"Your face says it's not good news," I said.
He shook his head. "The whole family was so brutally attacked that none of them rose as vampires."
"How can you be sure?" Echo asked.
"They're starting to rot."
"Sinead had two younger brothers, as well as the parents," Pearson said.
"Where were the bodies found?" Edward asked.
"In a shed three houses over. The smell alerted the neighbors."
"Where were the owners of the house?" I asked.
"In the shed," he said.
"I take it that they won't be rising as vamps either."
"No."
"Is this the most victims that were torn up too badly to rise as the undead?" Echo asked.
"That we've found, yes."
"Maybe it's a clue," I said.
"A clue to what?" Edward asked.
"I have no fucking idea, but it's something different in the pattern and different is something."
"Do you want to go look at the shed?" he asked.
"No."
He smiled. "Want to go look for clues in a shed that was full of decomposing bodies?"
"When you put it that way, how can I resist?"
59
WE NEVER GOT to investigate the shed. Some of the neighbors decided that it must be evil, or full of some disease that was ravaging their town, so they set it on fire. We got to watch the fire department do its job, but that didn't help us find a clue to what, or who, was spreading vampirism like a summer cold through Dublin.
In fact, everywhere we went that night, there were no clues, only more victims. Either the victims that the newly risen had attacked or the new vampires themselves, who weren't much better at being vampires than Edna and Michael Brady. One thing was different about almost all of the newly risen, though: Once they took blood, they stopped being dangerous. They couldn't always remember anything, but they were more coherent than any newbie vampires I'd ever met. They also looked more normally human.
"What bloodline is this?" I asked Echo and Fortune.
"I do not know," Echo said, and Fortune just shook her head.
Kaazim and Jake didn't know either. Since between the four of them they'd seen thousands of years of vampires, we were well and truly clueless. Eventually we got sent back to our hotel for sleep and food, but I was too tired to eat. The jet lag had finally caught up with me in a major way. As Nicky opened the door, I leaned beside it and stared at the opposite wall as Domino and Ethan opened the next door. Magda and Giacomo were on the other side of them. They'd left the three vampires at Nolan's compound with its one working cell. Magda made a comment about the three new vamps tearing up the cell they were in the way she had done to the other one: "They have not the will, nor the training yet. The cell will be sufficient for the newly risen who are untrained in combat."
I thought that was interesting wording and texted Edward to tell Nolan that they might need special accommodations for any vamps who had military, martial arts, or other physically trained backgrounds. He was staying at the compound with Nolan. Apparently there were living quarters there, though Magda said calling them apartments would be too much; they were more like barracks. Since I'd never been in the real military before, I didn't actually understand the difference, but I was too tired to ask for an explanation. No, I was so tired, I didn't care what the explanation was; that was the truth.
Fortune and Echo were beside us on this side of the hallway. Socrates had decided to stay at Nolan's in the barracks, to continue to foster goodwill and to learn as much as he could about what the plans were for the paramilitary group. That left Pride in a room by himself, or sharing with Dev. Jake and Kaazim were bunkmates, but somehow if Socrates had been there, we'd have been short a bed. Nicky had bunked next door with Pride for the nap earlier, but I didn't want to give up Nicky for the whole trip. I just didn't. I was in love with him, and other than Nathaniel, that wasn't true of anyone else on the trip with me. I liked some of my people very much, and was wildly attracted to others, but it wasn't "in love." This tired after the night we'd just had, being held by people you truly loved sounded just about perfect.
My phone rang as Nicky got the door open. It was Jean-Claude's ringtone, so I answered as Nicky held the door for me. "Hey, tall, pale, and handsome, what's up?"
"Ma petite, I will soon be down for the day."
"The time difference is going to take some getting used to," I said as I sat on the edge of the king-size bed.
"Yes, but I cannot take the ardeur for you while I sleep. You may wake for the morning before I do, and if so, then you will need to feed the ardeur when you wake. You must also eat a real breakfast, not just coffee. I need you to take care of your physical needs so that me being unable to take your other hunger will not get out of hand for you."
