Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) (15 page)

My
master
staggered to his feet, swaying slightly, one hand on the wall to keep him upright. He left a near perfect hand print on the gilded gold wallpaper. “Ran, I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t think —”

That I could protect such a monster made me feel slightly ill and I cast a glance at Ryder. “Take her with you. Leave us.”

He opened his mouth, as if to refuse, but perhaps he had seen the expression on my face. Merely opting to mutter under his breath, he carefully hefted the weeping woman into his arms and left the room, his footsteps clipped and quick.

I waited until I couldn’t hear his footsteps or her crying anymore.

Jason sat down heavily on the floor, dangerously close to the rapidly cooling pool of dark, viscous blood. Vampire blood looked no different from human blood although I hadn’t known vampires fed on another vampires. Of course, there was the initial Turning, but Reiko had told me vampires preferred not feeding off other vampires, due to the taste…or something to that effect.

“Why did you do it?”

It seemed a silly, yet a question I could not afford to not ask.

He stared down at his hands, the blood already beginning to dry and flake. “I don’t…I don’t know. She was dancing and she kissed me. She brought me down here…I thought —”

“Didn’t you know she’s a vampire?”

He cast his eyes down, almost as though he were ashamed. I didn’t think so. “I knew. I tried to tell her, I tried to tell her I was thirsty…that I just wanted a meal. She laughed and said she would teach me…”

It was hard to keep my face still, to keep the emotions from running across my face. This was just a job, nothing but a job. Once Noir was dead, I would return to my everyday routine that suddenly seemed very palatable. “I was under the impression vampires will not feed on other vampires unless they are driven to it, unless there is no other alternative. Like vermin. Livestock.”

He shook, almost uncontrollably and I heard his teeth chatter. “That would be correct.”

“You’ve tasted human blood before, haven’t you.” It was not a question and Jason closed his eyes, tilted his head back to rest on the crimson-splattered walls.

“I have.”

I swallowed my dry throat. “Why did you drink from her, then? There are hundreds of humans up there, dancing, half drunk, all of them more than willing, more than ready to split their vein open for you. Why her?”

My voice got higher at the last syllable and I realized I was angry. More than angry. Confused. Upset. Unsure. I unclenched my fists slowly and let out a slow breath, trying to keep the anger from swelling to uncontrollable proportions.

His eyes opened, his dark unfathomable eyes and for once, he met my gaze.

“She tasted better.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach and I felt the almost uncontrollable urge to laugh. “You know this is quite…unorthodox.”

“I know.”

I shook my head. “Enough. We have to leave. If anyone finds out it was you…”

He swallowed, hands trembling as though he had palsy. It took him several tries to lever himself to his feet and I fought the initial urge to help him. He wouldn’t have appreciated it. “What about Reiko?”

I didn’t even want to think about what she would say or do once she found out about Jason’s…interesting tastes. “We’ll have to leave her. She has Marcus with her. We can’t afford to go up there. Too many eyes.”

“And that blond vampire you were with?”

Ryder…I bit the corner of my lip. Indeed, he was a complication, a complication I prayed would not grow to a problem. “I don’t know. We’ll have to see. Let’s go.”

With a minimal amount of help, Jason and I managed to make it to out of the dance floor, mostly staying to the shadows. I couldn’t stop fidgeting when I retrieve my sword from the coat check girl and when the cold, crisp air hit us, his hands hidden into his coat, I was finally able to relax my shoulders and arms.

There were a line of taxis waiting across the street and by the time, we walked through the front door of his townhome, having locked it securely behind me, I felt my pulse slow down to a somewhat normal rate. “Go take a shower.”

Without answering, he went up the flight of stairs, where I hoped he would take a shower and get the last remnants of blood off his clothes and body.

The sofa, large and plush with a covering of velvet, never looked so inviting and I sat to wait for Reiko. Jason would most likely be completely incapacitated for the rest of the night, judging from the deep furrows bracketing his lips.

I did not have long to wait.

The door unlocked and opened, the sound of high heels clicking on the hardwood floors and Reiko stared at me from the doorway, hands on her almost nonexistent hips.

“Jason.” Her face seemed paler.

It was not a question.

I pointed at the ceiling, where I had heard the shower stop a little less than ten minutes ago. “I think he’s resting. Where’s Marcus?”

She waved a hand, as if to say just how little he rated on her importance scale. “I heard what happened.”

I had no idea what sort of expression to give her. “I see.”

“The girl will heal,” she said, voice still in that harsh, discordant tone. “Did she attack him?”

I watched her intently. “She invited him to her room.”

A toe began to tap on the floor. “And?”

What more was there to say? “He bit her.”

Her eyes fluttered close and I wondered if she was going to faint. “Did she provoke him?”

“No. According to him, she kissed him.”

She leaned against the doorway, shoulders slumped down like a marionette laid to rest. “Do you know what they call a vampire that hunts his own?”

“I never heard of one,” I said honestly.

“That’s because we hunt them down,” she whispered, eyes distant and wide. “The moment we learn of one’s existence, we find them. We tear them from limb to limb. And then we burn the remains. It’s the only way to get rid of them in a reliable fashion.”

“No stake through the heart?” My rather clumsy attempt at humor got me nothing but a blank look.

“No. It failed to work with several of…them.”

Vampires that preyed on other vampires. A strange idea, and yet, not one that was entirely unfeasible. “What creates them?”

“Well, if we knew that, we wouldn’t make them, now would we?” she snapped and then sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snipped at you like that. You got him out before any more damage could be done. That is something, I suppose. Had Vincent found him before you did, I don’t think Jason would still be…alive.”

