Blood Dolls

by Angela Roquet

  “Oh.”

  We both bristled at the mention of Vanessa’s house. That was the catalyst for our difference in relationship goals. Roman didn’t want more to come of this thing between us because he had a future that didn’t include me. He couldn’t give that up, and how could I ask him to?

  I had no sire, no house or old family money. I was nobody. Just some vampling he lusted after at the moment.

  Shame weighed heavily on my heart. It leached from me, staining the mood instantly. Roman felt it, too. He sighed and reached for the radio knob, hesitating at the last moment.

  “I was born April 2nd, 1946.”

  “Aries. Why am I not surprised?” I gave him a soft smile. “Are you even a little curious when I was born?”

  “October 3rd, 1988.” A light blush lit his cheeks when he caught me staring. “I started a case file on you last summer when I thought you were involved with the Scarlett Inn.” His grin returned. “How’d you spend your twenty-ninth birthday at the bat cave?”

  I groaned. “Hiding out in the base library after an especially painful training session. I didn’t see the point in celebrating. I was under the impression that birthdays were too human a thing to make a fuss over.” I threw a hand to my chest and gasped mockingly.

  Roman shrugged. “Some celebrate, some don’t.”

  “Do you?”

  “House Sorano only participates in the vampire holidays. They attend all the queen’s parties.”

  I blushed, remembering the All Hallows’ Eve Ball. “Really? You didn’t say anything about Midwinter’s Eve. How was it?”

  “Boring. Terribly, terribly boring.” His eyes migrated to mine. “Of course, how can any party compare now, after the one—”

  “Imbolc is in a few weeks,” I said, cutting him off. “Do you attend that one, too?”

  “No.” He snorted softly, yielding to my diversion. “Only vampires and half-sireds set to be turned for the occasion are invited to spend Imbolc with the queen.”

  I glanced out the window, as much to hide my face as to avoid his. “I’ll be at the Midsummer celebration.”

  “I’m well aware.”

  We’d had this discussion a time or two. In exchange for saving the queen’s life, she’d promised to grant me a new sire. I was to be adopted.

  The thought filled me with equal parts dread and excitement. The queen could appoint anyone, anywhere in the country. House Starling in Michigan was my top pick at the moment, though I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of leaving St. Louis.

  I’d been living in the same house my entire life. I was attached to the memories I’d built there—the old as much as the new. I felt my mother when I walked through that front door. It was comforting. It was home. Giving that up would be painful, but I’d do it if I had to. If it meant getting a second chance to do this vampire thing the right way.

  Roman insisted that it had been a stupid request, but I craved the kind of built-in family he had. A house was stability. It was easy for him to begrudge the privilege since he didn’t have to muddle his way through being a vampire with no sire to mentor him. He’d also have a full harem waiting when he eventually rose from the dead.

  I might yearn for him, but I wasn’t so smitten that I’d lost all sense of preservation. Staying on the outskirts of vamp society just so he could have a convenient, discreet booty call was not what I had in mind. And it wasn’t fair for him to expect that of me.

  We didn’t talk much more for the rest of the trip. Roman found a classic rock station and hummed along to the more suggestive tunes, while I stared out at the darkness the highway cut through.

  I missed the sun. Sometimes, if I hurried after rising, I could catch the subtle, dusky end of the day. The fading twilight. The onset of sunrise was harder to manage. My eyelids sagged, and my limbs felt heavy. The fear of not making it inside in time was also a real problem.

  Hard to appreciate something that might kill you if you enjoy it a few minutes too long.

  When Roman finally exited the highway, and we began a precarious climb up a steep, bumpy road, my skin started to crawl. It only got worse with each passing mile.

  Thick, evergreen trees grew increasingly closer, pressing in on either side of us. The SUV’s tires crunched over loose gravel where tree roots broke the road, and the thin slice of moon in the sky, grinning down at us like a Cheshire cat, did little to illuminate our path. A low-hanging branch grazed the roof of the SUV, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Relax,” Roman said, maneuvering us around a tight curve. “Nothing’s going to jump out and bite us.”