"Crap," I said, and the wave of tiredness washed over me.
"Ma petite, what is wrong?"
I didn't try to explain, just thought about the last few hours. He got the shorthand version, all the awful in a fraction of the time. His comment was "That is truly terrible, ma petite. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with such things."
"It's my job," I said.
"Actually, it is not, but I understand that you feel that way."
Opening to him enough to share the memories let me know that he was alone in the bedroom sitting on the edge of the bed as I was. "Has Richard gone back home?"
"Oui, Jason has arrived from New York."
"Tell him hi for me and give him a hug. I miss him."
"As do I, ma petite. If you are still away by the next weekend, his J.J. will be joining him here in St. Louis for a few days."
I thought about the blond ballerina who had finally won Jason's heart. They were very warm thoughts on my part. She was probably my favorite female lover after Echo. I wasn't sure why Fortune and Magda were third and fourth on that list respectively, but I could honor the truth of it without overanalyzing it. Fortune was committed to Echo and liked men a lot. Magda seemed content to treat all of us as fuck buddies.
"Have fun," I said.
"I hope that you are home by then, ma petite."
"Me, too. Hey, ask him if I am home next weekend, could he and J.J. stay over anyway?"
"I will happily do so," he said.
I smiled. "That would be great."
"I have spoken with Micah on the phone about the Roane and their plight with She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
"Edward's calling her that, too. I'd really prefer not to mix Harry Potter with this awfulness."
"As you like, ma petite. Micah will be speaking with Rafael at more length since they are both still on the West Coast trying to prevent a shapeshifter war."
"I'd have thought the negotiations would be done by now, or they'd have picked who to fight and kicked their asses."
"I do not have all the details, but it seems more complex than first explained."
I thought about calling Micah, but it seemed too complicated, especially if I still had to feed the ardeur. Why was I this discouraged? Was it the jet lag? Edna Brady's screams? The fact that two entire families had been wiped out by this new vampire? Or the thought that something we had done to the Mother of All Darkness had weakened Damian's old master enough to allow the new vampires to get a foothold here in Dublin? I kept coming back to that: Somehow this was our fault for not taking charge of things. We'd just wanted to run America and trust the rest of the world's vampires to take care of business. I was beginning to realize how naive that may have been.
"Ma petite, this is not our doing. Do not take on the guilt of it."
"Was I thinking that loud?"
"Yes," Nathaniel said as he went into the bathroom and closed the door. I realized that Nicky, Dev, and Damian were all in the room. There was no way that all of us were going to be able to sleep in one king-size bed.
"They are a bounty, ma petite, not a burden. Please remember that."
"I will, but thanks for the reminde
r."
"Time is growing short here, ma petite. I must sleep and the demon we share must come home to you."
"The ardeur isn't a real demon, Jean-Claude. It isn't even evil, just occasionally inconvenient."
"It is still the power that has earned me the title of incubus, and you that of succubus."
"Fine, but I've dealt with real demons, Jean-Claude, and it's a whole new level of bad."
"That I believe, ma petite, but dawn is almost upon me. Are you prepared for the ardeur to be returned?"
"You fed it well today, right?"
"Oui."
"Then it shouldn't need feeding again that soon. I can control it better than that now."
"Tonight, yes, but I can feel that you have donated too much blood and not eaten enough real food, plus the jet lag and the stress of your job. You underestimate how much energy it all takes."
"I promise that I will eat breakfast tomorrow morning, and I will feed the ardeur without it forcing me to feed it."
"Thank you, ma petite."
"You're welcome. I'm just exhausted. We're all tired."
The four men looked at one another and then at me. "You just need to pick your bedmates so we can all get some sleep," Nathaniel said, smiling.
"Ma petite, they are all handsome, all good lovers, and you are in love with two of them. Do not allow the ugliness of the night to paint this moment as anything less than beautiful."
