by Erin Embly
Wind, I remembered. Wind that cut like knives.
I filled my lungs, gasping air to connect to the feel of it, then closed my eyes to envision it all around me, like I was flying.
Then it was inside me—in my blood—replacing the pain of the suction on my veins with a cool energy that flowed through every inch of me before exiting my body through my wrist.
Into the vampire’s mouth.
He froze, fingers digging into my arm so hard it might break again. With bulging eyes, he managed to detach his mouth from my wrist before choking. Blood spilled out over his lips as he brought his hands to his neck, releasing me in his panic.
What happened next could only be described as an explosion.
A bloodsucker bomb.
Vampire confetti.
It probably had something to do with all the blood loss I’d just experienced, but all I wanted to do was laugh when shreds of flesh and globs of gore coated me in a warm blast.
A moment later, it sounded like a tree had shaken its leaves after a big storm as the more airborne pieces of vampire came crashing down onto the wet pavement around me.
My laughter filled the air, becoming looser as the rain worked its way through the mess on my skin. It felt comfortable again, although I was still dizzy when I sat up.
Headlights shone in my eyes, making me squint, and I sobered quickly when I recognized Soma’s car pulling onto the street.
Fuck. The world spun as I sprang to my feet, but blood loss was the least of my problems right now. I turned to Kat, who was staring at me unmoving from underneath her now-gory umbrella, her face still miraculously clean.
She hadn’t expected me to live through the fight; that much was clear. But I wasn’t sure she deserved to be left for Soma to discipline just because she hadn’t been a hero and tried to save me.
“Get in now if you want to live,” I yelled, pointing in the back of the van with the coolers filled with blood bags.
She was smart enough to do as I said, although I was sure I’d get an earful from her later—if she wasn’t terrified of me after what she’d just seen.
Fumbling with the slippery keys only a little, I managed to shut the doors to the back and get myself in the front with the engine running.
This whole night had just turned into an unimaginable shit storm. Not only would Soma kill one of my best dancers if he found out she had been here, he’d probably also be inclined to kill me after seeing what I’d done to the other vampire. And once he realized I was running away from him, with all the blood I’d taken from the scene, I was willing to bet he’d move heaven and earth to find me.
But I couldn’t think about that now. I didn’t have enough blood in my brain to think about anything now besides pushing my foot down on the gas pedal and driving away, as far and as fast as I possibly could.
13
The top of the leather steering wheel dug into my forehead, slowly fusing with my damp skin as I groaned over the pitter-patter of raindrops falling on the windshield.
I’d managed to drive over a bridge to somewhere in Virginia, pull into a gas station, park in the darkest corner in case Soma was searching for this license plate, and then promptly collapse as soon as the key was out of the ignition.
Kat was knocking on the walls in the back, yelling at me to let her out, and sweet sustenance was only twenty feet away through the glowing windows of the station store. My mouth was dry—my veins were probably drier—and a dark haze descended over my eyes whenever I tried to move my head.
It would only get worse the longer I waited.
Fuck it. I might not be able to see clearly or walk in a straight line, but muscle memory and sheer determination could get me something to drink.
I closed my eyes and breathed slowly, un-clicked my seat belt and felt for the handle of the car door.
Something knocked on the window right by my head.
I opened my eyes and blinked until the blur gave way to a familiar face.
My fingers pulled on the handle, letting the door crack, and Adrian swung it open.
“Sit back, it’s okay,” he said, curling his fingers around the back of my head and putting the edge of an open bottle to my lips.
Sweet liquid spilled onto my tongue, and for a brief panicked instant I wanted to spit it out before my thirst took over.
I swallowed, letting some of the liquid run down my chin, then brought my hands up to take control of the bottle.
“Keep it slow,” Adrian said, but I barely heard him over the new pounding in my head as I gulped down the liquid, which my taste buds were beginning to register as some kind of fruit juice. “Hey.” He put his warm hands around mine and broke the bottle away from my lips, causing me to glare at him. “I said slowly.”
Surprisingly, I could see him clearly now. The sugar was already giving me a boost of energy, and my mind felt quicker even though I knew it would take a while for my body to physically recover.
But a tiny spark of energy was all I needed to get going. “Thanks,” I said with a slight nod, and he let go again so I could take a small sip.
“Your hands are freezing.”
“That’s what happens when you get vampired,” I said, then blinked. Okay, maybe my mind wasn’t as quick as I’d thought.
He laughed, cheeks creasing upwards as he put his hands around mine again, steam from his breath warming my face.
“Miriam?” I asked, and he nodded.
“We’ve been following you since you left the restaurant. Lost you a couple times, too.” He sounded impressed, and to be honest I was even a little impressed with myself to hear that. If the woman who had a direct link to my brain had found it difficult to follow me, Soma could only be in a worse boat. “She’s getting some more provisions,” he finished with a nod towards the store.
At this point, Kat pounded on a wall in the back again, metal rattling between us as she shouted, “Let me out!”
