Blood Crimes: Book One (4 page)

      “I really want to go riding with you,” she said with a half-pout. She looked up to meet his dead pale eyes and smiled in the well-practiced way she would with any other john. “I’ll make it worth your while tomorrow night if you take me.”

      “What? You’ve been holding out on me?”

      “No, I wouldn’t say that, but I’m sure I could come up with something creative if you gave me the proper incentive.”

      “We’ll see,” he said, his voice turning gruff. “How’s the milking? Any of them dried up?”

      “I’m still getting pints out of all them. This one’s been a stubborn fucker, though. It took me five minutes to find a vein.”

      
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etcalf looked down at the livestock. The near-ghost must’ve been a vagrant before he’d been picked up. His face was now as thin as a railroad spike, his beard sparse, his cheeks hollowed out and his eyes small as they remained buried within dark circles of ruined, grayish flesh. There wasn’t much left of him, another week or two of milking at the most.
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etcalf scanned the glass walls separating the cattle pens from the milking area and spotted several other livestock who looked like they were going to need replacing soon. He felt no emotion about it—to him they really were never anything more than livestock to feed off of and dispose. Whatever empathy a normal human being was born with had always been missing from his makeup. That part of him hadn’t changed because of the infection. He knew Vanessa was the same—that was really the thing about her that he had felt instantly attracted to even if he didn’t understand it at the time, and it was why he’d been feeling more of a bond with her. It was also why she was the only member of the staff that he still had assigned to milking. The compassion that the other vampires showed the livestock made him sick. Because of this growing bond he’d been considering moving her to the main house permanently. It seemed to make sense, and besides, she was far better at sex than the other female vampires. Even before he brought her back to the compound, he’d been gradually losing interest in the others. Their constant sadness was becoming a real turn-off.

      “We’re going to need to restock some of them soon,” Vanessa said. She hesitated for a moment, then somewhat boldly asked, “
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aybe I can go with you?”

      He nodded. These disposables were so damn plentiful in LA—picking them up was like shopping for a carton of eggs at the supermarket. So, why not.

      “It’s an idea,” he agreed.

      That brightened her up. The pint bag had filled. She pulled the needle from the livestock’s arm. His face screwed up for a moment as if he were going to start bawling, but he controlled himself and instead rubbed his arm as he walked lifelessly back to his pen. Vanessa handed the pint bag to
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etcalf. He made it a habit of having a freshly drawn pint when he entered the compound each morning. The sweetness of the blood—at least to his taste—seemed to degrade quickly, usually within minutes of being taken. He squeezed the blood into his mouth as if it were a pouch of wine. During the course of the day he would consume another six pints, and while it would leave him craving more, it would provide him the energy he needed. What he wouldn’t give to be able to eat a steak instead. Or a rack of ribs. Or a pint of ale. Jesus, just the thought of a warm pint of Guiness made his mouth water. But for the time being this was what he was stuck with.

      “Do you want another pint?” Vanessa asked eagerly. “I still have a dozen more to milk. If you’d like to wait…”

      He shook his head. “Not right now.”

      “But you will take me riding later?”

      “Yeah, I will.”

      “And when you pick out more livestock?”

      “You’ll come along.” He looked away from her. “I’m thinking of other changes.
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aybe moving you into the main house permanently.”

      Her face flushed a light pink with the news. Without a word she crouched so that she was nearly sitting on her heels, then undid the zipper of his chinos and pleasured him with her lips and tongue. The fact that the livestock might’ve been watching was of no consequence to her, nor for him. The fact that she looked at them the same as he did excited him. When she was done she wiped her mouth and asked him whether she could move to the house that night.

      “Let me think about it.” He fingered his scar as he considered her. “You’re still going to be assigned to the milking.”

      “That’s okay. I kind of like it.”

      “And you know what will happen if you cause any problems?”

      “I won’t cause any problems.”

      His eyes held steady on hers.

      “I have a spot in my lab reserved for you if needed,” he said.

      “I know that.”

      He zipped up and told her to finish her milking, that they’d talk more later. He watched as Vanessa took another of the livestock—a teenage girl whom
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etcalf vaguely remembered picking up months earlier while she was hitchhiking. The girl now looked haggard and had aged well beyond her years. She would need replacing soon also.
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etcalf watched for a minute as Vanessa probed several times for a vein within the teenage girl’s withered arm before hitting pay dirt. Once the blood was draining into the plastic bag, he left to check on more of the staff.

      Juliet and
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aritza were working in the kitchen preparing oatmeal for the livestock. Juliet had been a pert blonde with a slender athletic body before her infection,
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aritza a dark-haired illegal whom
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etcalf had found living out of a back seat of a rusted-out Dodge Polaris. Both of them had since let their hair go white with seemingly no interest in dyeing it. In both cases their tits had shrunk up even smaller than Vanessa’s. With Juliet, the infection had narrowed her body to the point where she looked more like a teenage boy than a woman, and her arms had become almost like gristle. Before her infection,
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aritza could’ve passed for Eva Longoria’s younger sister. Now she looked like an old woman.
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etcalf didn’t like the fact that neither of them were even making a pretense of keeping up their appearance, and was thinking that if this continued their roles within the compound were going to be changing quickly. If they were complaining now with their saunas and swimming pools and large-screen home theatres, just wait. They didn’t have an inkling what hell really was.

