“Oh yes,” Calvin said. “But Derek has bitten you. He told us.” He threw an approving smile at Derek, like one a father might give his son when he won a soccer game. “A viran’s bite cannot be so different from a vampire.”
“It—it feels like a bite,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t want to admit that it was pretty much the best feeling in the entire world.
“Oh, come now,” Calvin coaxed. His voice was soft and slippery as butter. “You must be more descriptive than that.”
I glanced around nervously and saw that the entire hot tub had gone silent. Only the bubbling of the water and the soft lull of music floated through the air. They were all staring at me, even Derek.
“I was mostly just scared,” I muttered.
Derek looked away, shame raking through his vibe.
“Of what?” Calvin pried.
I bit my bottom lip, wishing the subject would change. But the vampires seemed genuinely interested in this. It was so weird. Maybe they got off on talking about it.
“I was scared that—that he would take too much and kill me.”
Derek’s profile crumbled into a grimace, but he remained silent.
“And when he pulled,” Calvin said eagerly. “What then? Only fear, or was there ... something else?”
I drew in a shuddery breath. It was like they
knew
I was holding something back. But how could they know that?
“It wasn’t bad,” I admitted finally.
“Good?” Derek asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Melissa’s face ripped into a grin. “The dog girl likes to be sucked!” she shrieked wildly.
I glared off into the distance, hating Melissa. Hating Calvin. Hating myself because her words were true.
Calvin splashed Melissa, and she quieted, stroking her pet’s wrist as if she was about to start drinking from him again.
“Do you?” Calvin asked. “Do you like it?”
Derek cut in, saving me.
“She doesn’t want to talk about it,” he said. “Lay off.”
Calvin straightened and a sound bubbled in his throat as he glowered at Derek.
Derek didn’t back down, and soon Calvin dissolved into his debonair self. “I think it is clear that the experience was not displeasing. I daresay she might have enjoyed it, but that remains to be seen.”
Melissa scoffed. “Does it matter? That whole thing is so idiotic anyway. You men and your libidos.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Melissa licked her pet’s wrist obscenely and said, “The male vampires have this ...
other
need. You know the one I’m talking about?” She leaned in and winked slyly.
Oh . . .
that
need.
She smiled. “Something to do with how the magic reacts to the testosterone or whatever. They keep their sexual desire and we don’t.” She waved her hand around idly as if that was all irrelevant, but I found myself thinking that was totally unfair. Why should the male vampires be the only ones to have sex?
“But anyway,” Melissa continued, “that particular need is too closely related to the blood crave, so it’s too hard for them to do it without killing every girl they f—”
“Melissa!” Calvin cut in, standing up suddenly. “That is enough.”
“What?” she said. “It’s true. You all just can’t get over it. Like it’s such a big deal. The feel of a freshly deceased corpse around your lips is twice as good as any of that.” She rubbed her teeth along her pet’s arm and he flinched. “As if any human would want to do it with you if they knew the truth anyway. What human wants a dead guy to sleep with?”
Calvin sat down again, his back stiff.
“Melissa,” Silas warned, his deep voice rolling through the night.
She snickered viciously. “And they don’t want
us
,” she went on, looking at me with a coy smile on her flawless lips. “The girl vampires, I mean. Like we want them either.” She made a gagging motion with her finger. “They only want the warmth of a human body so they can feel close to the living again.”
Calvin looked as though he was about to rip Melissa’s head off. “That’s not true,” he ground out, though his vibe proved to the contrary.
“Methinks thou dost protest too much,” Melissa sang.
Silence stretched through the hot tub until finally, Calvin turned to Derek, seeming to have quelled his anger with Melissa. “Have you given any thought to what we spoke about the other night?”
Derek’s throat moved as he swallowed.
“I . . . I’m still thinking,” he said after a long while.
“Well, you’d do well to speed it up,” Calvin said briskly. “With our numbers growing so rapidly, the death toll on the humans is becoming increasingly noticeable. We don’t have much time left.”
Whoa. Were they talking about the murders? And what did Derek have to do with that? I was about to ask, when Calvin and Silas began an exchange in some other language, which ended in Calvin shouting, “The Ancestors won’t do a thing, Silas! They encourage it!”
“Ancestors?” I jumped in. “Who are they?”
“Hmm,” Calvin hummed speculatively. “It seems the dog girl is not all-knowing after all.”
“I never said I was,” I said. “But I am curious. Are they, like, your sires?”
“In a way,” Calvin said. “It is said that the Ancestors are the very first vampires. That their blood began the vampire race as we know it today. They are indeed ancient, but there is no way to tell if they are the first. Vampire lore says that we are all connected, that we all came from the Ancestors—hence their name.” Calvin’s tone was skeptical and I got the feeling he didn’t believe.
“You don’t think so?” I asked.
Calvin let out a puff of laughter. “Hardly.”
“That’s treason,” Silas said at once, his dark eyes blazing. “They are the one true authority.” He turned on me. “No one crosses them.”
“They’re lunatics,” Calvin said dismissively. “Don’t look at me that way, Silas, you know what happens when we age. Soon we will all meet the same fate as the Ancestors. We will lose ourselves entirely. It is a fate we must all accept. But pretending like the Ancestors are above that end is naïve. They have lost all ability to think or rationalize. Yet those of you who follow the old ways still think they’re competent rulers.”
“They
are
competent,” Silas argued. “Their word is law.”
“And when was the last time they made a law, hmm? Last I checked they remained sequestered in their
palace
in Florida, eating tourists.”
