A Vampire's Hunger

by Carla Susan Smith

  “Don’t you? Then you’re the only one of us who doesn’t. Perhaps it’s because you don’t know Gabriel as well as you think you do.” He watched as the blue-haired vampire turned on his heel and disappeared into the trees that acted as a natural property line.

  You’re wrong, Kartel, Rowan didn’t betray Gabriel. She was as much a victim of the Warlord’s schemes as the rest of us. Did you suppose being his daughter gave her some insight? Did you think he would take her into his confidence? If you knew as much about humans as you profess, you would have known the man trusted no one, least of all those he sired.

  He used her, and when she failed him, he made her witness the consequences of her failure. You would have known that, Kartel, if you had been with us. You should have known that.

  But you are right about my not being able to save Gabriel. That task is no longer my responsibility. It will be up to his Promise to prove that his love and faith in her are justified. I cannot stop what is coming, but I can remove one of the obstacles deliberately set to confuse and confound them. An impediment sowing the seeds of distrust and suspicion, malevolence and spite. In the grand scheme of things, my small gesture may prove to be meaningless, or it might be just enough to give Rowan the courage she needs to do what she must.

  Chapter 19

  I followed Laycee down the hall, my senses still reeling from the foolishness of Ryiel’s action. He could have been killed! Well, maybe not. He was an Original Vampire, after all, but who knew how much he’d been compromised by what Katja had done. Of course, I had no idea trying to cross an uninvited threshold would result in such a spectacular display of aerodynamics, but even I’d suspected it would involve more than just a simple refusal.

  Didn’t I already say vampires were overly dramatic?

  “You could invite him in now,” I said to Laycee’s retreating back. I was actually kind of pissed by her total lack of concern for Ryiel.

  She whirled around and gave a bewildered look. “You’re kidding, right? That”—she pointed in the direction of the front door—“doesn’t mean squat. I don’t feel in the least bit sorry for him.”

  I was shocked by the utter lack of sympathy in her voice. What had happened to the woman who had been my BFF since grade school? The Laycee I knew would never have been so unconcerned. Surely this wasn’t all part of being a mother? Of course, I expected her priorities to change, and I knew I would slip down on her list, but having her refuse to accept proof of being manipulated into believing something that wasn’t true? It hurt that she thought I would lie to her.

  But you have lied to her. You never told her everything that happened to you in the Dark Realm . . . perhaps if she had known, she might have recognized him—

  If she knew about the demon, he’d only change the way he looked.

  Yeah, well, if he can conjure up being a bad-ass horny self with a forked tail, I doubt he’d have much of a problem with fangs.

  I didn’t have time to argue with my inner bitch—and told her so. I also hate it when she’s right, and this was not the time to have my own shortcomings pointed out to me.

  “Laycee, I don’t know who was here—”

  Liar...

  “—but won’t you at least admit the possibility it might not have been a vampire?”

  “I know what I saw.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake!” Stubborn wasn’t the word for it.

  I sighed and put a hand to my forehead. This kind of arguing was going to get us nowhere. Sometimes I have to be reminded that 99.9 percent of the human race has no idea supernatural beings are a part of the everyday world. Laycee is ahead of the curve knowing about the existence of vampires, but I wasn’t sure she could handle knowing what else was out there. The situation before me was starting to unravel and would continue to do so unless I could convince my best friend she had to leave—and now.

  “Laycee, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you and the baby to be here alone. Come stay with me until Jake returns.” It seemed as if she was actually considering the idea, but she shook her head. I held out my hand in a palm-up, non-threatening gesture and softened my voice. “Laycee, sweetheart, I’ve known you all my life. You have to trust me when I tell you the man you saw wasn’t a vampire.”

  “Bitch!”

  I couldn’t say which shocked me more. The name-calling or the fact that she slapped me across the face. Hard. With a hand on my cheek, I saw her make a move toward me. I’ll never know if she was intending to apologize or if she wanted to slap me again because I reacted instinctively. I shoved her away from me, hard enough that the back of her head hit the wall, and she went down like a sack of potatoes.

