Forbidden Drink

by Nicola Claire

  “I care, Tim. Moreover, I care that the humans are risking their necks and their families necks, for something that they are not well equipped to handle. This is not a game and vampires don't play nicely.”

  He barked out a laugh. “You think you know everything there is to know about being a Nosferatin, Lucinda? You're an orphan, you weren't even raised by one. I was raised by a family who has lived the life, has fought the fight, who has sacrificed everything because of those blood suckers. We are the Nosferatin, the true Nosferatin, not you. Not an orphaned whore.”

  Holy hell, what had I uncovered here?

  “OK. Putting the slight on my virtue aside, what the fuck?”

  He laughed again, bitterly. “You weren't even meant to live past your 25th birthday, yet here you are.”

  It suddenly dawned on me, that we had passed the one month moon's cycle since my 25th birthday. If I hadn't have joined, I would now be dead. And he knew it.

  “So, who's the lucky vampire, Lucinda? Who did you sell your soul and the Nosferatin honour out to? Was it the vampire here, you keep coming to see? Or maybe one back in your city? I bet that's it, you'd want to stay close, wouldn't you? The Master of Auckland City perhaps? I know a lot about him, he's on our list. Once we get this town sorted, we'll be coming your way.”

  Like fucking hell you would. Just how many arseholes think they can threaten my vampire and get away with it? I'd had enough of playing Ms. Nice.

  I gave him my best fuck you smile and took a long sip of my drink. “I'd like to see you try, cousin.”

  Amisi shifted next to me, she could see I was about to lose it big time. She glanced around the room, no doubt for Jett and Erika, but they were well hidden. I knew though, they would be listening to everything that was going on here. They would be ready to act if needed.

  “You know,” he said, not fazed by my retort, “your father would be most upset to see you now, if he were still alive. You would have disgusted him, as you do us. His whole life was dedicated to denying the Nosferatu our powers. When he and your mother accidentally got pregnant with you, he tried everything in his power to kill you both. In the end, the only thing he could think of doing was to die alongside you in that car. But, you survived. God knows how. Over a fifty metre cliff and nothing was left of that car, nothing at all. And yet there you were, in your car seat, somehow sprung free from the wreck, but unscathed. Their bodies crushed like watermelons dropping from a tall building onto concrete.”

  My hand was on my silver knife and I hadn't even realised it, the tip just under his chin. “You lie.” My voice didn't even sound like mine any more, but some crazed and demented lunatic, ready to slice a pub patron in a bar. Somehow no one around us noticed a damn thing and then I realised Jett must have covered us with his masking power, making us all but invisible to the crowd.

  Unfortunately, Tim noticed too.

  “Well, well, well, cousin. You brought back up.” He stood up slowly. I went with him, the knife not moving, Amisi at my side with her hand also in her jacket. “So did I. You want to take this outside?”

  “I want to gut you where you stand, you lying bastard.”

  He just smiled and it was creepy, even more creepy than a vampire's because it was wrong on his face. A face I had come to know with a different emotion playing across it, a trusting, friendly, kind of emotion. Not this hatred, this outright disgust.

  “Come, Lucinda. Think of the Norms. We can continue this in private. I'm sure you have questions about daddy dearest.”

  He simply turned away from the knife and me. And walked out the door.

  What choice did I have? I knew I'd be walking into a trap, that there would be his vigilante cohorts waiting in the wings. But, isn't that what I wanted? An audience with the creeps.

  I took a deep breath, re-sheathed my knife, but shifted my shoulders, feeling the familiar weight of my Svante sword on my back and followed after him.

  Images of my parents bodies crushed in a car wreck and questions rolling around my head as I walked out into the night.

  Chapter 39

  Whispering Sweet Nothings

  He walked across the paved expanse of the pedestrian mall beside Dockside. Past the bench seats he had found me sitting on last time and around a corner away from the normal crowds. I couldn't see anyone else, but it was shadowy in the corners. Plenty of places to hide out, plenty of places to spring out from. Plenty of places to remain hidden and simply fire a gun.