      Juliet heard him approaching and gave him a slow disapproving look.
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aritza didn’t bother acknowledging his presence.
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aking a face, Juliet said, “If we gave them some meat occasionally, maybe they wouldn’t get so anemic so fast.
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aybe they’d be able to last longer.”

      
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etcalf forced a smile.

      “Fuck that. If I can’t eat steak, neither can they.”

      “I’m just saying—”

      “Your suggestion is noted. Okay?”

      Juliet’s brow furrowed, her eyes turning to hard angry slits.

      “I’m just trying to be practical,” she said. “They need more iron in their diet. It doesn’t have to be steak. We could feed them liver.”

      
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etcalf stared coldly at her. Without being aware of it he was clenching and unclenching his hands, the annoyance building up in him.
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onths earlier he had given in and started buying them bushels of apples because Juliet claimed they needed the extra vitamins. He figured he’d be magnanimous—if he were willing to feed his horses that, then okay, he’d feed the livestock the same. Oats and apples, a few carrots. But this was fucking ridiculous.
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aybe before being infected he wasn’t a big fan of liver, but he’d cut off his right hand now to be able to enjoy a plate of it with some bacon and onions.

      “What would be the point of having them last longer?” he asked, his tone artificially flat and even-keeled. “Would that be doing them any favors?”

      Juliet’s mouth closed as she tried to think of an argument.
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aritza stood quietly stirring the oatmeal, her eyes cast down and staring into nothingness.
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etcalf noted how she pretty much had the same look about her as the livestock.

      “I need to get outside,” Juliet muttered at last. “It’s been over four months…”

      
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etcalf saw nothing but a flash of red. He’d been hearing hints of her grumblings for a while now—and not just hers but others too—and this was the final straw. The red flashing inside his brain blew up into something raging. Deaf and dumb to her, he grabbed her by the wrist and jerked her off her feet.
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aritza started to cross herself but caught herself midway. She stared back into the pot and continued to blindly stir the oatmeal as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. In his mind’s eye,
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etcalf spat fire as he dragged Juliet out of the kitchen area and into the vampires’ housing quarters.

      “This isn’t fucking enough for you!” he roared, waving a hand at the Olympic-size swimming pool and three Jacuzzis that he dragged her past. She pleaded with him to stop but he didn’t hear her over the inferno burning inside him. He dragged her along the Italian marble tiles as if she were nothing but a bed sheet.

      “Everything I bought you fucking ingrates is top of the line!” he continued to roar as he dragged her through the gaming area which had a simulated golf course, two racquetball courts, ping-pong tables and pool tables. Several of the vampires were watching the movie Sideways on one of the large-screen home theatres and looked over with a mix of curiosity and alarm. None of them bothered to get involved. They knew better than to try to calm
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etcalf down.

      “There are people spending a grand a day to stay at spas not as nice as what I built for you fucking ingrates, but nothing’s ever enough, is it?”

      “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean anything—”

      “Shut up! You’re so fucking anxious to go outside, well fuck you, I’m taking you outside!”

      He bent her arms behind her back and dumped her on his shoulders, carrying her as if she were a sack of grain.
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oving fast, he ran through the compound and then out the titanium security door. Juliet was wailing, trying to fight back, but in the position she was in all she could do was kick harmlessly.
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etcalf raced up the stairs with her on his shoulders, and with the adrenaline pounding within him, lifted the concrete slab as if it were cardboard. With her still on his back, he sprinted through the barn, then dumped her outside. She had little protection other than a tee shirt and shorts, and the sunlight hit her hard. Within seconds she was writhing on the ground desperately trying to shield her face from the sun.
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etcalf ripped off the little clothing she had on and that left her shrieking. Every time she tried to get to her feet,
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etcalf kicked her back to the ground. After ten minutes of that she quit fighting and lay curled up in a fetal position, her thin leathery body wracked with sobs.
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etcalf slowly calmed down and became aware of where he was and what he was doing. He realized that there was a remote chance someone driving by with a pair of binoculars could spot them. While it was highly unlikely it wasn’t worth taking the risk. He flung Juliet over his shoulder and carried her into the barn and back to the compound. Vanessa was still milking the livestock and raised an eyebrow as he brushed past her. Whatever she said
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etcalf didn’t hear. He carried Juliet into the kitchen area and dumped her by
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aritza’s feet.

      “She finishes her shift or she becomes one of my private projects.
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ake it both of you. Understand?”

      
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aritza nodded, her face blanching to the same shade of white as her hair. She kneeled down and sprinkled water into the other vampire’s face to revive her. Juliet started to mutter gibberish, her eyes fluttering weakly, her mouth a gaping hole.
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etcalf watched disinterestedly. From his own experimentation he knew how painful unprotected exposure to the sun could be, but he also knew it caused no lasting damage. At one time he had taken several of his experiments to a remote area of the
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ojave Desert where he chained them spread eagle between cactuses. While
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etcalf spent twelve hours shielded by a tent, his experiments were left to wither under the full exposure of the desert sun. Over those twelve hours they all dried up like prunes, but feeding them an ounce of blood restored them back to their previous state. Throughout the twelve hours they howled as if their skin were being peeled off, but they survived it.

      If it had been any of the other vampires than Juliet giving him lip, he would’ve made them one of his private experiments. In her case, he’d give her this warning. She was well-liked among the other vampires, and it would cause more problems than it was worth if he acted too hastily with her. Besides, it never hurts to occasionally show one’s benevolent side.