A Kiss of Blood: A Vamp City Novel (11 page)

“There are actually many races of demon,” Mukdalla added. “The Traders are just one, but the most common in Vamp City. The fae are another.”

“Fae,” Quinn murmured. “Fairies and demons. I suppose I shouldn’t feel shocked.”

“Humans always do when they first learn of the supernatural,” the other woman said kindly. “The best thing you can do is remember that we are all individuals with our own hopes, our own needs, and our own senses of right and wrong.”

“Don’t judge the book by the cover, you mean.”

“Yes. Exactly. But a healthy dose of wariness with those you don’t yet know—especially those more powerful than you—is a very good thing.”

Quinn turned back to her breakfast, and the conversation she’d interrupted with her arrival resumed, flowing around her. When she was finished eating, she rose. “Where should I take my plate?”

“Leave it.” Neo stood. “Come, Quinn. I have someone I want you to meet, then I want to show you something. As a scientist, I think you’ll find this of interest. As the sorceress, I want your reaction.”

He had her attention. Glancing down the hallway that led to their bedrooms, she saw no sign of Zack. Turning back, she followed Neo down a different hallway to a fully outfitted gym lit by oil lamps. The equipment, of course, was all of the nonelectrical variety—stationary bikes, NordicTrack skiers, weight benches. Half a dozen people were working out, four men and two women, all in shorts and T-shirts, a couple in bare feet.

“Jason,” Neo said, and one of the men lifting weights reset his weight bar and stood to quick attention, his bearing distinctly military.

Neo turned to Quinn. “This is Jason Grimes. Arturo asked me to find a trainer for Zack before he left this morning, and Jason has agreed to do it. Quinn Lennox,” he told Jason.

The man wiped his hand on his shorts and extended it to her. “Nice to meet you.”

Quinn sized up the man, liking the kindness she saw in his eyes. “Zack . . .”

Jason nodded. “Arturo talked to me about him before he left, that he’s untrained and very down on himself for not being able to protect the women he loves.” Something hard and pained moved through his eyes. “My wife and I were captured together over a year ago. I didn’t stand a chance against those fuckers . . . pardon me, ma’am . . . and we were separated.” Emotion tightened his features, and he looked away for a moment, gathering himself. When he turned back, fire burned in his eyes, but also compassion. “I’m an ex-Marine, ma’am. I understand the Marine way of training raw recruits. Your brother does not qualify for such a method. He’s already been to Hell and back. What he needs now is a return of his dignity and the tools to take control the next time. As much as any human is able against the immortals. I’m happy to help him with that.”

“Thank you, Jason.”

As Neo turned away, Quinn followed him back through the main room and down yet another spoke of the wheel of the sprawling safe-house underground. “Was Jason’s wife killed?”

“He doesn’t know. He’s been all over this city, slave to three different vampires, but he’s never found any sign of her. I keep offering to get him out of V.C., but he refuses to go without her even though he must know she’s probably dead. We’re looking for her, too, now. At the moment, he’s being forced to keep a low profile.” Neo snorted. “He took out nearly a dozen vamps in his escape from his last master.”

“How long does he have before he turns Slava and is stuck here for good?”

“Six months at best. Honestly, I doubt he’ll leave even then. Not without her.”

She ached for the man. “Love can be a terrible burden sometimes, can’t it?”

“It can. You’ve risked much to save your brother.” Neo turned, studying her as they walked, a smile breaching his face. “You’re not what I expected, sorceress.”

Quinn peered at him. “Why? Were you expecting me to show up in flowing black robes with a wand in my hand?” She meant for the comment to be light, and failed. She’d never been comfortable with what she was, and she didn’t like that everyone here knew.

“I meant no disrespect, Quinn,” Neo said softly, the smile dying from his eyes.

Quinn sighed. “I know. I didn’t mean it the way it came out. I just . . . I don’t think of myself as a sorceress.”

He nodded, understanding in his eyes. “It’s hard to change your self-image overnight. Been there, done that.”

She peered at him. “Is that what happened to you when you became a vampire?”

“It is. As I told you, I was a slave here for years. I
hated
the vampires.”

“Yet you became one.”

“Not by will, I assure you. The one who turned me did so just to infuriate me . . . or kill me. Most who are turned don’t survive. But I did. And the first thing I did was kill him for it.”

“Have you killed . . . others? Humans?”

“No, though it was a near thing a couple of times.”

“You have more self-control than most.”

“Either that, or I simply have more passion for my self-professed calling.”

“Saving people.”