  Guns aren't big here in New Zealand, we're a little blessed when it comes to firearms. We have them, but not every Tom, Dick and Harry owns one. Still, there was a high chance that these fanatics didn't follow the law. Hell, of course they didn't, they killed vampires - who for all intents and purposes, look like average Joes to the general public - and they didn't bat an eye.

  Tim stopped in the centre of the small clearing and turned slowly to see me, arms loosely held at his sides, but outstretched, so I could see he wasn't armed. It didn't put me at ease, he may not be armed, but his back up no doubt was.

  “So, fire away. What do you want to know, Lucinda?”

  Great choice of words, I thought.

  “There is nothing you can tell me that I would believe, Tim. You've only ever lied, so why trust you now?” It's not that I didn't believe him, I had questions screaming in my mind about my father and what he may have done to my mother and been trying to do to me, when he drove that car over that cliff. But, asking Tim was not going to give me the truth. And if it did, I'd always doubt it. I'd have to find another way to get the answers I needed, but not here, not from him. I ached inside at the thought that my father had killed my mother though, I wasn't immune from that pain. The fact that I may have been a mistake that he felt compelled to rectify with my death, made me sick to the stomach. That I may have been the reason why my mother had died. I had always believed my father would be on my side, but I wasn't so sure now.

  I wasn't so sure.

  I rolled my shoulders again to centre myself with the weight of my Svante. I needed grounding, I was floating away.

  “I have come to warn your people that Gregor means business.” I could only try to reach Tim one more time. I am, if nothing else, persistent. I needed to at least try my best before the shit really hit the fan. “He will come after each and every one of you. And he will come after your families and friends. You need to get away, to stop this, to take cover. Anything that will stop the bloodshed.”

  Tim looked at me as though I was filth on the bottom of his shoes. “And you defend them? They are killers, Lucinda, how can you not see this? How can you not want to kill every last one of them like your blood family does? How can you not be one of us?”

  “You are killers too, Tim.”

  “They are dead.”

  Man, was I so sick of hearing that old adage. Give it a rest already.

  “If they were dead, Tim, they would be six feet under, not walking around, interacting with society, contributing to the world and loving.” I saw the look of disgust on his face at that last word. “Yeah, Tim. They love, they care, they can be hurt. Just like you, just like me. And before you say it, I am not naïve. I know full well what lurks beneath the surface. I've had an upfront audience with the Dark and I'm at the top of its hit list right now. But, you know what? That Dark that resides in all of the vampires, it's got a close relative. It's the darkness I see in you. You're no different, you think you are, but you're not. Not really. The only real difference is, you don't have a me. Someone who is made to bring you back towards the Light. You don't have an angel willing to die for your soul. It's all on you. And I don't think you've got what it takes to fight it alone.”

  He spat on the paved ground at his feet.

  “Enough of this shit. You're screwed in the head. You're better off dead. We should have completed what my uncle failed to do all those years ago and taken you out on the farm when we had the chance. A sitting fucking duck and they couldn't follow through with it. But, I can. I w
ill.” He looked straight at me and said to no one in particular. “Do it!”

  I don't know what made me pull out my Svante, but I just knew I'd be better off with it in my hand. Amisi drew her dagger, a long thin blade, she hid down her thigh and Erika and Jett materialised beside us. It wasn't enough to stop what would happen, but I felt thankful to have them with me right now.

  Just as the gun shots rang out in the courtyard I felt the familiar pull of vampires nearby. Not the evil-lurks-in-my-city pull, but that newer one, that stronger one. The one that told me, it was time for Drinkies. They were after whatever it is they thought they would get when they drained me. The Forbidden Drink waiting to be consumed. But, I was kind of busy right now, throwing myself to the ground and covering my head. I felt someone lift me off the paving and run with me to cover. I realised it was Jett and that Erika had taken Amisi to cover across the way too. I could see them and they looked OK, but Jett had taken a bullet to the shoulder. When I reached up to check him, he just grunted. “I'll be fine, but we're in the shit here. What do you want to do? Call Gregor for help?”