I sighed and knew he was right. I really did. My therapist would have agreed with him, but I was still exhausted and discouraged, and I felt vaguely like everything going wrong was my fault somehow, so why did I deserve such happiness after what had happened to the Bradys and the Royces?
"It is not an exchange of blessings, ma petite, not an either/or. You did not create the vampire who is haunting Dublin, nor did you cause the families to fall into his clutches."
"I'm beginning to believe that something about killing the Mother of All Darkness weakened Damian's old master and gave this new monster an opening here in Ireland."
"If that is true, then we will deal with it. We will fix any problems we have inadvertently created, but we will not take the guilt of it to heart. That we will not do, and you must not. You are the queen. It is your choice whether you are going to be a queen of joy or sorrow. I have been ruled by both, and I much prefer joy."
"So do I," I said.
"Then prove it to me, to yourself, to the men in the room with you or to the women next door to you. You have many blessings with you. Please, please, ma petite, treat them, and yourself, as such."
"I will try," I said.
I could almost feel him smile, not through vampire powers, but just knowing him, knowing us. "Thank you, ma petite. That is all I can ask. Now I must get to bed. Jason will be out of the bathroom in time to tuck us both in for the day."
"Have fun," I said.
"He is not bisexual enough for much fun, nor do we have time before sunrise."
"Just enjoy having Jason home for cuddles and blood, then," I said.
"That I will do. Je t'aime, ma petite."
"I love you, too."
60
I WOKE CURLED between the warmth of Nathaniel and the cooling skin of Damian. The vampire was dead to the world, but there'd been no more nightmares. Something about all three of us touching kept the Wicked Bitch out of all our dreams, and us out of hers. It had been what made me choose Damian to be on the other side of me from Nathaniel, but the vampire had grown cool overnight and woken me. I was about to marry Jean-Claude, and I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to sleep comfortably beside him or any vampire. The thought slid into the down mood that I'd gone to sleep with and that was apparently still with me.
Nathaniel made small protesting noises and snuggled closer to me. He was almost fever warm. Damian was growing cold on the other side of me, but worse than that, he felt dead. He had that loose, heavy feel to him that only dead bodies had. I moved away from him, but his body slid into the space so that he was still touching me, so still, so dead. I started to get out from between them, but Nathaniel turned and wrapped his arms around me, trapping me between the two of them, pressing me more in against Damian's cold body. Not icy cold, but that bloodless, lifeless . . . My heart was speeding up; my pulse started to beat in my throat so that it felt like I was choking. I had to get out of this bed and away from the vampire.
I pushed against Nathaniel's arm, trying to get him to let go enough so that I could get up, but he did what he normally did. The more I struggled, the tighter he held on, making little protesting noises about warm, and sleepy, and not getting up. Normally it was cute, but not today.
"Nathaniel, let go!"
"Warm," he muttered, snuggling so tightly against me that I couldn't move, but me struggling to get away had made Damian's body slide heavier against me so that he was literally deadweight trapping me in the sheets. It threw me back to waking in a coffin with a vampire who planned on making me her servant when she rose for the night. I felt the bubbling weight of a scream. The fear was choking thick.
There was a knock on the door, and I screamed, a small yip of a scream but a scream. It startled Nathaniel enough that he let me go and rose to look at me. "What's wrong?"
"It's Nicky, Anita. Open the door now!"
He was picking up my fear. "I'm okay, Nicky. I'm just spooked."
"Let me in the room, or we'll be paying for a door."
"We're getting up," Nathaniel called, but he was looking at me. He whispered, "What's wrong?"
I shook my head and slid out of the bed. I was opening the door buck naked, when I realized there might be more people than just Nicky in the hallway. I was scared enough that I wasn't thinking clearly. What the hell was wrong with me?
"I need a robe," I said, moving back so that no one could see me at the door. I started to close it, but a hand stopped the door. "Everyone out here has seen you naked," Nicky said.