  “Oh fuck!” I became paralyzed with indecision as she slid down the wall, her butt making a whumping sound as it hit the floor and she keeled over to one side.

  From the open doorway I heard Ryiel hiss. “Rowan—drag her over here.”

  “What?”

  “Laycee—get her here to the door. I can get her in the car, and we can get the hell out of here.”

  I stared at the figure crumpled by my feet. She wasn’t moving. “Oh God, Ryiel . . . I think I’ve killed her.”

  “You haven’t,” he reassured me. “I can still hear her heart beating.” Oh yeah . . . right. Good thing about having a vampire around, they can always tell you if you’ve committed murder. “You have to hurry, Rowan. The sun’s going to be coming up soon, and I need to get you back. With or without your friend.”

  A sudden moan from the area at my feet galvanized me into action. Dragging an inert body across a hardwood polished floor isn’t the piece of cake you might expect it to be. Getting Laycee to the front door was a bit more cumbersome than I’d imagined. I grabbed her beneath the armpits and began to pull but had to stop every few feet or so because I was also pulling her loose-fitting yoga pants down. Handing her over to Ryiel with a bare ass wasn’t something I wanted to deal with. Not now, not ever. I almost had her to the door when the sudden crackle of electricity told me Ryiel was reaching forward to help, and in danger of going airborne again.

  “Get back,” I snapped. “Let me get her outside.”

  Once her head and shoulders had cleared the open doorway, it was easy. I watched as Ryiel picked her up and carried her to the big black Mercedes.

  “Rowan—get the baby!”

  Yeah, right.

  I ran up the stairs to the nursery, where the world’s most adorable baby girl was fast asleep, completely unaware of the hell trying to break loose downstairs. I scooped her up, pink blanket and all. She began to fuss as I slipped her into the carrying car seat and fastened her in. A diaper bag was on the changing table. It seemed to be full of the kind of stuff you’d expect to find in a diaper bag, so I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder. I may not know much about babies, but I do know they need changing—often. Seeing a large unopened plastic bag of newborn Huggies, I grabbed those too, doing my best not to let the cumbersome bag trip me on my way down the stairs.

  Ryiel stood framed in the doorway waiting for me. “Here, get her strapped in.” I handed him the car seat and set the other items on the porch.

  “Where are you going?” he hissed.

  “Kitchen.”

  “What for?”

  “Formula.” The other thing I know about babies is they need feeding. Like almost all the time.

  “Isn’t she breast-feeding?”

  He sounded annoyed, but this was hardly the moment to be defending the merits of bottle over breast, or for me to wonder why such a thing was of concern to a vampire. Ignoring him, I hustled down the hall to the kitchen. Cans of powdered baby formula sat on the counter, along with clean bottles. I snagged a plastic bag from the stash behind the pantry door and filled it with everything I figured I’d need. On a hunch, I opened the fridge, almost crying with happiness to see some already made-up bottles nestled in the shelf in the door. Putting those in a separate bag, I was about to head out when something caught my eye. Something I’d seen the m
oment I walked in but my mind had dismissed as unimportant. Only it wasn’t unimportant. It was a message. A message for me.

  Why else would there be a black feather as long as my arm on the kitchen table?

  * * *

  Laycee slept for fifteen hours straight, and I made a vow never to underestimate the restorative power of sleep. Especially when it was aided by a small rune pressed into the back of her hand. Laycee had not regained consciousness during the drive back to the city, and I was concerned about the rune’s effect. Tomas assured me all would be well.

  “Poor lass is exhausted,” he noted before fixing me with the same look I’d seen on many a teacher faced with no other option but to give me after-school detention. “It’s a nasty bump. How did she hit her head?”

  “Um, I shoved her.” It seemed pointless to fib.

