Shadows along the street shifted. My voice faltered slightly. Hendry’s shoulders tensed. But howdy hallelujah, we were still alive at the end of the song.
Hendry didn’t waste any time rushing us both back inside as soon as it was over. I slumped against the locked, boarded-up door, a strange mix of sobs and laughter bubbling up out of me as the rest of the brothel erupted into excited chatter.
We’d done it. We’d really done it, but I could kick myself for forgetting one very important thing—we hadn’t communicated why we’d sung for them. Yes, we’d offered them blood, but I wanted a face-to-face with them, on my turf so I could run away if needed, to find out more about them and the needless no-talking rule.
Next time. Hell, could I even do a next time?
I searched through the crowd for Hendry, who had reunited Lucy with her parents about ten feet away. He caught my eye, the candlelight glimmering in his, and gazed at me with wonder and something else that stirred my blood. He pulled out his whiteboard from his back pocket. After a moment, he held it up for me to see over the bobbing heads between us.
You did good.
With a smile big enough to hurt my cheeks, I brought mine out and wrote, You spelled we wrong.
The next night, we did it again, this time with another glass of fresh human blood and a note written by Lucy.
To: Berkano
Will you talk to us?
Yes No Maybe
(Circle one)
From: Lucy, Little Vampire
P.S. No biting!
I couldn’t have done it any better or been more succinct. Now, we just had to hope they knew how to read.
The third night, someone waited for us.
Against the wall of Lucy’s apartment building sat two figures, a man and a woman, unmoving but with their eyes open and aimed toward us as we walked out of the brothel. The three of us froze upon seeing them, but when they didn’t do or say anything, Lucy gave them our blood offering, and we performed for our audience. Maybe they were dead. I couldn’t find the courage to ask.
When the three of us backed up to the door of the brothel to duck back inside, a voice from the shadows jumped my stomach into my throat.
“A word.” Soft and velvet as the night, it was full of command, and I knew exactly who it was before he stepped into the middle of the street.
It was the vampire, the one I assumed was the leader, his baggy black clothes and equally dark eyes blending with the midnight sky. Power emanated off him, taunting me, testing me, but I shrugged it off. Unless our current situation drastically changed, I refused to be afraid of him, even though the urge to flee stabbed into my feet.
Lucy pressed her head into my side and looked at him from behind her curls. “P.S., no biting. P.S., no biting,” she whispered.
I hugged her to me, angling my body in front of hers, and Hendry stepped in front of me.
“No biting,” the vampire agreed, and I sensed his mouth tip up in a smile, but I couldn’t see it. Clouds had swallowed the moon and stars tonight, casting everything darker. “Just a word, if you please.”
Hendry stared him down, gripping two stakes in his fists. Sweat rolled down his temples as he bit down on his bottom lip. He gave a short nod.
The air breathed a eucalyptus-scented sigh of relief, tumbling our hair across our faces, but I didn’t trust it. The second we let our guard down could be our last. Just because I refused to be scared didn’t mean I was stupid.
I stepped Lucy and me to the side of Hendry to see the Berkano better. “I-I’m Fin. This is Lucy. That’s Hendry.”
“Philip,” the vampire said.
A regular, everyday name. He didn’t seem all that different from us. Right now, at least.
“Your voices are hypnotic,” Philip said. “My people have enjoyed hearing you these last few nights, and we appreciate your blood offering. More than you know. Thank you.”
His people. Surely that included more than the two folks sitting immobile behind him. If so, the rest of them had to be lurking in the shadows. We could’ve been surrounded. And grossly outnumbered. I forced myself to exhale. That had been the wrong thought process to follow.
“I would also like to say how sorry I am for the death of your friend,” he said. “We know that we can’t drink from witches, but the thirst is sometimes too great and turns us into feral beasts. Truly, we don’t deserve your blood offerings, but they are helping us. We’re all humbled and very sorry.”
The apology sounded heartfelt, and maybe it was, but Hendry’s gaze hardened to steel with every word. Philip would have to do a lot more to win him over.