  As if summoned, the pale silhouette of a girl appeared in the road ahead of us. I swallowed back a scream.

  “You were saying?”

  Chapter Five

  The girl in the road cocked her head at us while Roman’s shaky fingers navigated his phone. I couldn’t think. I had no words. I hardly had breath to spare, my anxiety was so thick.

  She was definitely not human. She was too pale, and her eyes—glossy, liquid orbs—blinked curiously in the beam of the SUV’s headlights. She took a step toward us, and I shoved my feet against the floorboard, rising up off my seat.

  My blood vision kicked in, and a whole assortment of outlines appeared through the foliage encasing us. Tiny, palm-sized humanoid figures, things with wings and talons, predatory beasts creeping through the tall weeds. They were everywhere.

  “Get us out of here, Roman,” I hissed under my breath.

  “Settle down.” He gave me a wide-eyed glare as he pressed the cell phone to his ear. A muffled voice answered on the other end. “This is Special Agent Roman Knight. We seem to have encountered a lost girl on the road in.” He nodded to himself as the other person responded. “Yes, she is quite pale and wearing a nightgown. Should we offer her a ride?”

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?” I rasped.

  Roman silenced me with another glare, and then his eyes turned back to the road where the girl waited. “There she goes now.”

  My head jerked around, and I watched as the girl flickered and then disappeared. Poof. As if she’d never been there at all. A shiver rocked my shoulders as I waited for her to reappear somewhere closer. Maybe right outside my window or in the seat behind me.

  “We’ll see you shortly,” Roman said and then hung up.

  I pointed a finger at the windshield. “That was a ghost.”

  “Yes.”

  “That was a fucking ghost!” My breath rushed out in angry pants. I was going to hyperventilate.

  “And you’re a vampire,” he snapped. “Get over it. We have a job to do.”

  I ground my teeth together and focused on breathing through my nose as he put the SUV in drive and we continued up the hillside. The tremor in Roman’s hands as he readjusted them on the steering wheel told me he was unnerved, too, even if he refused to admit it.

  Once we crested the hill, the small town came into view. Buildings dusted in blue shadows lined both sides of the narrow road. Decorative streetlamps lit the sidewalks and the handful of people strolling around the town square. A few shot suspicious glances in our direction, and a mother ushered a small child into a shop. I could have sworn the kid had goat legs, but it was dark, so I decided not to mention it to Roman. His jaw was still clenched tight, eyes wide and filled with a familiar discontent.

  “The mayor’s office is inside the community center.” He cleared his throat. “Dr. Delph said that it’s just past the library.”

  “Dr. Delph? The psychic? I thought we’d just be meeting with the mayor.”

  “Apparently, the whole council wants to greet us,” he said dryly. “Blood Vice has a very fragile relationship with this community. You should probably let me handle the talking.”

  “No problem.” I didn’t have the first clue what to say to these people.

  It seemed wrong to be so prejudiced against supernatural beings. Especially seeing as how I was one of them now. I didn’t feel like it most days. Okay,
maybe when the blood vision or bloodlust hit me, but other than that, I still felt more or less human.

  I was afraid of the same things as I was before I’d died—including ghosts. I experienced the same nostalgia regarding my home and family, and I was still just as ambitious about my career in law enforcement, however much it had evolved over the past few months.

  Sometimes, it felt like maybe I was an imposter. A fake vampire who would one day wake up human again. But there were other times when I wondered if perhaps my human tendencies were just reflex. Were all of these familiar feelings just leftover, mortal residue? Would they slowly fade over time until I was as cold and detached as Vanessa? The thought chilled me.

  “Here we are,” Roman said, pulling into the dark mouth of a parking garage that led under a three-story building.

  I held my breath, waiting for something to jump out at us as Roman killed the engine. Several spaces down from ours, a black Ford pickup was parked between a crusty, yellow Datsun and a BMW with a matte silver paint job. Farther inside the garage, a few more vehicles loomed in the shadows.

