Deathless (5 page)

“
You heard all that, of course?” she asked.

Rave nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

She looked down at the broken phone she still held in her hand and cursed herself for dropping it. Its memory held the number the man had called from, but the cell was useless. Now that she had recovered a bit, she wanted to call him back, to question him, to find out why he would make such a ridiculous claim, but she could not. He might even be trying to call her again right now. What would he think when he received no answer? What would he do next? She had no way of knowing.

“
I don’t know how or why, but I felt like it was trouble as soon as my phone rang,” she said. “But I never expected anything like this. Not in a million years. How could he claim to be my father? That’s ridiculous. My father lived with us until I was seven. What could this guy want?”

Rave shook his head. “I do not know. I wish I could help, but I don’t even know who my father is. It’s not the volkaane way.”

Leesa remembered Rave telling her about a volkaane mating ritual, when each female paired up with a male during a special festival held only every few decades. Any children that resulted were raised communally, not by their parents. Rave’s mentor Balin was the closest thing he had to a father. Leesa had met the old volkaane several times and liked him a lot.

“
I know,” Leesa said. “But I’m still glad you were here when it happened.”

“
Do you think there is any chance it could be true?”

Leesa thought for a moment. “A chance? I guess there’s always a chance. Maybe I was adopted—not all parents tell their adopted kids about it. Maybe mine didn’t tell me.” She did not really believe that, though.

“
No, I do not think so,” Rave said. “If that were true, how would you explain the taint of
grafhym
in your blood?”

Leesa had forgotten about that. Rave was right—her mom had to be her real mother. The chances of some other woman being bitten by a one-fang and giving a child up for adoption were too small to even be considered.

“
You’re right,” she said. “I guess that leaves only two possibilities. Either my mom had an affair, or the guy on the phone is lying.” She shook her head. “I just can’t see my mom having an affair, but I guess all kids probably think that about their moms. Who knows what she might have been like before the
grafhym
bit her? I’ve only known her as the timid, reclusive woman who kept insisting she was bitten by a one-fanged vampire.”

“
A story that turned out to be true, of course.” Rave took Leesa’s hands in his. “So, what are you going to do?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t see how I could possibly ask my mom about this, not after everything she’s been through.” Leesa shook her head and sighed. She was growing up fast, but this was not something she could imagine doing, not unless this thing turned out to be way more important than it seemed right now. The call had been troubling, sure, but it wasn’t worth risking her mom’s all too recent recovery.

“
What would I do, anyhow?” she said, more to herself than to Rave. “Say ‘by the way, Mom, did you sleep with someone besides Dad before you got pregnant with me?’ No way I could do that.”

A sudden thought hit her like a punch to the stomach. Could that be the reason her father found it so easy to leave his family, because his wife had cheated on him and he knew he wasn’t Leesa’s real father? Heck, maybe he wasn’t Bradley’s father, either. She would have to ask the caller about that, too, if she ever spoke to him again.

“
If the guy on the phone was lying,” Rave said, “that means he wants something from you.”

Leesa had already considered that. But what could he want? That had been one of the thousand or so questions whirling around inside her head a few minutes ago.

“
Yeah, but what? I don’t have anything anybody would want.” She thought about all the motives that drove people in stories she had read. “It’s not like I have any old manuscripts or magical jewelry lying around. I’m just an ordinary kid.”

Rave smiled. “We have already established you are far from ordinary, remember? Maybe it’s not about something you own, but something
about
you.”

Leesa had not considered that. “What could he want from me? My
grafhym
blood? Do you think he needs to keep a vampire away or something?”

“
I doubt that. The guy sounded like he’s been looking for you for awhile. If he wants something from you, I do not think it has anything to do with the
grafhym
.”

“
What, then? The
grafhym
blood is the only thing special about me.”

Rave wasn’t too certain about that, but he had nothing specific or concrete to offer, so he remained silent about it. “I do not know,” was all he said.

Leesa’s head was beginning to hurt. There was just not enough to go on. She certainly wasn’t going to risk upsetting her mother or Bradley by talking to them about it. They had both been through more than enough.

The guy on the phone had asked where she lived, which meant he had no idea where she was. She decided to try to keep it that way. When she got a new phone, she would get a new number as well. It wouldn’t be much of an inconvenience—only about a dozen people had her number anyhow. And now there would be one less.

“
Well, I’m not going to worry about it any longer. He doesn’t know where I live, and that’s how I like it.” Leesa looped her arms around Rave’s elbow and grinned. “And if he does find me, I’ve got a big strong boyfriend to protect me.”

Max barked, once. His big brown eyes were looking up at her.

Leesa smiled. “Okay, a big strong boyfriend and a really smart dog to protect me as well.”

Rave kissed her forehead. Of course he would protect her, with his life if need be, but what about when he wasn’t around? He wished they knew more about the caller and what he wanted. But they didn’t, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Having made up her mind, Leesa felt better. She did not have to worry about the guy for a while. All he had to go on was a phone number that no longer worked and was registered in San Diego. Maybe she wouldn’t even get another cell for awhile. After all, it wasn’t like she could call or text her boyfriend, like most girls could. And if her family needed to reach her when she was back at school, they could call the dorm.

Leesa smiled, pleased with the idea. No cell phone. She would just pretend she was a volkaane for awhile.

She had no way of knowing the consequences of the decision she had just made.