“Giving them the freedom to return to their world, to the sunshine, as I so desperately fought . . . and failed . . . to do myself. It feels like a losing proposition, sometimes. For every human I free, other vamps and Traders bring in two more. But I feel like I thwart the grand scheme with every person I get out of here. And I never tire of watching the joy and tears in the eyes of those I help send home.”

Quinn nodded. “I get that. I freed half a dozen slaves through a sunbeam a few weeks ago.” She thought of Marcus and the others she’d handed out of Vamp City that day. Soon after escaping with Zack, she’d looked up Marcus and spoken with his wife on the phone, who’d burst into tears of gratitude when she’d told her who she was. Marcus had wanted her to come meet his wife and daughter, and she’d promised to. Sometime. Now she wondered if she ever would. His wife had told her they’d all made it out safely. Celeste, who’d been a newly turned Slava, had had a heart attack as she’d traveled through, but Marcus was trained in CPR and had been able to get her heart beating again. She was fine. Her hair had even turned back to normal.

Apparently, Slavas reverted to their true age upon leaving VC. That sudden aging, even if they weren’t too old to live, tended to kill them. Celeste had only been immortal for a year, and, still, without Marcus’s intervention, she’d have died.

Neo watched her with interest. “You clearly have power, to be able to free slaves through a sunbeam, Quinn.”

Her mouth twisted. “Someday I’m going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

“It will happen,” he said kindly. “You’ve not yet come to terms with it. You’ve not yet embraced it.”

“I’ve spent too many years hating it. Have you come to terms with being a vampire?”

“I have.”

She looked at him with surprise and was met with a quick grin. “I’ve learned to appreciate the benefits of incredible strength and speed, of never suffering pain or injury for more than minutes at a time. And to appreciate the fact that I never age. Immortality is a gift, Quinn. One I never asked for, but one I have come to enjoy. Once you learn to control it, your power will be a gift to you.”

He was an interesting man, Neo. She felt comfortable with him. “Don’t you miss the sun?”

“I do, though I’ve found ways around it. Until the magic began to fail and I became trapped, I used to frequent the movie theater in Georgetown on a regular basis. In the dark safety of that theater, with the films rolling, I could immerse myself in your world and pretend I lived once more in the sun. It might have been a false, Hollywood sun, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I miss it.”

She followed him into a large storage room at the end of one of the tunnels. A deserted room far from anyone else. Neo seemed nice enough, but he was still a vampire. And she suddenly wondered if anyone would hear if she shouted for help.

“You’re in no danger, Quinn,” Neo chided softly. “I wish only to show you something that you’ll find interesting.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“Perhaps not. But your tension has risen.”

“You can feel it.”

“A little. I’m very sensitive in that way, able to feed off of almost any wariness. That’s why I have so little need to cause true fear. Everyone who comes here is at least wary. Most are thoroughly terrified.” He looked at her evenly. “If you’d rather wait for Arturo or Micah, I’m fine with that. But there’s something I need you to hear. I believe there’s a permanent break in the worlds down here.”

She met his gaze and saw no subterfuge. And at the high peel of childish laughter deep within the storeroom, her eyes widened and she motioned Neo to lead the way through the stacks and stacks of boxes that appeared to fill the room. As they walked, the music carried to them, followed by voices.

But when they turned the final corner, there was no one there.

Neo smiled with bemusement and drew his finger to his lips.

As she listened, she realized the music was a children’s tune on television. Overlaying it were the voices of children. And a woman.

“Are you finished with your cereal? Aidan, where’s your vitamin? Did you eat your vitamin?”

A little girl piped up. “He fed it to the roses.”

“Aidan . . . did you put your vitamin in Mommy’s rose vase again?
Son . . .”

Quinn smiled, meeting Neo’s gaze, a hundred questions on her tongue. Neo escorted her back through the path of boxes until they could talk quietly without being overheard.

“I hear them regularly when I’m in here. We all do. Since you can travel out through sunbeams, I was wondering if you can find a way through there. If you can, it would save us untold efforts in getting slaves out through the Boundary Circle though I imagine Aidan’s mother would have a heart attack.”

“Let me see if I can find anything.” Quinn retraced her steps, following the sound of the television show, but though she searched, she could see no sign of the break and no way to breach it. And she should be able to, even inside.

“No go,” she whispered, shaking her head.

Neo shrugged. “It was worth a try.” He smiled. “That kid entertains me. You should hear the places Aidan’s stashed his green beans.”

They started back, but had gone only a few yards when the floor began to shake suddenly and violently. The boxes stacked high on either side of them began to wobble and rock. And they began to fall.

Neo grabbed her, curving around her as cans of food rained down on top of them. One can clipped her on the elbow, another on the foot, smarting. Finally, after more than a dozen seconds, the quaking stopped.

