any idea how long, her heart beating rapidly, her mind racing, a small sense of panic, she checked all the doors and windows to be sure they were locked, the alarm system was engaged. Everything was okay. So she killed the lights, except for the one that stayed lit on the balcony, which shined like a night light into both her living room and bedroom off the wrap around balcony that spanned the entire back of the house. She dropped into her huge California king and pulled a light sheet over her, sighed, and fell asleep again easily.
He watched her sleeping, curled up, one leg thrust out, hanging off the edge of her huge bed, a pink satin sheet barely covering her. Her hair was still loose and covered her entire pillow. She looked at peace. He was sorry to destroy that.
So this was his little blood-bond in her natural habitat. Nice. Really nice, as nice as some of his homes. Which meant she was doing well for herself. The décor was soft and feminine, it looked like her…he knew she’d be sorry to leave. Not that there was any choice. He wouldn’t leave her to Shanks unmercifully brutal hand. And he still wanted to know what she was. And then there was the connection… That he wasn’t sure he wanted to know about. In all his years, he had only ever been in love once, and he had still been human then. It had been painful and horrible to watch her age and die. He’d never do that again.
Back to the present, though, and the problem at hand. Even with a deeper bloodline, she still had been able to defy him. He had no idea how to get her to understand the serious danger they both faced. Unless… It was time to wake her.
Park groaned. Ahhh…. She was dreaming…of him. He had his mouth on her, moving against her lower abdomen, teeth nipping, biting softly, not tearing her skin, no blood this time…just the most sexy things with his mouth. His tongue was cool, but moved expertly to excite the smooth hard stomach she worked so hard to keep. She rolled over, letting the dream continue, feeling the warm wetness pooling between her legs…the place she wouldn’t think of. The place her mother told her was naughty and had to be left untouched. Well, it was a dream, so he could touch her there. And, oh, god, it was like nothing she had ever experienced. He was moving down, down, slipping her loose fitting pajama bottoms lower, lower, until his tongue touched her…there…no, that wasn’t right. No, she should stop the dream, stop the dream kidnapper…he couldn’t, he couldn’t…oh, he was…no, she wouldn’t stop him…
Her body jumped, spasmed hard, the waves of pleasure slamming her back against the soft mattress, arching toward the sky. She’d never…not in real life, but the dream…wow…
She moaned as she opened her eyes, the dream still fresh…vivid…seemed so real…
Her sheet was wadded up beside her and she reached out a hand to push it aside…and felt something else…an arm…
Her eyes shot wide then and saw him, laying beside her, his smiling face just inches from hers. Was this still the dream? He couldn’t be here, she’d left, he didn’t know where she was. No, she was home, she was safe, that night over… And she had just dreamed him there. She closed her eyes and rolled out of bed, faced it while tugging her pajama bottoms back into place, and reopened them. Oh, no… He was still there, fully dressed, laying full length across her dusty rose satin sheets.
She couldn’t deal with it. It made what she had just felt…what he had just done to her…real. She closed her eyes again, whispering to herself…”he’s not really here…”
And opened them again.
“Yes, he is,” the vision said. Oh, hell…
Park was fully awake now, and backed away.
“How the hell did you get here?”
Bas rolled out of her bed on the other side and strolled slowly around. She continued to back as he appro
ached her.
“Not easily, since you stranded me in that shithole of a hotel. But I’m resourceful. Caught a ride in a moving house. I own about thirty cars, but I have never really bothered to learn to drive. I guess I’m going to have to change that. Would you teach me?”
“No! How did you get in here? How did you even find me?!”
“Well, I think we’ve already established your alarms and locks don’t stop a vampire. And honey, I told you, you belong to me now. I can find you anywhere on this earth at any time. You’re kind of slow getting that.”
She turned away, pushing open the balcony doors and going out. She felt like she was going to hyperventilate, maybe the fresh air would help. It usually did. But he followed her. The crashing waves had always calmed her when her past revisited her.