  We were in the shit all right, but not just from the crazy humans. I could feel about thirty vampires nearby and they weren't part of Gregor's line. They were filled with evil, but there was one amongst them that left me breathless. When I tried to concentrate on their signature I got shut down. I had never been shut out of a vampire when seeking before, this one just slammed the door in my face and sent the deadbolt home. Before it had evicted me, I felt it, a Darkness so pure it was complete. I'd bet every vampire I held dear that this was the big bad nasty, evil personified, the she, the Champion had referred to. Fuck me, we were in trouble.

  I quickly gave Jett a run down of the situation and watched as the blood drained from his face. Like I've said before, that's a pretty nifty trick for a vampire, right there.

  “We better let Erika know.”

  “She already does.”

  “How?”

  He looked at me steadily. “The master has told her.”

  “How the fuck does Michel know?” He was not meant to be watching this at all.

  “Don't get mad, Luce, you can't afford to lose it right now OK? But, we've been keeping him pretty much abreast of the situation since we got here. He's not in your brain, but he sure as fuck is in both of ours.”

  That cheeky fucking vampire lied to me. He said he'd stay out of this. God dammit. Did he have a suicide wish? He'd be pretty friggin' irate by now. He's probably got a core of his line holding him down. Or did he?

  “Please tell me he is not coming here right now.” I said it very slowly and through gritted teeth.

  “He is not coming here right now.”

  I looked at him, his face was straight, no emotion whatsoever. That vampire preternatural calm. Fuck.

  “You're lying, aren't you?”

  “What do you think, Luce? You've just told me - and in turn him - that the Queen of Darkness is around the corner with thirty vamps and you think he's just gonna sit down with a beer and chill?”

  Oh sweet Jesus. We did not need this.

  “Tell him to back off. We'll get Nero here and some of Gregor's vampires, but if Michel steps foot in this city it will mean war with Gregor and probably the Iunctio as well. We can't afford that.”

  I was too angry to send a thought towards him myself and besides he may still be shutting me out, but he wasn't Jett. I waited for Jett to answer me, while bullets still ricocheted around my head every few seconds or so, just checking to see if we had moved. At the moment we were all in a kind of stand off, none of us able to move from our hidey holes without getting our own little holes from a stray bullet. In the meantime, evil came closer, drawn not only by the promise of me, but by the blood and sweat and discord in the air around us.

  “He's agreed to wait at the city limits. But he will enter if he fears for your life.”

  Great. Just great. I grabbed my cellphone and sent a text to Amisi telling her to call Nero and get his arse over here, then I started a call through to Gregor. It rang once and then he answered, his voice purring down the line.

  “Ma petite chasseuse, you have changed your mind? You wish to spend the evening in my arms.”

  A bullet whizzed by my head.

  “What was that?” He wasn't purring any more.

  “It's a bullet. I kind of started a gun fight down by the docks with the human arseholes who happen to be my extended family and fucked in the head. And I can sense about thirty vampires nearby who don't belong to you and want to take a drink from me. And right now I'm up shit creek without a paddle, because the fucking Queen of Darkness has decided to pay me a visit as well. Wanna come play?”

  “Oh, you do say the sweetest things to me, my dear. I shall be there with mine in two minutes.” He rang off without saying goodbye.

  “Now we just have to wait, either Gregor will get here before the bad vamps or he won't.” I took a deep breath in then added quietly, almost to myself. “Either way, we're pretty much fucked.”

  Jett just patted me on the shoulder and settled in to a more comfortable position, making sure none of his vast bulk stuck out the side of the hidey hole we were sitting in. He shut his eyes and looked like he was taking a wee nap. Fucking vampires.

  “They're close,” I said shifting my weight to stretch out an ache.

  “How close?” Jett asked, not opening his eyes.

  “Like the other side of the humans, close. Do you think I should warn them? The humans?”

  He opened an eye at me to that. “Are you fucking kidding me? They're shooting at us, let the fuckers get what's coming to them.”