“Florida?” I asked, thrown. That was the last place I would have expected. I would have pinned them for Romania or Iceland or somewhere chilly and barren.
Calvin turned back to me as if surprised I was still there. “Indeed. Vampires don’t care for the cold.”
I let out a skeptical sniff. “So what are you doing in Colorado? It’s freezing here.”
“I said we don’t care for it, not that we won’t endure it. Many do, but the older we become, the harsher it is on our bodies. With the Ancestors’ ages raging from two to three thousand years old, naturally, they would choose to live in a warm climate. With Florida’s tourist sites, they get many victims coming right to them. They hardly even hunt anymore—just wait for their prey to come to them. They are mindless shells.”
“Treason,” Silas mumbled.
“Maybe,” Calvin said. “But Arabella agrees with me. This scheme they’ve cooked up is ludicrous. It will never work. We don’t have nearly enough numbers, and we never will what with the precautions we have to take for the younglings. We have to find a way to—”
“
Stilte!
” Silas said suddenly. He continued speaking in whatever language that was, and I turned my power on high to try and get a clue to what they were talking about. Calvin’s emotions burned hotter and hotter until I was sure the tub was filled with lava, and then it extinguished abruptly.
“Fine,” Calvin mumbled. “But you know I’m right. And so does Arabella.”
“You are sadly mistaken in that,” Silas said. “Arabella’s only use of the stuff is for the younglings.”
“She
would
tell you that because of your support of the Ancestors.”
“And she would tell you the opposite because you doubt them. She manipulates everyone. Do not be so foolish to think she cares for your opinion.”
“She’s my sire,” Calvin hissed. “She cares for me more than any other being.”
“Foolish,” Silas repeated softly.
The hot tub fell silent.
That was weird. What stuff? What younglings? And who was Arabella? I was so acutely curious over what had been said there—or
not
said—that I almost brought the subject back up.
But I never got the chance.
There was a gasp from Melissa’s end of the tub. I looked over and almost puked. Melissa had punctured her pet’s wrist with her teeth and was sucking greedily from the wound. Horrible scarlet blood leaked out of the corners of her perfect mouth and snaked through the hot tub, turning the water frothy and pink. Calvin and Silas glanced at each other and then shrugged. They pounced on the body to enjoy the feast as well.
I vaulted to my feet and tried very hard not to scream. Derek stood and yanked me out of the tub. I struggled against him, afraid that he would bite me. He started to scoop me up, but then Calvin unlatched from Melissa’s dead pet. He turned to us, blood dripping down his chin.
“Leaving so soon?” he asked.
23
ULTIMATUM
C
alvin was on us in a millisecond and then I
did
scream—a high bloodcurdling scream that even made my skin crawl. Derek’s body vibrated with the change, and he held me so closely I swore I was melting into his body.
“No,” he said forcefully. “No one bites her but me.”
I didn’t know if I agreed with that exactly, but I was definitely willing to negotiate right then.
Calvin’s eyes were black with the crave. “Just a pull,” he said. “The man was sour. He left such a nasty taste.”
“No one touches her!”
Melissa stepped out of the pool—totally naked—and skipped over, clapping her hands like a two-year-old at Toys“R”Us.
“Me first, me first!”
Only Silas remained in the red tub.
“He said no,” Silas said dully. “Leave the kid alone.”
Thank you, Silas!
But Calvin’s crave was too strong for him to listen. He reached around Derek and snatched up my wrist with unearthly speed. He was centimeters away from biting me when Silas knocked Calvin back, and Derek trembled violently.
“He’s gonna change!” Melissa yelled, pointing at Derek and backing up. “I’m getting out of here!”
She zipped back inside, shattering the French doors as they slammed shut behind her. I jumped at the sound and realized, yes, Derek was going to change.
I saw his fangs drop, and I dove to the side.
Calvin lunged for me, catching me while I was still airborne and rolling away with me pressed to his body. I screamed as his teeth gnashed together next to my ear. I struggled to push him away and then he was lifted off of me. I saw huge white paws on either side of my head and knew it was Derek. A shrill, almost hollow howl pierced the night.
I sat up and saw Silas staring straight at me with this creepy, hungry look in his eyes. So much for leaving me alone. I struggled to stand, slipping on the now icy deck.
Calvin clawed at Derek, leaving red marks all over his muzzle. He squirmed out of Derek’s jaws and then flung himself onto Derek’s haunches to sink his fangs into his throat. Derek yowled in pain. The two of them tussled, while I began backing away, keeping my eyes locked tight on Silas.
Too bad I backed away into the hot tub. I plunged in and got all turned around with the bubbles and the terror. I couldn’t find my way up. Panic suffocated me . . . or maybe that was the water. I didn’t know. But I did know that I was going to drown if I didn’t figure out a way to the surface pretty damn soon.
Then something bumped into me. I looked up and saw Melissa’s dead pet floating in the water with me. I screamed, which is a bad idea to do underwater because once you scream, you have no more air left. I sucked in bloody water and flailed around uselessly.
A hand grabbed my shoulder and tugged me out of the water. I coughed and drew in a humongous breath. The hand that saved me spun me around, and my body went limp for an instant.
It was Silas.
I pushed against him, knowing that struggling was futile, but I was unable to just stand there and let him bite me.
“Stop—it!” I screamed, pushing against him with all my measly strength.
“No chance,” Silas said as his pupils widened.
Derek let out a loud frenzied bark that sounded very much like,
no!