“Park, I am not here to fuck up your life. I’m sorry, but that has sort of already happened. You are not safe here.” He turned her toward him, his hands gently on her face again.
“We have to go. I have a fortress in Vancouver where I can regroup and figure out how to fix this. If I can get Shanks and his Sire, you should be safe to come back here and finish out your normal human life to it’s inevitable looming end. Okay?”
She was silent, her eyes still closed. Why did she love his hands on her so much?
“Park?”
Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked at him. “Did you…” She stopped. Then said, “Did you…”
He nodded his head with a smile. “Oh, I did. And you were very responsive. I don’t get this…you are a sensual woman, why does the idea of sex upset you?”
“It’s dirty…wrong…especially for me.”
Bas shook his head, his thumbs caressing her cheeks, aware they were moist now. She was really upset that he’d pleasured her?
“That’s not true. Who told you this…wait, you mentioned your mother once before. Did she teach you sex was dirty?”
Park felt so ashamed, but she nodded. “Not for everyone. Just for me. She told me I was filthy and I should never do that.”
Bas was shocked. And they called vampires brutal. Humans destroyed their own children.
He folded her against him.
“She was a fucking nutcase. Your mother had some issues, I don’t know what, but they were hers, not yours. Sex is spectacular, and honey, you were made for it. There’s nothing filthy or wrong about it. It’s a natural as breathing. If I prove nothing else to you during our time together, I’ll prove that. You need to exorcise your fucking crazy mother.”
“But I’m not good enough, she told me that.”
What the hell? Bas lifted her in his arms and carried her through the bedroom into the living room, just brushed the edge of a vase, and winced as it crashed to the floor and shattered. Park shook her head. He dropped her on the enormous crushed velvet sofa. Wow, she liked big furniture. He sat down beside her.
“People are cruel. Your mother was sick, I’m telling you. I’ve been alive a long time and I know what I’m talking about. You are a beautiful woman, you deserve whatever you want in life. You’ve obviously worked hard and look where you are. Honey, when I’m finished with you, you’ll chuck everything your mother ever said to you. But now, you need to pack a few things. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.” A chirping from his pocket interrupted them. He pulled a cell phone out and flipped it up. “Excuse me,” he said to Park. “Bas,” he said into the phone.
He listened for a few minutes. Park watched his face as it got harder and harder. When he finally responded, it was harsh.
“Ah, fuck me! Desiree, get to my keep in Vancouver. Bring your blood-bonds. Notify every one you can in the east. I’ll take care of anyone across the continental divide. I’ll be there in about twenty two hours. Be careful. Arm up.” He closed the cell and slid it into his pocket.
“Well, this is so much worse than I thought. Someone is killing blood-bonded humans attached to vampires across the states. Now they’ve killed two vampires. It looks like someone has declared war on my race. Let’s go.”
Park didn’t question him this time. Her ability to read his truth made it clear…they were both in terrible danger. He was her only hope of living through this, she knew it now.
“I want to take a quick shower.” She said it as a statement, not a question. He nodded.
“Make it quick…and don’t wash…there,” he said, and she blushed again. He laughed. But as Park went into her bath area, she smiled. He was the one who was naughty. And she thought she liked it.
144
Chapter Five
They were traveling the same path they’d travelled before, but Park had picked up her speed. Bas spent the first half hour of the journey texting, and when he finally snapped his cell closed and pocketed it, he laid his head back.
“Man, this is fucked. And unprecedented. Vampires by tradition have always followed truce…no one interferes with that which does not belong to them. Vampires do not kill vampires. There aren’t even that many of us.”
“I know I might sound naïve, but can’t you just make more?”
“We don’t want to make more. As irritating as most people can be, can you imagine dealing with them for an eternity? It’s true that we are immortal, or nearly so. You have to be very careful who you bring over.”
“And there’s the fact that you have to die to do it.”