  “A wee bit too hard, I’m thinking.” I waited for him to ask why I had found it necessary to render my friend insensible, but he surprised me by asking for no explanation. “She’ll not even wake with a headache” was the last reference he made to the matter. Grateful, I covered Laycee with a light blanket and followed the sentinel from the room.

  Gabriel was holding Jenna in his arms. Tiny fingers clutched a handful of his hair, and from the look on his face, he was captivated by her. It was enough to wake the green-eyed monster inside me. Though the rational part of my brain acknowledged she was a baby, I could not deny my feelings. Perhaps it was the idea that in a quarter of a century he might be holding her in a very different way that made me jealous.

  I was saved by Stavros, who appeared at my elbow with a burp cloth in one hand and a bottle in the other. “Time to get your vampire back,” he murmured to me in a low voice. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn he had just read my mind.

  I looked at the bottle in his hand. “Are you sure you know how to do that?”

  “You think I’ve never tended to a babe before?” My inclination was to say yes, that was exactly what I’d been thinking, but he seemed so hurt by the suggestion, I decided to say nothing. “There’s not much to it at this age. All she’ll want to do is eat and sleep and poop.”

  “And cuddle up to vampires,” I murmured.

  “Ah yes, there is that.” He paused and gave a sly grin. “Now, were she a few months older, I might ask Tomas to see if she shows an affinity for the runes.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “Talent will not be denied, and she already has the look of a caster about her.”

  He winked and went to relieve Gabriel of his charge, muttering something I didn’t quite catch about promises and bed. I took the hint, knowing Jenna was far better off in the sentinel’s capable hands than mine. Besides, I wanted to ask Gabriel what had happened with Petrov.

  “Later,” he told me, once we were alone. “We’ll talk about it after we’ve all had some rest.”

  It wasn’t like him to be so reticent. “You didn’t find him, did you?”

  He shook his head. “No. He was already gone, and the building was empty.”

  “Gabriel, I’m sorry.”

  “So am I, but I think this situation with Laycee is the one we need to be more concerned about right now.”

  “Did Ryiel tell you what happened?”

  “Some, and you were right to bring them both here.”

  “But—” A finger against my lips prevented me from saying anything more.

  “No, Rowan. Sleep. You and Laycee both crossed a line tonight. If you have any desire to heal the wound between you, you need your rest as much as she does. Words can be tricky—”

  Tell me about it.

  “—and it would be a shame to lose a friendship due to a weary slip of the tongue.”

  He was right, and so I let him take me in his arms and hold me until I fell asleep, but knowing there was a baby in the penthouse had everyone behaving differently. I woke earlier than usual, only to find that both Gabriel and Ryiel had risen before me. Seated at the large dining room table, Ryiel had Jenna fast asleep in his arms. I wondered what Laycee would make of her daughter’s apparent ability to charm every vampire she met. Perhaps they needed to be protected from her, instead of the other way around.

  I took my customary seat next to Gabriel, and as he poured coffee for me, I watched the intricate dance between Tomas and Stavros as they covered every available inch of the dining table with plates of food. The number of dishes was alarming. Enough to feed an army or possibly two—no, surely it was three—hungry vampires.

  “Is Aleksei here?”

  Both Ryiel and Gabriel answered in the negative. The combination of the previous night’s activities plus the effort of still working through his emotional need for me had left him exhausted.

  “He went back to your apartment to be with Anasztaizia,” Gabriel said as he passed me the sugar and a small jug of half-and-half.

  “How did he get there? We took his car.”

  “I let him take Lola,” Gabriel confessed.

  The night must have been more of a bust than Gabriel had let on if he was willing to part with his precious Lamborghini. “What happened with Petrov?”

  His expression became a study in exasperation. “Aleksei’s information was good. The building had been used to both manufacture and distribute the drug, but they knew we were coming. Everything was gone. Including Petrov.”

  “What about the informant?” In most cop shows I watched, they were nearly always untrustworthy.

  “I’m sure everything was exactly as he said it was when he supplied the information.”