  I reached into the back seat to fetch my shoulder holster and Glock, but Roman put a hand on my arm.

  “No weapons. Not here.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think so.” I tried to shrug him off, but his grip tightened.

  “If we go in there armed, it will jeopardize everything. You have no idea how long it’s taken Blood Vice to build trust here. We can’t ruin it now.”

  “Fine.” I jerked my arm free and snatched up my blazer. Before I could open my door, Roman cleared his throat.

  “The Browning in your ankle holster stays, too.”

  “You’re killing me.” I groaned and yanked up my pant leg to fetch the hidden firearm. I tucked it into the glovebox for safekeeping.

  Roman gave me a once-over as I climbed out of the SUV, and I put on my suit blazer. I buttoned it over my blouse and checked the pockets for my badge and cell phone—not that anyone would reach us in time if we discovered we were walking into an ambush. Unarmed.

  I gritted my teeth and followed him to the elevator near the entrance.

  The eerie feeling that we were being watched tightened the muscles in my back until they cramped. I rolled my shoulders, willing them down from where they tried to hunch near my ears.

  Roman pressed the button for the elevator and took a deep breath, that icy calm confidence of his sliding into place. He made it seem so effortless. Maybe, one day soon, a proper sire would teach me that trick.

  Inside the elevator, a handy chart detailed what each floor offered. The top two consisted of hotel rooms, which seemed odd for a community center, but I’d seen plenty of other peculiar mergers in tiny towns—a judge that moonlighted as the coroner, and a church that doubled as a courtroom.

  Roman pushed the button for the first floor where the chart showed we could find the mayor’s office, along with a pool, arcade, and banquet hall. It all sounded perfectly normal, which made me perfectly uptight. A town full of supernaturals shouldn’t have been this good at pretending they were some quaint little no place special.

  The elevator ride ended sooner than I would have liked, delivering us to the lobby where a dark-haired woman clicked away on a computer behind a rounded counter. She glanced up and gave us a timid smile as we showed her our badges. Something in her eyes shifted more than it should have, and I instantly wondered what she was. I had a feeling I’d be doing a lot of that tonight.

  “Welcome to Spero Heights. You must be the special agents the city council is expecting,” the woman said.

  “Thank you, and yes, ma’am, we are.” Roman nodded and flashed a practiced smile, his go-to expression for when we interviewed unwitting humans. It took the edge off his jarring appearance—the white hair and glacial eyes paired with a smooth, youthful complexion.

  “Mayor Pierce’s office is right around the corner.” The secretary nodded toward a hallway that curled discreetly away from a wider one with signs inviting guests to the center’s amenities.

  “Thank you,” Roman answered, and we headed off in the direction she’d pointed us.

  The narrow hallway matched the foyer, with a dove gray marble pattern sponge-painted over textured walls. The floor was a darker gray tile, and the baseboards and trim work around the few doors we passed were crisp white. It was a little richer than seemed appropriate for a small-town community center.

  “Our annual Cheese Festival is quite lucrative.” A man in a tweed jacket appeared at the end of the hallway. His long, gray hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, and he wore a pair of rimless glasses. It was a harmless, professorly look that sought to disarm me.

  “Excuse me?” I asked, startled by his random statement that answered a question I hadn’t said aloud.

  He smiled warmly and held out his hand. “Dr. Christian Delph, head therapist at Orpheus House.” My hand slipped into his automatically.

  “Special Agent Jenna Skye.”

  He nodded. “Mandy spoke very highly of you, and many of the new wolves in town are quite grateful—to both of you,” he added, extending his hand to Roman next. “I certainly hope we’re able to assist with your investigation. Please—” He opened his hand, inviting us inside the mayor’s office.

  The next face that greeted us was not nearly as welcoming. A severe woman in dirty jeans and a flannel shirt reclined against a wall in the far corner, arms folded across her chest. A tangled mess of red curls shadowed one eye, but the other narrowed as we entered the room, assessing our every move.