“But Vincent knows of his presence?”

She raised a shaky hand to her red lips and bit down on the knuckles. “He knows a tall, dark haired vampire attacked one under his protection. He knows you and Jason left without me. He knows this is the first he’s heard of such an attack in Centennial. Luckily, Jason didn’t tell her his name. With that, Vincent would be well within his rights to come here and kill him.”

“That’s murder,” I said. “Things must be done…diplomatically now.”

Her eyes widened and she laughed hysterically, head thrown back in complete abandon. “Diplomatic? Vampires? Oh my dear, sweet, girl. You think we are diplomatic? That is simply a facade we show to the human world. Otherwise, we’d be hunted down like wolves and we’d never survive. We might be strong, but you humans are annoyingly persistent. And it is this persistence that spells our doom.Yes, it’s true we follow the rules, but we only follow the rules when it suits our purpose. Surely you know this?”

So much to learn. It was a humbling experience to come to the conclusion that when it came to vampires and their culture, I really knew nothing at all. “There was a vampire with me when I found Jason.”

“Which one?” she asked, voice sharp.

“Ryder.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “A better one we could not ask for. He respects Vincent, but he was not created by him. Ryder will give him information but only when it suits his purpose.”

“Vincent’s human emissary saw us going downstairs. I told her I was looking for…something.”

Reiko looked thoughtful. “But she has not said anything. She is cautious. That is a good sign,” she said and then shook her head. “Still. Too much at stake. Vincent will come here, eventually. Jason cannot be here. Vincent will want to examine him…and he will find out the truth.”

I tried to choose my words with care. “You must care for him greatly.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Who?”

“Jason.”

She looked at me, her age so very apparent in the deep pools of black, and it was all I could do to stay still and relaxed when I wanted to throw myself behind the sofa, just to get away from the gaze that peeled away everything in me, exposed myself to the very core of my being.

“Don’t mistake my care for such a paltry emotion like love. If we were both hanging from a precipice, I would think nothing of kicking him to save myself. However, if word were to get out that my Turning has given fruit to…him, my House will suffer greatly, and that I will not allow.”

“Then why not kill him?”

Was that fear in her eyes? “I…cannot. He is of my blood. To hurt him would be to hurt me. I would prefer to postpone that pain for as long as possible.”

An interesting idea and one I had never come across. “So to kill the offspring would be to harm the maker?”

She nodded, warily. “I can see you are thinking. Have you killed many vampires?”

I shrugged, stared at the hands on my knees. “A few. They were all quite young. I can’t imagine the pain to be more than fleeting.”

“Be that as it may, the maker will feel it. Every time,” she said and looked up. “You can’t stay here, you know. You and Jason will have to flee. Vincent cannot prosecute my House if he cannot find evidence.”

I stood up slowly, stretched, but my muscles refused to relax. “Where do we go?”

She rubbed a hand along her lower lip, spreading lipstick like paint across her gently curved chin. “I’m sure there’s some place for you to hide. Jason seems to enjoy accumulating real estate. There will be a place for you to go.”

She sounded so sure of herself. “We will leave now?”

Jason appeared behind her, damp hair slicked back, dressed in a simple white button-down shirt and khakis, a duffel bag over one shoulder, mine hanging from his hand.

“Yes. We leave now.”

10

It took all of ten minutes to throw our baggage into the backseat of a Hyundai SUV, me behind the driver’s seat. Hadn’t been my choice, but more or less relegated to me when Jason tossed me the keys.

Reiko had been waiting at the door, arms crossed, her ever-present Marcus standing at attention behind her. “Don’t contact me. If I know Vincent, he’ll have a way of tracking the call and this will all have been for naught.”

Jason nodded and put his hand on her shoulder wordlessly.

I saw Reiko’s chin fall and her lips move, but I’d been in the driveway, too far to hear whispers.

By the time Jason got in the car with me, the key already in the ignition, the door had closed behind Reiko and Marcus. The house, with all the lights off, looked pathetically empty.

The vampire sighed. “Take us out of the city.”

I complied. It seemed like the best course of action. To put as many miles behind us. “Has our plan changed?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Our outcome has not.”

I glanced at the rear-view mirror, half expecting to see a large, black SUV tailing us, but it was just a small, white Honda packed to the gills with young people who all looked extremely drunk. Best to have them behind than in the front. “This is more dangerous than I thought.”

He snorted and leaned his head against the cold passenger side window. “This was not what I had anticipated.”

“And you think I wanted this to happen?” I kept my voice level. No point in yelling at someone when it hardly seemed like their fault. “I thought Noir would be dead by this time.”

“It’s only been four days,” he said quietly. “Even if I had not shown this…”

He did not finish and I was at a loss of how to reply to him.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence, with him issuing only terse commands occasionally. We made it to the highway and didn’t get off until a sign read CAMDEN 3.

“Get off here.”

Camden was small, almost minuscule compared to Centennial City, although there were quite a few hotels we passed in the outskirts of town. The closer we got to the heart of town, I realized why this was so.

A large casino and hotel glittered in the swiftly fading darkness, its bright lights not daunted by the fact that it was almost five in the morning.

“Lady Victoria Casino,” said Jason in a whisper. “The only casino within a hundred mile radius. Luckily, it draws a lot of…humans. Humans draw a lot of vampires. If I’m to feed…this is the most logical place. Of course, we’ll not be able to stay here long.”

I nodded and we drove past the glittering palace that promised wealth, but gave only sorrow and destruction.