  Ryiel looked up; a small hand was wrapped around his finger, and he paused as Jenna blew bubbles in her sleep.

  “Yeah, you wait until she’s doing that from the other end,” I cautioned.

  He gave me one of his rare smiles before turning to Gabriel. “It wouldn’t have made any difference,” he said. “Petrov could not have told you how the drug was made.”

  “But I thought it was his creation,” I said. Had Kartel messed with his brain cells or something? I wouldn’t put anything past Vampire Smurf.

  “It was, but he didn’t know all the ingredients.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Kartel told me.”

  I almost sprayed a mouthful of coffee across the table. “When did you see Kartel?”

  “Last night, when we were at your house.”

  Gabriel’s quick reflexes caught the mug as it slipped from my grasp. “He was there . . . ? What did he say?”

  “Just that. The alchemist didn’t know all the ingredients . . . and his usefulness was at an end.” He stared across the table. “I suspect if he isn’t dead already, he soon will be.”

  “Something to work to our advantage.” Gabriel looked thoughtful.

  Intrigued, I asked how.

  “Petrov is, if nothing else, a survivor. If he knows his life is forfeit, he may try to find another source of protection.”

  Ryiel gently wiggled the finger Jenna was holding. “How fortunate there are two Original Vampires close by.”

  “Fortunate?” I was outraged. “You can’t be serious—are you forgetting Petrov murdered Aleksei’s family? In front of him?”

  “Of course not,” Gabriel replied, “but if he believes an offer of safety could be exchanged for information, it would be foolish not to hear him out.”

  “Assuming he takes the bait,” Ryiel cautioned.

  Takes the bait . . . then this was a ploy. “Promise me you’ll kill him after he’s spilled his guts.”

  Ryiel’s lips lifted in a half smile. “I had no idea your Promise was so bloodthirsty, Gabriel.”

  “She has her moments.”

  “I just want him punished.”

  “And he will be.” Gabriel leaned over and kissed my cheek. “But I will punish him for what he did to you. That way he will know it’s personal.”

  I forced myself to be content with that.

  “So, did Kartel say anything about Katja during your unexpecte
d visit?” Gabriel asked Ryiel.

  “He made some juvenile remark about hoping I wouldn’t be a sore loser.” He shifted Jenna to his other arm, and the now wide-awake baby wrapped a chubby fist around his dark hair.

  “Did he have any idea what he almost did to you?”

  “No, but he does now. I think he sees it as an unexpected bonus—”

  “What a prick!”

  “—and it might be wise to alert our brothers. I don’t like the idea of a mistake giving him some sort of an advantage.”

  “I’ll have Tomas notify them,” Gabriel assured him.

  “But speaking of advantages, I think we also have one.” Looking directly at me, Ryiel said, “Your earlier insight was quite astute.”

  It’s funny how praise can buoy you up, even if you have no idea what you’re being complimented about. “Really? What did I say?”

  “Kartel is under the impression that I killed the vampires who attacked the village. I don’t think he has any idea they disintegrated on their own.”

  “So his new method of creating vampires is flawed?” Gabriel drummed his fingers on the tabletop, considering the implications.

  “So it would appear,” Ryiel agreed, “but, as your Promise pointed out, it would be helpful to know how long it takes from creation to collapse.”

  “Even more reason to find Petrov, then.” Gabriel squeezed my hand with the non-drumming one.

  Stavros suddenly appeared at Ryiel’s side, holding out his hands. With a reluctant sigh, the dark-haired vampire handed over his charge, smiling as he disentangled his hair from Jenna’s hold. He had a lovely smile, and I wondered why he didn’t use it more often. But living in isolation in a monastery nestled on a slope of the Himalayas wouldn’t give me much to smile about either.

  “What was Kartel doing at my old house?”

  “He doesn’t have a very high opinion of you.” Ryiel watched as the gurgling baby disappeared.

  I snorted. “Hah! Tell me something I don’t know.”