Dev said, "We have breakfast."
"And coffee," Domino said.
"Hell, why didn't you say so?" I tried for light, but it wasn't real. I was still scared as if we'd had another nightmare, but I didn't remember dreaming anything last night. I stepped back and let them into the room, using the door for my modesty, at least until the men had trooped inside. Then I had to close the door, and modesty wasn't actually possible.
Ethan managed not to stare at me at all, but he was the only one of the four men who managed it. Domino stared but managed not to ogle me. He was carrying the coffee, so I was all right with being stared at. Dev was cheerfully lecherous about it; his hands were full of trays of food. Nicky had more food in his hands, but he wasn't cheerful about it. He gave me a look that was so intense, it stripped his feelings as naked as my body. It made me go to him and try for a good morning kiss, but his hands were too full and I was too short.
Nathaniel got out of bed to help set up the food. Dev leered as cheerfully at Nathaniel as he had at me. They grinned at each other. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at them both.
I grabbed the hotel robe that was on the back of the bathroom door for our use, while the men set up breakfast on any flat surface they could find. "Boo on the robe," Dev said. "I wanted to leer at you both while we ate breakfast."
"Nothing personal to Nathaniel, but he can get dressed as far as I'm concerned," Domino said, smiling.
Nathaniel stuck his tongue out at him as he walked past them all for the bathroom. We had just woken up, but there were some things that I still didn't like to do as a couple, and one of them was bathroom stuff. I still preferred that to be private. I was pretty sure I always would.
"Where is everybody else?" I asked.
"Eating in the other rooms. There wasn't room for all of us to eat room service in any one room," Domino said.
"Did you have more bad dreams?" Ethan asked.
"You felt me be all scaredy-cat, too?"
"I don't pick up your emotions as strongly as Nicky does, or some of the other men, but I felt it this m
orning."
"No bad dreams. All of us sleeping together took care of it, but I just can't wake up beside one of my lovers feeling that much like a real corpse." I looked at Damian, who had collapsed into a still heap of paper white skin and crimson hair.
"You flash back on waking up in the coffin with the one vampire?" Nicky asked.
I nodded, shivering even in the thick white robe. Domino held out coffee to me. It made me smile. "Thanks."
He took his own coffee and let the others get their own. They'd wait on me, but not on one another, at least not outside of helping Nathaniel in the kitchen, but that was more family chores, not small romantic gestures. Bringing me coffee in the morning definitely got you a brownie point in my book.
My phone sounded with Edward's ringtone. I hurried, glad the coffee had a lid, as I went for my phone, which was still plugged into the wall. "Hey, Edward, what's up?"
"Roarke broke out of jail last night."
"How?"
"No one knows. He was just gone this morning."
"So he didn't break out. He walked out," I said.
"Security footage showed him mind-fucking one of the guards. Nothing in the research says that Selkies can do that."
"They can't, but I know that some animals to call and some human servants of a powerful enough vampire can capture someone with their gaze just like a vampire," I said.
He lowered his voice. "Speaking from experience?"
"Yeah."
"I'll tell the local guards and the Gardai," he said.
"I didn't know that Roarke could use his gaze like that, or I'd have warned someone. It's a really rare ability in an animal to call."
"I'll make sure that they know that," he said.
"Is there anything we can do to help? Do you need us at the jail?"
"Do you know how to track a Selkie? I guess Roane here."
"I don't have any seal lycanthropy in me or in anyone with me. It's not even lycanthropy. It's just what they are."
"They've got a BOLO out on Roarke with his picture to every Gardai in the area. If he's still in Dublin, maybe someone will see him and report it."
"You don't sound too optimistic."
"He mind-fucked personnel here at the jail like a master vampire, Anita. The Wicked Bitch didn't make him do all that without a plan to keep him hidden from us. She'll keep him close to her now."
Crimson Death Page 59