Honorable Rogue

by Linda J. Parisi

  Hunter didn’t want a debate. What he needed was answers. “I don’t have time to argue, Sam. A rogue—the same kind we’ve been seeing more of lately—attacked Dr. Roberts.”

  Sam always moved. She was like a bee around a hive. Always making sure the hive was safe. She stopped pacing. “Why would a rogue attack her?”

  He wanted to pace with Sam, be in the middle of a movie that allowed time to reverse, not have this strong, beautiful woman lie in the passenger seat of his car. “Because I took your advice and enjoyed the doctor’s company. I put her at risk, although at the time I had no idea how much risk. This…person…wants nothing more than to make me suffer.”

  He watched Sam draw in a deep breath of worry and yet exhale with a smile. “You care about her. Fascinating.”

  They knew each other well, but vampires were born loners, so not as well as each one thought. Which was, no, had been acceptable until now.

  “She’s a weakness, Sam. And whoever’s playing with me knows this and is using my weakness to their advantage. As I would.”

  Sam crossed her arms and began to pace again. She was thinking. Yet Hunter couldn’t hear her thoughts. She was the only one who could close her mind to him, an ability that was most aggravating at the moment.

  “Yes,” she finally answered. “You may be right. But caring isn’t always a weakness, Hunter.”

  “Right now it is. A dangerous weakness. We’re under attack. And have been ever since Mikhail was turned into a rogue.”

  Hunter glanced over to see Sam agreed. Her hand cupped her chin, her forefinger tapping lightly on her lips. He turned to look at the woman sleeping in his car. “She makes me vulnerable. My people have sworn to protect Stacy, now they’ll have to protect Tori, so she makes all of us much more open to attack. They’re human.”

  Sam shook her head at him. “Tori?” she asked, repeating the doctor’s shortened first name. Hunter continued to watch her try hard not to smile. Sam seemed to have an Achilles’ heel for humans, but she was not weak. He’d been the recipient of her ire and watched her discipline others of their kind with a fierce sense of justice.

  “What you refuse to understand is that their humanity gives them a strength you’ll never comprehend.” Her face filled with worry. “I don’t think the orchestrator of this insanity is playing with just you, Hunter. I think you’re being baited. As am I.”

  Who could possibly bait Sam? And, more importantly, why would someone do that? Sam was the most powerful vampire alive. “If you have any idea what’s going on right now, I’d like to know.”

  She shook her head but didn’t quite meet his gaze. “I don’t.”

  “All right,” he answered, accepting her word for now. “But remember this. Anyone seeking my territory will have a fight on their hands, I guarantee you,” Hunter vowed. “And I will protect my people to my dying breath.”

  Sam reached up and squeezed his shoulder. “That’s what I’m afraid of, Hunter. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

  Chapter Six

  Tori woke to unfamiliar surroundings the next morning. Dream or reality?

  The room seemed simple enough with beige walls and white crown molding. A single dresser sans television set stood across from her. A chair sat in the corner next to a window. A man—no, a vampire sat in the chair. Hunter Pierce.

  Tori swung her legs over the bed and lifted her hands to rub her face. Then she realized. Naked. Bare-assed naked. Who the hell took off my…?

  Mortified, she groaned.

  “I assure you,” came a deep baritone she knew all too well, “the pleasure was all mine.”

  Really? There were two ways to play this at this point, and Tori chose to brazen it out. She lifted her chin and rose, shoulders back, chin held high. His gaze raked her from head to toe, darkening, banked with unleashed desire.

  “My clothes?”

  He bowed his head and indicated the closet. “Freshly laundered and pressed.”

  “Thank you.”

  She pulled the door open, yanked her shirt off its hanger, and bundled the rest against her chest before she turned to face him. Was that a smile? Was he laughing at her?

  “No,” he answered as if he’d read her mind. “Simply admiring perfection.”

  His answer deserved a tirade or no retort at all. Tori clamped her lips together and stormed into the bathroom. “I don’t like being played with,” she shouted through the door.

  “Not my intention,” he answered loud enough for her to hear.

  Right.

