by L.J. Hayward
Chapter 39
I should have known better than to have doubts about this part of my hasty plan. When Mercy hunted and I followed in the car, I could barely keep up. Looking at the situation from the other side, being the prey, that is, was an altogether new experience and I wondered at the Reds’ ability to keep up. But that taste of cabernet sauvignon stayed with me the entire way.
And in truth, I didn’t drive all that fast. I stuck to the East-West Arterial road until it dead ended in Sandgate Road, where the traffic increased and the speed limit dropped. Working my way through to Lutwyche Road I was careful of my speed and road rules. Wouldn’t do me a shit load of good to get a cop on my arse right about now. Especially considering the state of the poor car. Some patches of the body still dripped vampire blood, and the front right indicator was smashed from the illegal park outside Vogon Books. Not to mention the shattered window and cracked windscreen. It was police bait on wheels.
I took a wrong turn and nearly ended up back where we started. At least it would serve to confuse Big Red and Co. In the end, we came at Mount Coot-tha from the south side and about an hour later than I’d expected. An hour longer Erin spent with Veilchen, but an hour longer for Mercy to rest.
I’d long since turned the music off and the silence of Mount Coot-tha crept in through the windows and stole any urge I had to talk. We eased by the turn off to the Planetarium and up onto the mountain. The cab sav faded into a dry mustiness in the back of my throat, but I had no qualms the Reds would lose us.
I kept expecting another flavour to come into my senses. Veilchen was a Primal and I guessed the chance of her being the uber-Red was pretty slim. Aurum said the clans were like armies and it seemed stupid for two parts of the same army to use two different methods of finding me. Big Red had spread his boys and girls around town waiting for a taste of me and Mercy. Veilchen had gone the professional route and hired a PI. That would mean Veilchen didn’t know the territory and that she was probably working with a limited supply of minions. I wondered what clan she was.
Big Red had managed to keep his flavour to himself outside of the Fringe, though. I suppose it was a skill that came with age, which would mean Veilchen could hide hers as well. Fantastic. Hide and seek with the most powerful creature I’d ever encountered in a forest covering 540 acres, a good deal of it vertical, mind, and I didn’t even get a heads up. Not fair. The image of me and Mercy flailing around blindly amongst the big timers came back.
Mount Coot-tha’s forest closed in on either side of the car. The air was chilly and still. A single car passed us on its way down. I hoped the picnic areas and look-outs at the top were empty. Sadly, they weren’t. The look-out with its restaurant was as busy as usual, the car park packed and lit up like a freaking Christmas Tree. Not exactly the perfect spot for an un-Holy war.
We cruised past the look-out and toward the picnic areas. Thankfully, there were only three cars parked between the look-out and the first of the television station buildings on the top of the mountain. Two of the cars were rocking seriously. Mercy nearly fell out the window, staring at them as we eased by.
After making sure it was just the three cars, I selected one of the very few thrash metal songs I had on the iPod, turned up the volume and played the hoon along the top stretch of road. Didn’t take long. The two rocking cars ceased and one brave fellow even had the nerve to get out and shout something at us as we roared by. Feeling more than a little feral, I slammed on the brakes, threw the car into reverse and rocketed back to where he was parked. He was on Mercy’s side of the car and she half crawled out of the window, hissing and snarling. The guy got the message rather quickly, dived back into his car and within moments, we were following him part way down the hill, just to make sure he left. The remaining two cars left soon after and we had the crown of the world to ourselves.
I pulled into the top most picnic area and got out of the car. Jeez, it looked worse from the outside. Mercy probably could have saved herself the effort of scaring interrupted lover boy. The battered and dinted car was enough to scare me, or perhaps that was more because I paid the insurance.
Mercy eased out and leaned against the car. She was alert but not terribly strong. Pockets filled with stink bombs, I nevertheless felt a little naked without my nightstick, but I had the SAS knife still and the paintball rifle hung from Mercy’s shoulder. I sank down on the gutter and pulled out the package from my jacket pocket.
“Getting anything?” I asked Mercy as I assembled needle and syringe.
“Reds at the base of the mount,” she said softly. “Coming slowly. They suspect a trap.”
“Guess they’re not so dumb after all.”
“They feel us, but nothing else. Still, they’re cautious. Nothing else is here with us.”
I shook my head, absolutely certain we were far from alone. “Keep watch.” And I pushed the whole of the last ampoule of morphine into my arm.
Whoa. The rush hit like a tidal wave. Riding on the last of the small dose earlier, it flooded through my veins bringing sweet numbness along with it. God, I hated this. It was a bitter surrender of control, a cop-out. A hard reminder of the days in hospital when I would do just about anything for another dose, the relapse in prison when it offered a form of freedom.
Working through the numbness, I reached through the link to actively touch Mercy. Ah, shit, the pain she was in. If I wasn’t already sitting, I would have fallen over. It wasn’t just the wounds the wolf had inflicted. There was a deep seated ache inside as her body struggled to heal with very little resources.
A small, totally heartless part of me was thankful I hadn’t done this at home. There, feeling this, I would never have let her leave her bed.