5. EDWINA

L
eesa was not the only one making an important decision. Thirty-some miles to the south and west, in a gigantic underground grotto that was home to a coven of more than three score vampires, a tall, slender female vampire named Edwina had also reached a decision.

For hundreds of years, the vampires have used the perpetual night of this deep cavern to avoid the hated sun and to remain hidden from the ever-growing human population as well. Cut eons ago under the tree-covered hills on the eastern side of the Connecticut River by a now vanished underground waterway, the cavern was the perfect hideaway. Thousands of hours of labor had gone into shaping the various chambers to suit the vampires’ needs—but what were hours, or even years, to the undead, who have eternity?

Until recently, Edwina had kept a captive feeder in the caverns, using him to slake her thirst for blood whenever she desired. Bradley had been taken from her by Stefan, however, to use as a bargaining chip in an unsuccessful attempt to make Leesa his consort. Edwina still seethed over the loss, especially with the growing
Destiratu
inflaming her thirst. Stefan was a member of the High Council, and she had been powerless to stop him. She burned to get back at him, but knew she must move carefully. Stefan was powerful, and he was a favorite of Ricard, Lord of the High Council, as well.

Edwina was one of the youngest vampires in the coven, and so among the more susceptible to the pull of
Destiratu
. But she also possessed a steely discipline that enabled her to resist the pull. She had been turned early in the Civil War, barely one hundred and fifty years ago. Those had been heady days—with so much death and carnage everywhere, vampires had been able to feed without worry, for what mattered a few more corpses among the thousands strewn about the land? She had hunted the hills and woods of Virginia with Vanina, the vampire who had turned her, learning from her and thrilling to her own newfound powers and the exquisite taste of fresh, hot blood. But Vanina had fallen to an angry mob—beheaded by a soldier’s sword—shortly after the war’s end. Without her mentor and companion, Edwina drifted north. Still too new a vampire to turn a victim, she left a trail of bloodless bodies behind her.

As the years passed and the human population grew, she learned to become more careful, for even a vampire could fall prey to a large enough mob, especially as the weapons of the humans became more deadly. Eventually, she had reached Connecticut and fallen in with her present coven.

Among the entire coven, Edwina was the one who blended in most easily among the humans. Her complexion was darker than those of her brethren, courtesy of her maternal grandmother, who had been a plantation slave. While her pale skinned fellows needed to masquerade as goths or emos to mingle openly with humans, Edwinas’s darker skin let her dress and act more or less as she wished. Her features were exotic—again, courtesy of her grandmother—but nothing that hinted at her true nature. She wore her long, straight black hair parted in the middle, letting it hang against her cheeks and down over her small but shapely breasts. Since she had been only twenty when she was turned, she fit in easily on college campuses. That was where she had met Bradley.

Edwina was different from most of her brethren in another way—she liked to play with her victims before taking them. Maybe it was because she fit in so easily among the humans, maybe it was just a quirk of her nature, but she enjoyed getting to know them and stoking their desire for her before finally claiming them. With Bradley, she had acted as his girlfriend for months, slowly drawing him away from his family and friends before turning him into her feeder.

The desire to “play” again was growing along with her thirst. She needed to venture out, despite the orders of the Council, which had decreed no member of the coven could leave the caverns alone without special permission. She thought a return to the Weston College campus was in order. She wanted to seek out Leesa, to see what was so special about this human to make Stefan want her so badly. And to see if there was some way she could use Stefan’s interest in the girl to exact some much desired revenge. A sinister smile crept over her lips as she began formulating her plan.

6. COLD AND HOT

L
eesa’s first week back at school flew by. Final exams were only three weeks away, and her professors were cramming as much material into their classes and homework as they could. Physics was especially tough—it had been Leesa’s most difficult class by far all semester. She wished she could magically transport herself through time to the end of finals and to the start of Christmas break, but she was pretty sure something in her physics curriculum said time travel was impossible. Leave it to physics to suck all the joy out of life, she thought, in more ways than one. Instead, all she could do was buckle down and do her best.

The busy week had one benefit, at least—it kept her from thinking too much about the phone call from the guy who claimed to be her father. She had canceled her cell service, but she’d still been on edge the first few days, constantly looking over her shoulder to see if anyone might be watching or following her, especially anyone old enough to be her father. But as each day passed, she worried about it less and less.

She had only seen Rave once so far this week—he had come by Tuesday night to make sure she was doing okay—but that was about to change. He should be here anytime now, to take her to visit Balin. Leesa smiled at the thought. Visiting Balin was a double bonus. First, she would get another long ride nestled in Rave’s arms, and then, once they were there, she would get to kiss him. It had been well over a week since she had gotten anything more than a peck on her cheek or forehead. She couldn’t wait!

She stood outside her dorm with her best friend Cali, waiting for Rave to show. Cali’s real name was Kelly, but everyone called her Cali, because of a small port-wine stain on her right cheek that was shaped remarkably like the state of California. Cali was anything but shy about it, saying it helped her stand out. And Cali loved to stand out, which made her the complete opposite of Leesa. That was one of the things Leesa liked about Cali—she drew attention away from her. Cali even streaked her shoulder length black hair with burgundy highlights that matched the color of the birthmark almost exactly. As did her lipstick. She had added a couple of narrow blue streaks to her hair over Thanksgiving.