Neo pulled back, looking down at her without letting her go. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “A sunbeam.”

“Yes.”

And Arturo was out there, somewhere.

“Mommy?” The voice of the little girl—Aidan’s sister? She didn’t sound scared, but annoyed. “Mommy! Aidan dumped rice in the fish bowl.”

Neo’s eyes lit with laughter. “That kid’s got a food fetish.”

Quinn laughed quietly, meeting Neo’s warm gaze. She liked this vampire.

He tensed suddenly, releasing her slowly. She straightened and turned to find the source of Neo’s tension. Arturo stood in the path, his eyes hard as flint.

He was jealous and he had no right to be. And no reason.

“Vampire,” she said coolly, and started toward him. “Neo just saved me from being crushed by cans of food. How’s Cristoff?”

As she started to brush past him, he took her arm lightly, but possessivley, his eyes shifting toward Neo, a warning in their depths. “We’ll discuss it later. It is time we left for Tarellia’s.”

Men and their pissing contests.

“Release me, Vampire,” she said quietly as they headed back to the hallway.

Instead, his grip on her arm turned to a light caress. “I heard the crash,
tesoro mio.
I feared you would be injured.”

He’d come to save the day and found another male had done so already.

Her pique with him dissipated and she turned to him with a sigh. “Thank you for coming to my rescue, Vampire, even if it wasn’t needed.”

His eyes warmed. His cool hand slid down her arm, his fingers sliding between hers.

Oh, Vampire, what am I going to do with you?

She gripped his hand in return.

Chapter Ten

A
s they reached the main room, Arturo turned Quinn to face him. “Your glamour has worn off.” He released her hand to touch her hair, his fingers lifting a lock and letting it slide through his fingers. “Micah will have to repair your glamour before we leave. I shall let him know.” He looked unhappy, but she sensed his mood had little to do with her glamour. Or finding her with Neo, for that matter. And everything to do with Cristoff.

“You haven’t told me how your visit went this morning.”

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were filled with shadows and she knew her instincts were right. “He is not the man I knew.”

“What does he think happened to me?”

“He believes what I have told him—that Ivan took you into D.C. and that I am looking for you and will return you to him as I did before.” He lifted a lock of her hair again, then dropped it, pinning her with a gaze that glowed with fervor. “He will never get near you again.”

Neo caught up with them, and Arturo glanced up, his jaw hardening. “We will leave in an hour,
cara mia.
Get some breakfast if you have not already done so.”

Moments later, she rapped softly on Zack’s door. When he didn’t answer, she opened the door to find him still sound asleep. “Zack.”

Her brother blinked, his eyes opening slowly. “What’s the matter? What time is it?”

“We’re in Vamp City. Time doesn’t matter, but breakfast is going to be gone if you don’t get out there soon.”

To her amused relief, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and shoved himself to his feet without hesitation. “Where?”

“The same place as last night.” But when he would have brushed past her to escape the room, she blocked his way. “Hold on a minute.”

She pressed her hand to his forehead, beneath his mop of red curls. He felt hot to the touch. Definitely feverish. Fear curled in her stomach. “How do you feel?”

“Hungry.”

With a roll of her eyes, Quinn stepped back. “Go eat.” But as Zack hurried out of the room, Quinn watched him with worried eyes, then followed more slowly. In the main room, she grabbed a cup of coffee as he filled a plate to overflowing, then joined him at the now-empty table.

Briefly, she told Zack about the trip to the fae’s. She’d expected him to take her explanation with his usual equanimity, but he turned to her with stubborn eyes.

“I’m going with you.”

“I suggested that to Arturo. But he feels that the more of us who go, the more attention we’ll draw. Two of us can get in and out of there safer than three.”

Zack’s mouth tightened, a flash of self-loathing crossing his face as his shoulders slumped. Without another word, he went back to eating.

Quinn’s heart clenched. He’d be of no help protecting any of them, including himself, and they both knew it.

Her brother was on his second helping of everything when Jason walked in. The ex-Marine poured himself a tall glass of water and joined them.

“Is this Zack?” he asked.

Quinn introduced them. “Jason’s offered to . . .” She wasn’t sure how to put it.
Train you? Whip you into shape?

“Your sister tells me you’d like some fighting tips. A few basic moves anyone can use.”

Zack glanced up, his eyes sharp and angry, before returning to his meal. He must see this as one more blow to his already battered pride.

“Nothing crazy,” Jason assured him. “I can show you the workout equipment they have here. It’s a pretty impressive assortment, considering where we are. And I can give you some basic exercises to get you started. But first we’ll warm up together and work on a few basic defensive moves. Not right away. You need a chance to digest your breakfast first. Maybe in an hour?”