  She showered and cleaned up in record time. With a deep breath, Tori readied herself for battle and stepped out. Instead, she found him gone and the most incredibly beautiful woman sitting in the chair he’d vacated. She’d seen her at the wedding, hadn’t she? Straight, midnight-black hair; almond eyes, golden yellow—she reminded Tori of a panther. Was she as dangerous?

  “Good morning, Dr. Roberts. Yes, we met briefly at the wedding. I am Samira Anai Se-Bat. And no, not normally.”

  Tori’d been right. She did remember her from the wedding. Then she realized. The woman had just read her mind. Tori felt every muscle in her body constrict. No, reading minds was impossible. As impossible as being in a house full of vampires? Tori didn’t know. But one thing she did know. First Hunter, now this woman—and she absolutely hated the invasion of her privacy. “Damn, I wish you people would stop doing that.”

  “I imagine it’s terribly invasive. And we do block out as much as we can. But we’re only vampires.” Samira grinned. “Please call me Sam.”

  The woman held out her hand as she rose. The word regal pounded in Tori’s brain. As did a suggestion to relax. Tori shook her head in stunned surprise as her muscles listened and she clasped the proffered hand. “Where am I? And how did you do make me loosen up?”

  Sam rolled her eyes and walked over to open the door. “Men,” the woman denigrated.

  “So inconsiderate. I’ll explain everything on the way to the dining room. You must be starving.”

  At the words dining room a picture of her lying on a table being bitten by a horde of vampires raced through her brain.

  “Oh my goodness,” Sam answered. “No. We’re not monsters, Doctor. We’re not vultures, simply beings trying to survive. As are you.”

  Tori snorted in disbelief. “Forgive me if I don’t quite believe you. Hunter took advantage of me.”

  Sam shook her head, a slight smile still curving her lips. “Hunter took advantage of a situation,” she corrected. “And I agree. They’re men. They don’t appreciate the subtlety of life.” The smile widened into a full grin. “Or death.”

  Was that a vampire joke?

  Sam’s grin broadened. “I imagine it was.”

  Affronted Tori asked, “Are you reading my mind again?”

  “Only because you’re shouting your thoughts,” the vampiress replied, her grin fading. “Not consciously, I assure you.”

  Shouting her thoughts. Surreal just took on a whole new meaning. “And the picture of me on the table? That wasn’t words.”

  Sam shrugged. “I’m a bit different than the rest.”

  They walked into a formal dining room with steaming chafing dishes on a sideboard. There were tables and chairs, urns of what she thought was coffee, cups, utensils, just like a cafeteria.

  “We have a full-time blood donation center on the premises, and humans run it.”

  Tori didn’t know how to answer. A blood donation center? What irony. And yet, how brilliant.

  “We have places all over the city,” Sam continued to explain. “You’d be surprised at how many people are so down on their luck they need to sell one of the few things that is truly theirs to sell.”

  “Actually, I’m not surprised at all,” Tori muttered.

  “We give out hot meals as well. Especially in the city. Some of the homeless, the addicts, we can’t use their blood. But we feed them anyway. Services pick up the unused or leftover food from restaurants, and delis bring whate
ver they can to us. We also pick up unused produce and dairy from farmers upstate. The blood and food donation centers are a way of employing people as well.”

  “Why can’t you use their blood? I would imagine you should be able to drink any kind of blood.”

  “The taste. Some of the homeless are too sick to drink from. They taste the same way you would know something was tainted, I suppose?”

  Tori shook her head, having a hard time reconciling the idea of vampire charity with their need for blood, which they took without asking. Restitution, perhaps? Or maybe a way of keeping their blood supply going?

  “It is. But I’m not sure if growing crops and breeding animals for food is any different than what we’re doing.” The woman seemed to be angry at first, but then she shrugged. “And one of our first rules is we don’t kill when we drink.”

  “You’re right. I apologize. I’m—I’m having a hard time taking all of this in.”

  “I understand.” Sam paused, and Tori watched her brows straighten and her posture soften. “You seem to be having the same problem Stacy had in the beginning.”