  Dr. Delph circled us, putting himself in the middle of the office and directing our attention to a man sitting on the edge of a wide desk. He wore a modern suit that looked like a slightly more expensive version of Roman’s, disheveled as it was. He’d forgone a tie, and the loafers he wore, while also expensive, didn’t quite match. We’d given plenty of notice before making our trip, but it looked as though the mayor had prepared for us at the last minute.

  “Welcome to Spero Heights. I’m Graham Pierce,” he said, offering us a sharper smile than Dr. Delph had. His handshake was firmer, too. Not threatening, but certainly not timid. A reminder that we were all friends here...until we weren’t. The political correctness and casual calm reminded me of the duke.

  “Special Agent Roman Knight,” Roman said, taking the mayor’s hand after he’d released me. “And my partner, Special Agent Jenna Skye.” We both opened our badge wallets again to verify our credentials.

  “And what’s so special about you?” The woman in the corner snorted.

  “Don’t mind Selena,” the mayor said. “It’s her personal mission to make all newcomers uncomfortable. It’s how we keep the unsuspecting humans from overstaying their welcome.”

  Roman frowned, but he refrained from commenting on the werewolf’s bad manners. “We hope to be out of your hair as soon as possible. We just have a few questions we’d like to ask one of your citizens.”

  “Who?” Selena snapped. I wondered if it really mattered, or if she was just ready to tell us no and send us on our way.

  “Ben,” Dr. Delph answered as if he’d plucked the answer right out of Roman’s head. Surprised concern creased his brow. “He was one of the first to set up shop in Spero Heights. I’m sure there’s been some misunderstanding.”

  “You’re investigating Ben? Ben Macaulay?” Selena’s question was laced with a growl.

  “Not him, specifically,” Roman answered, shooting her a cautious glance. “Someone he might have loaned his truck to recently. It was spotted at a nearby gas station, along with a harem donor of someone we’ve been tasked to locate.”

  Selena pushed away from the wall. “There’s no way Ben’s involved in anything shady. You got a bad tip.”

  “It was captured on video,” Roman said.

  “I don’t care.” She took a step toward us, a vicious, inhuman glow filling her eyes.

  Dr. Delph held up a hand. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.”

 
; “We’d just like to ask Mr. Macaulay a few questions. That’s all.” Roman tucked his hands into his pockets. I guessed to hide the fact that they were shaking. Mine certainly were.

  This woman was no green pup like Mandy. There was a beast in there, longing to escape and slaughter us all. Even with the new moon a day off. I shuddered to think what she was like during a full moon.

  The mayor stood and crossed the room. He placed a gentle hand on her arm, drawing her wrathful attention away from us. “It’s just a few questions, Selena. They’re not arresting him.”

  “Damn right, they’re not.” The growl in her voice was still there, still razor-sharp against my nerves. “I’ll be supervising this interview.”

  Roman’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t argue. This was our best chance. If we refused their terms, our lead was as good as gone.

  The woman turned to Dr. Delph next, her eyes searching his with an unspoken question. He nodded in reply.

  “Their intentions are pure,” he said. Then to me, he added, “Please, come visit me at Orpheus House before departing tomorrow evening.”

  The invitation hadn’t been directed at Roman. I felt my cheeks warm as he shot me a sidelong glance, and I nodded to the doctor. I’d done my part and kept my mouth shut through the ordeal. If this guy was reading my mind and had something to say about it, that was beyond my control.

  The mayor’s cell phone buzzed from his pocket, ringing out the Addams Family theme song. He gave us an apologetic smile. “I really must answer this. Excuse me.” He released Selena’s arm and gave us his back as he retreated to the opposite corner behind his desk.

  Dr. Delph folded his hands together. “I’ll send someone to meet you at Ben’s shop after your interview. You’ll want a proper tour of the Midnight District while you’re here. There are several places you can find refreshment and a good day’s rest. The wolves you rescued last summer mostly work at Hotshots Bistro, a new blood café, and the Velvet Casket is our most highly rated vampire hotel.”