Zack nodded without looking up.

Quinn met Jason’s gaze with apology in her eyes, but he waved it away.

“We’ll go at whatever speed you’re comfortable with, Zack,” Jason said as he rose again. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

“Thanks, Jason,” Quinn said. When he’d left, she watched her brother. “You’re stronger than you think.”

Zack made no indication he’d heard her. Or believed her.

A short while later, Neo, Arturo, and Micah walked in.

Quinn looked up. “Time to go?”

“Not yet. You need your glamour renewed.”

Micah gave a huff. “Everyone wants a say this time. Apparently, they weren’t impressed with my last effort.”

He sounded so put out she had to bite back a smile. She rose and squeezed Zack’s shoulder. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

But as she started to turn away, she felt her arm snagged by a gentle, overwarm hand and turned to meet her brother’s soft gaze.

“Be careful, sis.”

She covered his hand with her free one, love welling up thick inside of her. “I will. Don’t forget Jason.”

“I won’t.”

He let her go, and she crossed the room to join the three males. The three vampires.

As they headed down a different hallway from where she’d slept last night, Arturo slid his hand under her hair to cup the back of her neck in a decidedly possessive move. Staking his territory. She met his gaze, warning him silently to cut the he-man theatrics. She expected to see a flash of the charmer, the vampire who cajoled and seduced. But no light entered those dark eyes. His grip on her neck tightened fractionally, as if resisting her demand, before letting go.

They entered a small sitting room, one as spartan as the bedrooms, though instead of a bed and nightstand, this one sported two dark gray sofas at right angles and a smattering of end and coffee tables.

Micah lit the oil lamp on one of the end tables, then closed the door. “We don’t need an audience for this.”

Quinn glanced first at Arturo, then at Neo. “Looks like we’ve got one anyway.”

“Make her a redhead,” Neo said. “I’ve always been partial to redheads.”

Arturo sent him a scathing look. “I want her skin and hair dark. Perhaps she’ll not stand out like a diamond in the twilight.”

Micah threw his friend a ribbing look. “That was poetic, Ax. I’m impressed.” He turned to her, humor still lighting his eyes. “Do you have a preference, Quinn? A favorite actress, though I won’t copy her exactly. You’d only draw more attention that way, not less.”

She started to shake her head, then glanced at Neo, considering. “Can you make me look like Neo’s sister?”

Neo looked surprised but pleased.

Arturo scowled.

Micah grinned. “That I can do.” Like before, he closed his eyes, lifted his hands, and touched her cheeks with his fingertips, stroking them with the pads of his thumbs and the barest of touches. Her flesh began to tingle, the sensation spreading along her scalp and neck, then down into her body, as before. Finally, he opened his eyes, the grin spreading across his face slowly.

“Damn, Neo,” Micah said. “You make a stunning woman.”

Neo snorted. Arturo’s scowl only deepened.

“I need a mirror,” Quinn said.

“Mukdalla has one.” Neo led her from the room and down two more, Micah close behind, Arturo following more slowly. When Neo’s quick rap went unanswered, he opened the door, lit a candle in a holder by the bed and lifted a hand mirror on the bedside table, handing it to Quinn.

She took it gingerly, then stared at a woman who was, as Micah said, rather stunning. A woman who in no way resembled her, except for the green eyes.

Quinn set the mirror back on the bedside table, then turned fully to Arturo, who watched her from the doorway. “What do you think?”

He frowned. “It is not a look I would have chosen.”

“You have to admit,” Neo murmured with a chuckle, winking at her, “I do make a fine-looking woman. Though it’s your own beautiful eyes, Quinn, that steal the breath.”

Was Neo intentionally poking the tiger? Served Arturo right. But the temperature in the room dropped a good ten degrees as Arturo’s eyes turned glacial. If they got into a fight over this, she was going to be pissed as hell.

“It’s time to go,” Arturo snapped, then turned and walked away.

Quinn rolled her eyes with exasperation and followed him out. She needed to say good-bye to her brother, first, but when she reached the main room, she saw no sign of him. As she started toward the gym, Arturo suddenly appeared out of nowhere, blocking her way.

“You will come, sorceress. Now.”

She just stared at him, her anger sparking. “I’ll join you in three minutes after I’ve told Zack I’m leaving.” What was the matter with him? If this was about her new look . . . Heaven help them both. He’d better get used to it, or she was going to end up staking him before the day was out.