  Suddenly it hit Tori. “Wait a minute. I’m not having a problem. You are. Stacy told me.”

  “She talked to you?” Sam asked, her jaw tightening.

  “Only in generalities,” she replied, remembering Stacy’s remark about a nondisclosure agreement. Some agreement, huh? “But I understand now.”

  Sam nodded and relaxed, seeming to accept Tori would follow her promise of doctor-patient confidentiality. “Stacy says we have a unique morphology.”

  Oh. My. God. “Hunter wasn’t kidding. That means Chaz is a vampire too,” she breathed. “And Stacy knows?

  “Of course,” Sam answered, her face filled with worry. “And I’d appreciate your discretion. The people who work here don’t know the truth.”

  Stunned, Tori gasped. “Whoa! Wait a minute. How do you keep it a secret?”

  “Well, to answer, I’d have to say some of the myths that have been created about us are over-exaggerated. Because we lack pigment in our skin, we do burn but more like a sunburn, not in flames. And being nocturnal simply makes sense since sunlight does create a problem. We also sleep during the day. We call it a vampiric sleep. Kind of stops us from going out, but seems to be necessary as it restores us.”

  “Sleep? Really? Do you dream?” Tori asked, intensely curious now.

  Sam stared at her, lifting a brow. “No. Not normally.”

  “And this sleep restores you?” she asked, eager to know more.

  Sam nodded. “As we age, we require less and less sleep. And our abilities increase. Which is why I was able to grasp the picture in your mind.”

  “Wow.”

  Tori took a moment to process. Then she looked around. A few tables were filled with people talking to one another. Obviously they were workers. A couple tables were occupied by only one or two people. One woman was even reading a book, much like any office cafeteria, except nicer. The mansion carried an air of sophistication.

  Then she realized. “Aren’t you playing with their lives?” she blurted. “What if one of your people decides they’re tired of not having the real thing?”

  Sam waved her arm at a table and pulled back a chair. “Come. Why don’t you go grab something to eat?”

  Tori found she was starving and piled her plate with eggs and fruit and toast. And coffee. Hot, steaming, fragrant coffee. She walked back over and placed her plate on the table.

  “Let’s sit down, and I’ll try to explain.” Tori watched Sam breathe in deeply and exhale with a smile. “I don’t eat. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the smell of food.”

  Fascinating.

  Sam smiled as she sat down. “I suppose you’d have to try to understand what it’s like to live as long as some of us have. Living alone for hundreds upon hundreds of years, constantly moving so people don’t know you exist. Small groups of people, villages hundreds of miles apart. It was…lonely. And trying. Sometimes just to stay alive.”

  Tori stopped chewing and swallowed. “Exactly how old are you?”

  “Five thousand years, give or take.” Incredible. No, impossible. Tori stopped her hand midflight from taking another bite and stared. “I was the high priestess of our race and revered as a goddess once.” Sam laughed softly. “Too much to take in, Doctor?”

  “I’m not sure,” Tori replied, her mind a whirl.

  “Look. As a scientist, you appreciate logic, right?”

  She nodded, wondering what Sam was driving at. “I do.”

  “And you understand the fight-or-flight instinct, right?” Tori nodded again. “What do you think happens when people are threatened?”

  “They run or they fight back.”

  She watched Sam’s gaze darken. “Exactly. Secrecy has been our way of staying alive. Humans don’t always run.”

  “All right.” Tori dug in to another bite of eggs and chewed, her mind running wild with thoughts. “But I saw Hunter in action. You’re more powerful, faster, and stronger. What could you possibly be afraid of? At least from a human being like me?”

  Sam smiled sadly. “In the past? Knives, swords, axes, arrows. Now? A semiautomatic weapon will do just as much harm. We do bleed, as you remember after seeing what happened to Hunter.”

  “I know.” She must’ve seen the picture in Tori’s mind. “But your skin knits almost instantly.”

  “Which causes a slew of problems when humans are suspicious of everything they don’t understand. You know, waking up staked to a cross because of superstition isn’t a good way to die,” Sam threw back at her. “Neither is waking up buried beneath the ground.”