But there was something I could do to help her. I pushed at the link, forced it deeper and wider. More of Mercy’s agony flooded into me, but at the same time, I fed her my own pain—and the pain relief. The effects of the morphine rushed down the line and soaked into her.
My head cleared and the night came back into dim focus. By the car, Mercy pulled in a deep breath, lifting away from the support of the vehicle. She stood quietly for a moment, head tipped back, mouth open, eyes closed. Then she looked at me and her eyes flashed silver.
A vampire on a morphine high. I swallowed hard.
“I feel… better,” she said, voice low, husky.
“Don’t take any chances. It’s a fake sensation. You’re still hurt and weak. Remember that.”
Her lips peeled back in a silent snarl.
“Go,” I said and she spun into moonlight and vanished.
It was about five minutes before I felt capable of getting to my feet. When I did, I checked my pockets again and then walked into the dark of the forest. I took a walking track at random and strode along as if I was just out for a bit of exercise in the middle of the night, in the middle of a forest, all alone, in the bitingly cold air of a near-winter night.
I took two side tracks and ended up in a decent sized clearing with a creek running through it. In a milky wash of moonlight, Erin lay on the ground.
May as well have hung a fluorescent sign over the limp body, flashing ‘TRAP’ for all the subtly of it. But then, I couldn’t really point fingers, could I? I was the one who’d roared on up with an army of vampires at my heels.
I went to Erin and crouched down. She stirred under my hand.
“Erin, it’s Matt.”
“I know.” Her voice was alert but quiet. “I tried to tell you not to come.”
“Why wouldn’t you want saving?”
She rolled over and revealed her bound hands and feet. Veilchen had been considerate enough to clothe her warmly in track pants and a wool lined coat. There was a trickle of dried blood down her right hand, where the IV needle had been ripped out, I guessed. Dirty bandage peeked out from under the cuff of the other sleeve. The black eye I’d prophesized darkened one cheek, but there was a hollow shadow around the other as well. Her face was slack with weariness.
&n
bsp; “Better just one death than three,” she whispered.
That fatal dichotomy I’d felt earlier slapped me in the face, even through the numbing effects of the drug. I couldn’t find anything to say.
“I want to go.”
It was falling away. That precarious, fragile foundation crumbled beneath her. I sat down hard. “Erin, no.”
She struggled to sit up and I helped her. Her bound hands lifted and her fingers grazed over my stubbled jaw, then dropped down between us.
“You’re needed, Matthew. You protect people with what you and Mercy do. I have no purpose anymore. If someone must not survive this, let it be me.”
Veilchen. It must be. She’d laid some sort of compulsion on Erin. I touched her temple lightly, reached out and sank myself in her aura. Unlike the night she’d been used by Martínez, there was no invading flavour.
“How beautiful.”
I looked up. The darkness amongst the trees parted and a tall, thin woman stepped into the soft fall of moon and stars. The bleaching effect of the moonlight left her eerily white, almost glowing. Her starkly blond hair fell to her waist, her white eyes lost in her face, framed by pale lashes that failed to stand out against her skin. She wore cream slacks and a pale purple blouse. The sense I got of her was null, a void. If I closed my eyes, she would not be there.
“I have not touched her,” Veilchen said as she circled us. “Her will to die is entirely her own.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You have the evidence in your arms.”
I gently set Erin down and stood to watch this creature prowl. Erin curled up at my feet. “I have not encountered your type before. You could have abilities beyond mine to detect.”
A sly smile touched those pale lips. “Indeed. But in this case, you have beaten me to this one. Your touch is heavy and clumsy, yet sadly effective. Perhaps if you had not set your compulsion on her, I would have been able to take this morbid desire from her. There were moments today when I worried she would not survive until this meeting.”
I knew exactly what she meant, but that didn’t stop my mouth from shooting off on its own accord.
“Feeling peckish, were you?”
She smiled again, broadly this time, revealing a row of even teeth. No fangs. Aurum had said Primals were not exactly vampires.
“My sisters and brothers and I do not require the sustenance of blood, as our children do. But we do like the taste.”
Something brushed my mind. A strange flavour welled over my tongue. I couldn’t place it, but it was strong enough to flood into my nose as well. It was a musty, flat scent and flavour. It took a moment to register, drawing on my memories of childhood and hugging my grandmother. She always had that same scent. Lavender.
I nodded slowly. “The fabled Violet clan.”
She returned my nod with a noble tilt of her head. “And how shall we classify you, young one? Your colours are a frightful mess. I fear it would take some time, and pain, to sort them out and find what lies deep in your true heart.”
“Time we don’t have, as I’m sure you’re aware. So let’s just go with Team Hawkins.”
She mouthed the words ‘Team Hawkins’ and blinked slowly. “Far too clumsy, but it suits you. And yes, I’m more than aware of your pursuers. If you thought to overwhelm me with them, then you were sadly mistaken. And you have set my stolen daughter against them.”
“I had to try. And it gives the kiddies something to do while we adults talk.”