I grimaced, rolling my eyes at the question in Adrian’s face. “Don’t let her out,” I told him.
“Whatever you say.”
“Actually, let me up. I need to talk to her.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Ready to take on another vampire so soon?”
I didn’t want to say no out loud, so I tilted my head and shrugged my shoulders. “She saw what I did to the last one.”
“Fair enough.” He stepped back and offered me his hand, which I took, then steadied me after I’d hopped out of the car onto my feet.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling nothing but gratitude towards this wonderful human despite the small voice in the back of my mind telling me to push him away and handle my own shit. I didn’t have the energy to indulge that crazy part of myself at the moment. “Can you give us some privacy?” I said instead. “She might be willing to talk to me, but . . .”
“Sure.” He gestured over to his car, parked a few spaces over from mine, and then walked away slowly. He didn’t take his eyes off me until I’d managed to open the back doors to the van without immediately getting mauled by the pissed-off vampire inside.
Kat glared at me from within, sitting on one of the coolers with her legs crossed and her folded-up umbrella acting as a makeshift armrest. If she was afraid of me after what she’d seen, she was being careful not to show it.
“Kat,” I said, “or is it Mia?”
“Really? That’s what you want to ask?” She shook her head. “I know I didn’t just get bounced around in the back of a bumpy van for half an hour because you had a burning desire to question a stripper about her real name.”
“Good point.” I climbed in with her, leaving the doors open, and sat on the cooler opposite her. “You got bounced around because I didn’t want to see Soma tear you to shreds after finding out you’ve been selling your blood out of his businesses. Don’t make me regret it.”
Her smirk faded as the muscles in her face froze and then went slack. “He knows?” she whispered.
“He knows someone’s been doing i
t. Tonight was about figuring out who.” I paused for a moment, to let that sink in. “He’ll be looking for me now. And it would be a smart choice on my part all around to let him find me if it didn’t mean I’d lose one of my best dancers in the process.” Yesterday, I might have called her a friend before defaulting to our professional relationship. But now . . . I honestly didn’t know.
Kat let the umbrella fall to the floor with a wet thud as she lowered her head into her hands. “You’re such an idiot,” she said, and I couldn’t quite tell whether she was talking to me or to herself. She looked up at me, solving that little mystery. “He’ll kill both of us if he finds out you’re hiding me.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” I said, trying my best to exude all the confidence I didn’t feel after nearly dying in a wet backstreet at the mercy of a vampire much less powerful than Soma.
“What do you want?” she said.
“I want to know what you were doing selling your blood in bags. I know you’re not struggling for cash, and I know you’re not stupid enough to think that shit’s going to end well for anyone.”
Kat sighed, and then her face hardened as she looked at me. “It’s complicated.”
“Yeah, so is fucking everything in life, Kat. Just tell me,” I snapped. Apparently I’d lost a good deal of my patience along with my blood.
“It’s not about the money,” she said. “At least not for me.”
I glared at her, hoping she would continue on her own.
“I assume you know how difficult it is to get approval for a vampire fledgling?”
“In theory,” I said. I didn’t know what went into the approval process, but I did know not many people made it through.
“Well, I’m doing this—” She tapped on the cooler beneath her. “As a favor to someone who’s promised to help me get a fledgling approved.”
I pressed my lips together, trying to make sense of what she was saying. “And who is this ‘someone’?”
Kat went still, her face a stone wall. “I can’t say,” she said. “Not out of loyalty or anything,” she added before I could protest. “He’s protected. By the creed of our elders.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I . . . can’t tell you. Literally, I can’t.” She looked away from me for a moment, up at the ceiling of the van, then snapped her eyes back to me with a short breath in. “You know how Etty was banished back to the fae realm? Deemed unfit to mix with mortals?”
“Yeah. But I don’t see how that’s relevant—”
“It’s kind of like that, only it’s not another realm. It would be worse than death for me if I told any non-vampire.”
A vein throbbed in my temple, my left eye twitching. If that wasn’t the most aggravating thing I’d heard all day . . . I sighed. I wouldn’t get anywhere further with her on that subject unless I wanted to torture her. And I wouldn’t do that without at least seeing what else she could tell me first.
“Okay, so this mystery vampire is the one who needs money so desperately they’re putting deadly blood on the market to get it?”
Kat shook her head. “It’s not about the money for him, either.”
“What, then? Is he trying to turn everyone in the city against vampires?”
“No,” she said. “Just against the vampires they think are responsible.”
Ah, I thought. Here was something that made sense. “So he’s framing Soma. Making everyone think Soma is behind the blood on the black market and responsible for every human that dies from it.”
“That’s my guess,” Kat said.
“And you’re okay with being a part of that?” I shook my head, still not wanting to believe Kat was that kind of person. “Everyone who buys that shit—their blood is on your hands.”