  “That really happened to you?” she blurted.

  Sam nodded, her gaze darkening. “I was able to get away. Not all of us have been as lucky.”

  Tori wasn’t sure how to react. She kind of wanted to apologize. But then she thought of Hunter’s behavior and didn’t.

  “Compound fear and superstition with demographics and a lack of a steady food supply. How do you think all of this adds up?” Sam finished.

  Tori swallowed and dug her fork in to her eggs. She began to understand. “Secrecy. I get it. Much safer.”

  “Exactly,” Sam agreed. “The last thing any of us would want is to call attention to our existence by initiating a blood bath. Certainly not in this modern world. Not with videos and cell phones and texts.”

  Tori thought of several social media venues and watched Sam shudder. “Gotcha.”

  “As it is, with the rogue that went crazy on us and nearly killed Stacy, we had quite a bit of covering up to do.”

  The eggs inside her throat formed a cold lump, and she swallowed heavily. “‘Nearly killed Stacy’?”

  Sam continued to gauge her reactions. “I see she didn’t tell you about this particular event.” Tori wondered why. To spare her? Then again, Stacy hadn’t told her about vampires either. Because she couldn’t. Secrecy. “We destroyed it,” Sam continued. “But there seem to be others. Like the rogue that attacked Hunter last night.”

  “You all keep using the same term over and over. A rogue vampire? All Hunter told me was it was powerful and dangerous. Which I got firsthand when it attacked him.”

  “May I see?”

  Tori shivered and rolled up her sleeve. “I was lucky. He missed me for the most part. But he didn’t miss Hunter.”

  She watched Sam pause. Was Sam seeing the pictures in her head? Tori hoped so. “Unfortunate,” the vampire queen murmured.

  “Yeah. But I’m still here. And I’d like to understand. What’s a rogue vampire?”

  She watched as Sam seemed to be debating with herself about what to say and what not to say. “I’m not quite sure how to explain. I guess we’d need to begin at the beginning. Vampires, contrary to those myths again, aren’t immortal. We do age. At the last stage of a vampire’s life, we become a Sinsir. There’s no set time, but eventually the craving for blood becomes too strong to withstand. It begins to co
nsume us. When that happens, our minds and bodies begin to deteriorate. We can feel the change coming on. We call it going ‘rogue.’ Once it begins, the deterioration cannot be stopped. The Sinsir must be killed, or it will kill and drink and kill and drink every human and animal with blood in it.”

  Tori shivered. She thought back to some of the gory horror movies she’d seen as a kid. She watched Sam flinch as she saw the same pictures. Then more pictures of what had happened in the parking lot filled her mind. A sad smile grew on Sam’s face as she nodded in understanding.

  “So, you’re telling me a compound full of vampires is the least of my worries, is that it?”

  “Yes. We issue what we call orders of protection. The vampires here take a solemn oath not to drink from humans on these premises. It is strictly enforced.”

  “How strictly?” A sick feeling invaded Tori’s insides.

  “They forfeit their lives.”

  “Oh.” The sick feeling tried to grow, and she swallowed hard.

  Sam’s gaze warmed again. “We’re not inhuman, Doctor.”

  “I’m not sure I would like to be responsible for another life,” Tori interrupted. On top of the reality irritating her insides, Sam’s formality was starting to grate. “Could you do me a favor and hang the ‘Doctor’ thing. ‘Tori’ is fine.”

  “Sure. Tori.” The high priestess rose and pushed her chair under the table. “As I was saying. We’re not inhuman. Every member of this—I’d like to use the term family, but society is closer—gets nights off and vacation days.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “Doctor,” Sam paused. “Tori. We need your help. You need our protection. Right now, you’re in grave danger.”

  “From what? The boogeyman? Hunter killed whatever it was that attacked us—”

  “Not exactly,” Sam said, cutting her off.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Actually, Hunter only wounded the rogue. Mercedes and her men eventually killed it.”

  All of them? For one rogue? Not good. “Hunter also said it was a young vampire. How’s this possible?”

  Sam’s brows drew together, and she bit her lip. “We’re not quite certain yet.”