“You amuse me. Somehow you have taken my child and made her your own and you think that makes us equals.” Veilchen gazed at me fondly. At least I think it was fondly. It might have been her hungry face. “You have much to learn, young one.”
“Young one? Ugh. Talk about clumsy. Call me Night Caller instead.”
She actually laughed. “I will give you a name when you have earned it. Now call my child to you. I wish to see her.”
“Sorry, but she’s out playing with her friends at the moment. Maybe can you come back some other day and we’ll set up a play date.”
It was pretty much close to the truth. Coasting along on the morphine high, Mercy was having a grand old time baiting the Reds. I needed to make sure that they found me and Veilchen. Still, I could feel Mercy’s strength fading as she flittered through the trees, firing upon the advancing Reds with the paintball rifle. She was perhaps halfway up the slope, moving slower than usual, but still faster than a human. And the Reds surged up after her.
“Which brings us to a point of law,” I said, moving so I could keep myself between Erin and Veilchen. “Namely, the law of finders keepers. You lost Mercy of your own accord. I did not take her from you. No judge in the land would favour you in a custody battle.”
The mindless roar my earlier denunciation of her parenting skills threatened to return. Her lips parted and this time, there were fangs in there. Big ones. Bigger in comparison to Mercy’s. Maybe Mercy’s were just baby teeth.
“She was stolen,” Veilchen hissed. “I had crafted her especially and someone took her from me. If not you, then someone else. But I did not lose her.” She bit off each word with a finality that rattled in my guts.
“Well, it wasn’t me, lady. Your gripe is with someone else.”
“But you have her now. Currently, that is all that matters.”
“Exactly. I have her. Which means that you can’t control her. You can’t get her back.”
Veilchen stopped pacing. She stood still and her presence condensed back down to nothing. The taste of lavender left me. Man, that was so nifty. I wondered how it was done.
“But I can. As I said, you have much to learn.”
“Fantastic. I am simply surrounded by Kenobis. Oh please, teach me.”
The reference obviously went rushing right over her head. She tilted it quizzically, but didn’t question me. Instead, she nodded once.
“My kind are eternal. We cannot be killed.” Veilchen ran a long fingered hand down the length of her torso. If it was meant to be seductive, let’s just say I wasn’t the only one with a lot to learn. “These bodies, however. They are not eternal. They are…” Her nose wrinkled in distaste. “Poorly designed for long use.”
“Ah, I get it. You have to trade up every, what? Eighty, ninety years?”
“Every three hundred, if one does not take particular care of the vessel. This –” Again she indicated her body. “– is nearing its final years. I must soon… trade up.”
Cold claws sunk into my stomach. “And that’s why you turned Mercy. You wanted her body.”
“We have found, over the years, that taking a freshly turned vampire increases the longevity of the body. You can understand then that we choose carefully.”
“Sure, just like buying a house. You’re going to spend thirty years paying it off, may as well get something you can, well, I guess, live with.”
Another comment that rushed past her comprehension with all the subtly of a freight train. This woman needed to get out more.
“But,” I continued, holding up a hand. “I think Mercy’s expiry date might be long gone. She’s not freshly turned anymore.”
Veilchen curled her lips into another not-a-smile. “We have differing opinions on time, young one. She is so fresh I can still sense the taint of humanity in her.” She began walking again, drawing closer. “But if she falls before the Red horde, as she most likely will in her current state, I might be encouraged to look elsewhere for a body.”
Her cold gaze dropped down over me and back up. My knees threatened to knock together at the look on her narrow face when I met her eyes again. Yup. It had been fond before. Now it was hungry, and not for dinner.
Lavender swamped me again. I tried to spit it out, but my mouth refused to respond to commands. Unlike my legs, which responded very well. Just not to me.
I lurched toward Veilchen. Inside, I was screaming all sorts of denials and curses. Couldn’t utter a sound though. She had complete control of my body. I wa
s going to suffocate in her musty odour. It swarmed all over me, an almost tangible thing, crawling on my skin and through my hair, and like the cold electricity created by lesser supernatural beings, this strange force invaded my body. It coiled through my muscles and bones and my movements eased out until I was striding toward her with a smooth, steady gait.
When I reached her, she slipped into my arms. Her body was as chilly as her manner had promised, not like a real vampire at all. They were all heat and raging blood. She was an empty void, as cold as outer space. I would freeze in her embrace, but I had to hold her, had to caress her.
Veilchen pressed against me. Her hands roamed over my body, leaving trails of chill burn in their wake. My jacket was pushed from my shoulders, my shirt pulled from the waist band of my pants. When she touched my bare skin, the shudder that ran through me was entirely involuntary and totally at odds with the violent, raging scream in my head. Dear God, my body got an erection so fast it actually hurt. She delighted in it, rubbing me though my pants and I thought my balls would turn to ice and break off.
And when she kissed me, my body kissed her back. Open mouthed, greedy, demanding. I was going to get frostbite of the tongue. Then she broke the kiss and my head dropped to the side, oh so conveniently exposing my juicy jugular.
Crap.
Veilchen’s lips drew back from her fangs. She opened wide and bit down.