“We’d like to know why we can talk to you,” I said.
A pause, then, “I don’t understand.”
“We’re not able to talk to you without triggering your bloodlust,” I explained. “Vampires can’t stand the sound of actual voices because you communicate telepathically. It’s in the rules…or so we thought.”
“The rules? I wasn’t aware of any rules,” Philip said.
I wished I could see his face to read if he was lying or not, but I didn’t dare step any closer. Confusion filled his velvet voice, however.
“No talking, stay out of the shadows, don’t go out at night, survive. The rules,” I said. “They’ve been drilled into our heads since…the Rift? I don’t even know.”
“Drilled into your heads…” he began. “Do you mean everyone? Witches and humans?”
I nodded. “Everyone. We’ve all heard them. We’re supposed to be afraid. Of you.”
A sigh floated out of the night. “It sounds like an enchantment of some sort with a doubled-edged blade.”
“What do you mean?” Hendry asked, his face stoic.
“One side is that the enchantment will eventually kill vampires off when part of what keeps us alive—blood—only comes out in the sun. The other side keeps witches and humans safe from us, but it also keeps you from finding out the truth.”
A sudden realization hit, as sharp as a hammer strike. Not only were we kept from finding out the truth, but Hendry and I had been forced to never stray close to it. We couldn’t even talk about the Church of Hangmen. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Hendry’s book had said that Elizabeth “Betty” Parris, ancestor of Allison Parris-Williams, accused others of being witches so she could steal their power when they were hanged. I was sure Allison had been cut from the same cloth and was likely doing the same thing, but what did the Berkano have to do with it? We did the hanging ritual to keep them away from the church, but…why? Why did we have to keep them away? So we wouldn’t talk to them and find out the truth?
“What is the truth?” Hendry asked.
“That witches and vampires aren’t all that different from what I’ve seen,” Philip said. “Most of us have the Rift Curse in varying degrees, which has warmed our blood and started our hearts again. Blood is now a supplement to our diets. But those who don’t have the Rift Curse rely on blood alone. All of us are just trying to follow that last rule you said—survive.”
“Why would someone enchant us? All of us?” I asked.
“Other than wanting vampires to die out from the Rift Curse or starvation?” I sensed Philip shrug. “Power. Control.”
That was it. It had to be. Hendry and I shared a look, both of us likely thinking the same thing. Allison had to be behind this, but I still didn’t know exactly what the vampires were capable of, other than killing. Maybe they played more of a part in this whole thing than Philip was letting on.
“Okay. If you take out the whole wanting-vampires-to-die part for just a second”—I held up my hands—“humor me here, but would vampires have enough power to make an enchantment like that? Over all humans and witches in Tombstone and maybe even all of Division Seven?”
“If I take out the whole wanting-vampires-to-die part…” Philip’s cold chuckle chased goose bumps up my arms. “I’d like to answer that question by coming closer to Lucy to talk to her.”
“Why?” I cr
ushed her to me, but she strained away to look at him with curiosity.
Hendry shifted closer and angled in front of her, his whole body vibrating with tension.
“I understand your hesitance,” Philip said. “That’s why I asked first, but I would never hurt her. She’s one of my kind.”
He had a point, other than the two sharp ones in his mouth, but I still didn’t like his bringing Lucy into this.
“If you want to talk to her, can’t you just do it telepathically?” I asked. “Or, you know, talk to her from there like you’ve been doing?”
“Older vampires, like me, can communicate psychically, yes, but someone as young as Lucy hasn’t had time to develop that skill,” he said.
“I just found out I was a vampire a couple of days ago,” she piped up. “If you show me how to communiplate telesike-ly, I can learn it super fast.”
He laughed, a joyful sound only Lucy seemed to inspire. “I have no doubt. I’ll show you another time, though. Now, I want to teach you mind control.”
I stiffened. Mind control? How had this conversation derailed so quickly? “Are you fucking serious?”
“You’re not the first witches who have stumbled in my path,” Philip said. “They were silent, following the no-talking rule, so they wouldn’t answer my questions. I used mind control on them.”