“I’m a vampire,” she said flatly, showing me her teeth. “Do you feel bad about the blood on your hands every time you eat meat?”
“But you’re not even eating them. You’re—”
“Using their deaths to make the world better. For myself and for my kind. I don’t love it, but it makes sense.” She bit her lip briefly and glanced out the door before turning back to me. “I can’t wait forever for fledgling approval. Well—I can. But the human I want to change obviously can’t. For that and so many other reasons, we need new leadership. First here, and then everywhere.”
I tried to keep my reaction from showing on my face, because Kat would definitely turn ugly if she knew what I was thinking. She sounded like a damn fanatic. Or someone who’d let her emotions get the better of her. I wanted to ask her who she wanted to change so badly that she was willing to go to such lengths to make it happen. But that would only satisfy my curiosity. It wouldn’t lead me to any of the information I actually needed.
“So this vampire is looking to stage a coup,” I said instead. “And framing Soma for selling bad blood is part of the plan. What else?”
“What do you mean?”
“There must be more to it.” I lowered my voice. “What about the kids that have been going missing from Soma’s restaurants?”
“That . . .” Kat’s face went blank again. “That’s just a joke.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I fail to see what’s funny about missing kids.”
“No, I mean there aren’t really kids going missing. It’s only a rumor, to make him look bad.”
“If rumors were all you needed to make Soma look bad, then why actually sell your blood? Doesn’t add up.”
“Look, I’m not the mastermind here. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a lot more to this plan than I know. Soma’s so dangerous because he’s not in charge of anything officially. He runs everything behind the scenes while the politicians take all the heat. So we can’t just go after him through official channels . . . Honestly, I thought you were a part of it when you told me you wanted to meet him. I thought maybe, with your history . . .” She trailed off.
“You thought your boss hired me to kill him?”
Kat smirked. “I thought you’d be getting that lacy number covered in his blood.” Her expression quickly sobered when she picked up on the complete lack of amusement in mine. “Anyway, no one’s taking kids. We don’t fuck with kids.”
“Who’s ‘we’ here?”
“Vampires. It’s our biggest taboo.” She sighed and slowed down her words, as if explaining something complex to an idiot. “We only drink from those we might change, and children are never approved for the change. Ever.”
“Why not?”
“Lack of impulse control, for one. Parental mobs and pitchforks, two. I’m sure there are more reasons, but I don’t really . . . It’s just not done. It’s been this way for longer than anyone alive can remember. None of us would ever take a child.”
“Right. Okay. Well . . .” I shifted my weight as I felt myself wanting to slump over in exhaustion. “Someone’s taking kids. Parents reporting them missing and everything. So whatever you think is just a rumor . . .”
Her forehead creased. “That’s not—”
“It is, I promise. So what’s the rumor? What have you heard?”
For a moment, Kat said nothing. But I could tell the thoughts were working behind her eyes as her face darkened and she slumped over to match my posture. “I’ve heard he’s taking them prisoner, keeping them alive, feeding on them . . . and experimenting.”
“What kinds of experiments?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine. I just thought it was supposed to sound gruesome—”
“Where?” I asked, cutting her off. My head was starting to feel light again, and I needed another drink but didn’t want to take it in front of Kat.
“Underground,” she said quickly. “Near Bite, where a few of his properties are clustered.”
I pressed my lips together and swallowed, trying to keep control of my body as my mind made the connection.
The Metro station Noah and I had stopped at yesterday after getting derailed by the wacked-out shifter was nearby S
oma’s club. It was where I’d first seen the child monster pretending to be Noah, and it was a different station within walking distance where I’d seen it the second time. Not to mention that underground in the actual club was where I’d seen Gary bring someone else’s blood to the honey-covered statue.
Could that have been blood from one of the missing kids? Were they somehow using them to take over the minds and souls of the people who had gone on murder sprees? I remembered the man I’d heard asking Gary how many more . . .
Fuck. If they’d done one last night, and one the night previously, then it stood to reason they’d be doing another one tonight.
I gritted my teeth and stood up in a crouch, then hopped out of the van and gestured for Kat to stay put. I still didn’t know what I was going to do with her, but I did know I wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.
Those kids were underground somewhere near the club, and I was going to find them before another person died.
14
I watched the dark neon lights shine briefly through the wet car window in front of me as Kat made her way into our club.
As far as I knew, Soma hadn’t identified her, so she should be safe lying low for a while. I wasn’t sure if she deserved to be safe after what she’d done, but I could figure that out later—and in the meantime, she was the only one I trusted behind my bar on a busy Saturday night.
The earpiece Soma had given me had fallen out during the fight, and I didn’t have a phone number for him, so I couldn’t call him to tell him where the van with the blood was. But I hoped I could eventually get by with the excuse of being too almost-dead-by-vampire to drive the thing where he’d wanted me to. It was at least partly true.
“Let’s get her home now,” Adrian said to Miriam, who was driving the police car while I tried not to fall asleep in the back seat.