Turning her back on him, she strode down the hall to the gym, glad to find Jason showing Zack how to block a punch. Zack appeared interested and engaged, and that’s all she could ask for. Jason glanced at her standing in the doorway, and Zack did the same, both without a hint of recognition. Of course they wouldn’t know who she was beneath the glamour. She kept forgetting what she looked like.

Instead of introducing herself, she turned away and went to rejoin the vampire, who’d begun to act more like a lion with a thorn in his paw. She found him waiting impatiently by the stairs just as Micah joined him.

She turned to Micah. “Will you let Zack know we left, please?”

“Sure, Quinn.” He accompanied them upstairs and opened the back door for them. “Be good, kids,” he quipped. “No fighting, and be home in time for dinner. Call if you’re going to be late.”

Quinn snorted. Arturo ignored his friend as he ushered her out the door and into the dusky twilight of a Vamp City day.

“Where are the horses?” Quinn asked as they started walking away from the house.

“The barn.” His voice was sharp and cold, which just made her angry.

“What’s gotten into you?”

His mouth turned harder if such a thing were possible. “Neo oversteps. I do not want his hands on you.”

“They haven’t been!” They strode quickly toward the barn door, their strides fueled by their mutual anger. “He’s never made the slightest move on me, and if he did, it would be none of your business.”

Suddenly, her back was up against the wall, her body pinned by that of a furious vampire.

“It is my business.
You
are my business.” Arturo’s enunciation was slow and cold and dangerously precise. “You are mine, Quinn Lennox.
Mine.
”

She gaped at him, speechless. “I’m not your
slave.
I’ve never been your slave, and I’m never going to be!”

“Not my slave.” At her words, at her vehemence, his anger seemed to ease. He gripped her jaw with long, cool fingers. She tried to jerk away, but he held her fast. His voice lowered, softened. “You are mine,
cara.
The sunshine that warms my flesh. My sunlight.” His hold on her jaw tightened, though not unduly so. His expression grew tormented. “Do you have any idea how much I want you? Yet I do not push you. You have lost your faith in me. You are angry with me for handing you over to Cristoff and,
dio
Quinn,
you have a right to be.
”

He released her suddenly, turning away, running a hand through his hair. “The things I saw today . . .” His voice was low with anguish. “I have watched his atrocities for months,
years,
and felt too little. Felt
nothing.
”

Quinn stared at him, her own anger slipping away as she realized how shaken he really was. This wasn’t about Neo. This was about Cristoff.

“What happened at Gonzaga Castle this morning, Arturo?” she asked quietly. Not that she really wanted to know. She didn’t.

When he didn’t answer, she reached for him, sliding her hand down his back. She felt him tense and shudder. Slowly, he turned back to face her, his expression revealing little, but his eyes burned.

He took her face in his hands. “He will never touch you again. I vow it.” His shoulders sank, his forehead tipping against hers. “
Mio dio.
You’ve changed me,
cara.
I cannot decide if I should thank you or hate you for it.”

“Micah’s glad.”

“Yes. As am I.” One of his hands began to stroke her hair.

“Does my hair feel different? Like Neo’s hair?”

He pulled back and smiled, though the smile only briefly reached his eyes. “No. The glamour is nothing but illusion. It is your silky hair I feel.” His knuckles brushed her cheek. “Your soft skin. Your scent that I smell.” He leaned in to briefly press his lips to forehead. “You that I taste.”

Slowly, he pulled away. “Come.” He held out his hand to her. “I will endeavor to be less of an ass.”

She grinned at him and slipped her hand in his. “That’s all I ever ask.”

The smile he gave her was soft but still filled with shadows.

“I’m sorry, Vampire. Sorry for what you’ve lost. It’s incomprehensible to me that Cristoff could have ever been a good man, but I’ve only ever known the monster. It must be very hard to watch a friend lose his soul.”

He lifted their joined hands and brushed a kiss over her knuckles. “I believe I now understand the frustration and sorrow I’ve witnessed in the eyes of my own friends too often these past couple of years. While my soul was not fully compromised, neither was I unaffected. I was not the man they knew.”

“And now you are again.”

“I hope so.”

And how could he know for certain when he hadn’t realized he’d changed in the first place? she wondered. But unless he was playing them all, he had absolutely changed. For the better.

“I like the real you, Arturo.”

She glanced at him and caught the smile light his eyes. “I like you, too, Quinn.” He squeezed her hand. “Let us get this errand over and done with so that we might return to Neo’s before lunchtime.”

“I’m all for that.”

He pulled something out of his pocket with his free hand and proffered a roll of SweetTarts. His weakness, she remembered. With a smile, she took one and popped the tart candy into her mouth.

If she wasn’t very, very careful, she could be in danger of liking this vampire entirely too much.