“You’re deliberately leaving the ending of that story out,” I snapped.
“Yes,” he answered. “I want Lucy to show you mind control since you trust her more than me, which is understandable.”
“You won’t hurt her?” I asked.
Hendry shot me a deadly look over his shoulder. “Fin, what are you doing? We can’t let him near her.”
“I promise no one will be hurt,” Philip said. “I don’t hurt my own unless they deserve it.”
But he could telepathically tell his own vampires to paint the street with our blood. Though if he’d wanted to do that, he could’ve already. I shifted on my feet, searching Lucy’s curls with my fingertips for the right answer.
“What do you think, Lucy?” I asked.
“It’s cool.” She peeled herself out of my arms and shrugged. “If he wants to be vampire friends with me, then let him.”
If only we all had her innocent, open mind instead of automatically assuming the worst in each other.
“Okay,” I told Phillip. Please don’t be the wrong decision. I broadcasted that out to any vampire—or anyone, really—who might be telepathically linked to witches.
He crept out of the shadows, a faint sliver of moonlight cutting like glass across his sharp cheekbones. He might’ve been in his early twenties, too skinny but still kind of hot, with brown hair that swept across his forehead in a purposefully messy style. He was dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt with a dot inside a box and the words I Am Here. His gray eyes connected with mine as he skirted around the blood offering on the ground, moving toward Lucy. The closer he drew, the farther his gaze pushed through me, all the way to my spine, as if touching my cells with a dark caress.
Hendry stepped in front of me to block Philip’s view with a shake of his head. “Keep your eyeballs to yourself.”
My insides warmed, and a smile dashed across my mouth before I pushed it into a firm, distrustful line again as Philip approached Lucy. Hendry still cared, even though he didn’t want me, and that would have to be enough.
Philip gave a polite nod to Hendry and shifted his gaze to Lucy. Her big smile sparked a genuine one from him, too, which proved his heart wasn’t dead at all.
“Howdy hallelujah,” she greeted with a curtsy.
He laughed and knelt in front of her like a knight to his queen. “If that means nice to meet you, then it truly is nice to meet you, too.”
She grinned, and I could almost hear vampires everywhere liquefy into puddles of goo, the good kind, not the dead kind.
“See how I’m looking at you right now?” he asked. “I’m staring right into your eyes, and all you have to do to mind control someone is do that while you tell them exactly what you would like them to do.”
“Anything?” she asked, her blue eyes wide.
“Pretty much.” A sly smile curled his lips. “Why don’t you try it on your friend Hendry? Tell him to laugh like a kookaburra bird.”
Hendry sighed and squeezed the wooden stakes in his fists. “Why are we doing this again?”
“Lucy is about to show you,” Philip said as he waved Hendry closer.
Reluctantly, Hendry crossed behind me and knelt on Lucy’s other side while Philip stood.
“All right, Little,” Hendry said, shifting his weight on his knees. “Make me laugh like an insane bird.”
She leaned in to him with her eyes narrowed on his. Several seconds passed. Nothing happened. She squished up her nose and balled her fists. A slight breeze stirred the air, shifting the clouds away from the moon and slicing more light onto the street.
“Are you thinking it, Lucy?” Philip asked softly.
“Yes,” she said through clenched teeth.
But it wasn’t working. Because Hendry was a witch? The Berkano couldn’t drink from us; maybe they couldn’t mind control us either.
“Okay.” Philip rested his hand on her shoulder. “Take a break before you pull a muscle.”
She relaxed and eased back, a disappointed frown twisting her mouth. “I wanted to hear you laugh like a kookaburra.”
“Sorry, Little. Another time, maybe.” Hendry stood, his wide gaze aimed at Philip. “Vampires can’t control witches’ minds, can they?”
Philip shook his head. “But witches can enchant other witches and humans. To enchant the entire division with these rules you’ve told me about, or even a large section of it, would require one very powerful witch. The Berkano simply don’t have that power, even if we had plenty of blood to drink to give us strength.”