Bas groaned. “Movies. Vampires are not dead. We are not the living dead. We are just altered at the genetic level into a different race of beings. For lack of a better description, it’s kind of like a super virus. It rewrites what you are. The changes are extreme and irreversible. That’s why we can eat, need to sleep, can get tired or injured. We are not dead.”
“Oh,” said Park. Her mind was reeling now. Genetic research was her life’s work. And her professional curiosity just got whammed. Huh. A super virus that changed a living animal into another life form. Ah, hell, this she had to study. She was no longer along for the ride. It was a mission, her life’s calling just got ramped into something likely no scientist had ever explored. God, she couldn’t wait. She glanced at him.
“Bas, has anyone ever studied this DNA altering virus? I mean, do you have scientists who understand the medical aspect of this change? For geneticists, this is the holy grail.”
“I don’t know the answer to that question. I was serious before when I told you secrecy is sacrosanct. They will destroy any threat to the race. You know yourself what people are capable of, so if we were discovered, our lives would be over. We would be guinea pigs. Or cast as unholy abominations and either hunted down or imprisioned. Or worse, the virus would somehow get weaponized. There are too many scenarios that make it critical that we remain a tiny invisible minority. That, your movies get right. You understand what I’m saying? I am trying to protect you, Park. And a community of beings that have been around for a very, very long time.”
“Do you kill?”
Silence. She felt bad for asking. “I need to know, Bas. Is it typical that you, or any of your race, kill when feeding?
He still didn’t answer her. She knew that was her answer. They did. She felt his eyes on her even though it was too dark to see him clearly.
“It happens. It isn’t necessary to kill to feed, but it happens. Most of us don’t, if nothing else than to avoid detection or conflicts. Dead bodies and missing people create conflict and suspicion. And our method of feeding leaves a pretty distinct mark. So, yes it happens, no, it isn’t typical. And no, I don’t.”
Her small sigh wasn’t a release of relief, she hadn’t thought he did. He’d been fair with her, kind, and her link with him had been growing by the hour. Her read of him showed him to be a hard man, but not a cruel or even mean one. She smiled to herself in the dark. She could just picture him with a puppy.
A sharp snort drew her attention. She swung her head over to see his white teeth illuminated by the LED lights on the dashboard panel.
“Puppies, I eat.” Then he rolled over toward the wi
ndow and closed his eyes. She didn’t believe him, but thought maybe it was a good thing she didn’t have a pet when he broke into her home earlier tonight.
It wasn’t too long when Bas told her she needed to take an exit, and they continued a few miles off the highway to the left. They were now at least an hour past where they’d been the last time. But she knew. He had to get out of the coming day. It still blew her mind that this was happening to her, and that her companion was not human. Bad sci-fi, she thought. This is not my world. I’m stick in the mud, dyed in the wool, dull, dull, dull. How did I end up traveling with a supernatural being that is supposed to be only an urban legend?
The “ultraviolet” free room for tonight was a cabin that had a basement located in an isolated camping area. As they pulled up to the managers cabin, Bas asked her to keep the engine running. Park turned to him.
“Do you want me to come with you? I promise I’ll behave. It might just look more legit if it’s a man and woman checking in.”
Bas tilted his head. “You’re not getting this, are you? It’s not a problem. Alright, come with me. I want you to see how we deal with the world.”
Slipping the keys in her pocket, Park followed him into the office, which was dismally lit and had too many taxidermy decorations. An elderly man sat on a shabby, ancient, hideously patterned couch, stained from years of beer and god knew what else. The whole place smelled like dirt and old smoke. A curling column from the man’s cigar was a testament to the room’s aroma. He startled when he saw the two people standing behind him.
“Ah, hey, didn’t see ya there. Let me put this down over here…”
Bas stepped forward and caught his eye. The cigar stalled halfway to the ashtray. “Don’t bother,” Bas said, “You will give me the keys to a cabin with a basement, then you will go over and finish your television show. You will not remember anyone being here tonight. Even if someone questions you, the only thing you know is that you saw no one.”