  I kind of agreed, but they were family. I flipped my cellphone open and rang Tim. Jett just sighed and gave me a good hard stare. I mouthed back, what? And shrugged my shoulders. I'm a good girl, I can't help it.

  “What is it, Lucinda? I'm kind of busy trying to shoot you right now.”

  Ah, Tim, we could have had so many laughs together, but you had to turn into an evil fuckwit, didn't you?

  “Listen, there's a bunch of very evil vampires about to pounce on you. They aren't mine and they don't belong to the Master of this City. They are bad news, Tim, they will kill you. Be prepared.”

  I rang off. I'd done my bit. He probably thought I was pissing in the dirt on this one, but hey, I tried. I had warned him.

  “Gee, he's gonna believe you on that one,” Jett added sarcastically.

  “If you don't have anything nice to say, then shut the fuck up,” I muttered.

  “Such beautiful language, ma cherie. I shall miss it when you no longer visit. Does Amisi have your penchant for swearing?”

  I spun around and just about face planted into Gregor. I threw a look at Jett. He shrugged. “He snuck up on me and besides, he's on our side isn't he?”

  I'm quite sure he didn't sneak up on Jett, he just had chosen not to tell me. The bastard likes to catch me off guard.

  “So, where are we at, ma cherie?” Gregor was crouched down behind us, his hand came out to rest on my shoulder. I didn't shrug it off, that kind of seemed petty.

  “Where are your vamps?” I asked instead.

  “Fifteen are approaching from the rear, another five either side of us and three behind where we sit.

  Almost enough, almost. If we didn't have the humans to contend with and the evil Queen of Darkness orchestrating the whole event.

  I let my senses flow out and felt a sharp stabbing pain in my temple when I reached the Dark void. It lashed out a feeler, or at least that's what it felt like and tried to wrap around my shields, fingering here and there, trying to get inside, looking for a weakness. I felt Michel's presence frantically building further shields around my mind, his own on top of mine, eventually she stopped trying and I collapsed back against Gregor.

  “Ma cherie,” he murmured against my head. “What happened?”

  “I don't think I should seek any time soon, she wasn't playing nice.”

  “Are you
hurt?”

  I shook my head. There was an ache, but Michel was trying to calm me.

  “No, I'm fine. But, they're about to strike the humans, they've been watching and have grown impatient. They see them as an obstacle to me. Any second now.”

  “Then we wait. One less problem,” he muttered, but his hands were running up and down my arms. I pulled my myself forward and out of his grasp. Jett just smiled at me and winked. I could just imagine what he was thinking: atta girl, don't give him an inch.

  Gregor didn't seem fazed, he was too busy communicating with his vamps I think.

  The shit hit the fan about 30 seconds later, right when I noticed Nero flickering into sight next to Amisi. His eyes immediately found mine and I let a breath of air out I had been holding. Of all the cavalry that had arrived I trusted Nero the most.

  The gunshots stopped firing at us and started sounding off in the other direction with a frantic boom, boom-boom-boom, boom. The staccato rhythm sending shockwaves through the air, the sound reverberating off the walls around us, even louder than those they had been firing at us before.

  After what felt like an eternity, one in which we could have simply run the fuck away had we thought of it, the gunshots ended and all we heard was the sickening sound of flesh being torn. No doubt jugulars severed and blood spilled by the bucket load. Poor Tim. He thought he knew what evil vampires were all about. He knew jack shit, nothing.

  Silence sounded out with a sudden finality, making my heart leap into my throat and my palms begin to sweat. I could feel her. I could feel her like she was standing right before me and she was calling my name. I went to stand up and Jett grabbed a hold of me.

  “No you don't, mistress. The master can hear her too, in your head. You're not going anywhere.”

  I struggled against him, getting more and more frantic to break free and run to that beautiful voice that promised so much. That told me I would be happy in her arms, that she could give me what I wanted; my family, my father, my mother, a sister or brother to carry on the gene, to have children for me to love and hold as though they were my own. She promised she'd make it happen, I would never be alone again. All I needed was to step out into the centre of the courtyard and she would come to me. She would save me from the bleak world I lived in alone.