The only witch I knew of who fit that power requirement lived at the Church of Hangmen. But why would Allison want to instill fear in her fellow witches? Was it to keep us away from the vampires so they would eventually die out, or was it deeper than that? Could she siphon power off them, too, somehow?
“Have you ever heard of the Ch—?” I asked Philip, but the rest of it wouldn’t come.
His brow furrowed. “The what?”
I whipped out my whiteboard and marker, thinking I could write the words, but my hand shook so badly they came out looking like another octopus. I hissed a sigh through clenched teeth. “Never mind.”
We needed to go back to the Church of Hangmen and demand answers. Hendry and I were unable to talk about the church, and, up until recently, we thought we hadn’t been able to talk to vampires or it would drive them mad with bloodlust. It turned out I had a ton of things to say, however, with my non-church tongue.
The enchantment over witches and humans needed to end because it wasn’t doing anyone any good. The vampires needed our help—well, human help in the form of blood—to survive. Chances were good that we would need their help to end this enchantment and stop the hanging ritual. The only person who seemed to benefit from all these lies and enchantments was Allison. Meanwhile, the entire city of Tombstone suffered with the Rift Curse and starvation and fear, along with a forced division between witches and vampires. If we came together and pooled our resources, our lives would surely be less of a struggle.
“A question for you, if you don’t mind,” Philip said. “Do you have any idea why some of my fellow Berkano are sleepwalking?”
“I sleepwalk,” Lucy piped up.
“Do you?” He frowned. “Several wake early before nightfall and stick to the shadows, completely unaware of what they’re doing.”
“That’s what happened to me when I wandered to where you live, Hendry,” Lucy said.
He rested his hand on her shoulder, his thoughts puckering his forehead. “I wish I knew why.”
“The Silence Collectors?” I said, because it didn’t fit Allison’s brand of selfish power, though it didn’t
really fit theirs either. Once again, I was clueless.
“It’s a possibility.” Philip gazed at our collars with a frown. He gave a stiff bow, his oversized I Am Here shirt flapping in the breeze. “Well, I better get this blood to those in need. My people pass it around to the ones who are worse off, and it is shared among them. Every little bit helps, and we sincerely thank you for it and for your fine company tonight.”
I nodded, my thoughts running a mile a minute. “Thank you for talking to us.”
“The pleasure’s all mine.”
“Bye, Philip,” Lucy said, her curls bouncing. “Come again, ya’ hear?”
“Loud and clear.” He grinned and plucked the blood offering from the street. When he straightened, he nodded at Hendry, his brown hair sweeping low over his eyes.
I snapped my gaze to Hendry, a statue made of stone. If he knew what that was all about, he didn’t let on.
“This means we’re allies,” I blurted to Philip. “Right?”
Nodding, he turned and disappeared into a shadow that hadn’t been there before. “P.S., no biting.”
Chapter 11
36 Hours Left
I woke with a gasp and flew my hands to my collar. My heart jackhammering, I jolted upright and yanked the string on the light above my head. I’d been dreaming about my collar, had heard it snap with finality, had felt my blood pumping out of me as it stole my life and my voice. Now, as I opened the door of my closet, I realized it had been sweat pouring off me, not blood. I knew that, of course, since I was upright and walking, but the proof was still a relief.
Hendry had said that he would get these collars off us, and I still had faith in him, but our clocks were ticking. We needed to get it done soon, as well as confront the Church of Hangmen. If Allison was stealing power, though, I would need a lot more than just my rinky-dink scent magic to confront her. I would likely need a brothel full of witches and maybe a few vampires who had my back. A resistance against one of my own kind, yet hadn’t I been resisting this whole time? That was why I didn’t fit in anywhere.
Voices drifted from the office, one of them lacking its usual poison and the other all girlish innocence. I peeked around the doorway because whatever was happening inside sounded entirely too much fun. Also because I wanted in on the giggle train. And because I was nosy.
Blood Song: Division 7: The Berkano Vampire Collection Page 13