Blood of a Red Rose (10 page)

* * * * *

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

New Prisoner

(
Christian)

Dax didn't have any problems taking our new prisoner through the club
since I'd used my
Sire command to instruct
Kennedy
to follow
without causing trouble. Once we reached the office, Evie and I remained behind as Dax took
Kennedy
below in order to get him chained up.

"How the hell are we suppose to tell who's a demon and who
not
?" I asked.

"I don't know, Christian.
Our
scanning
ability won't work on
a demon
because of their buil
t
in mental blocks.
And
I won't risk ending up
unconscious like before."

I paced the office
,
trying
t
o
come up with a plan that
would
weed out the demon in our midst. Unfortunately, I was drawing a blank.
We couldn't scan
it
, we couldn't bite
it
, and if the
demon was
anything
like Meredith,
it would be
a
lmost as strong and
as
fast
as
we were
.
Th
is was quickly shaping up to be a
lose-lose situation.

I watched as Evie lowered herself onto the couch. I could tell she was upset from her drifting appearance
,
and it was obvious she was deep in though
t
. Suddenly
,
her head snapped up. "I wonder if the fact that we originated from Camazotz, and demons origina
ted from his father Yum Camil,
somehow puts
them
higher
up
in the hierarchy of things
.
"

Evie had a point. It would make sense that the race created by the demon god, the
father
of our creator, would be
stronger and have more powers and built-in defenses, leaving vampires
second best.
Fuck me.

I was just about to sink into the couch and embrace the hopelessness I was starting to feel, when suddenly, once again thanks to my claircognizance
,
I simply
knew
what we needed to do.
"Alright. Let's close down the club and get everyone out of here. Hopefully
,
by dispersing the crowd we can prevent anyone else from biting the demon tonight...whoever it is. Then we just have to wait until the demons blood leave
s
Kennedy
's system and he should start to drift back like Terrance did. Once that happens, w
e
'll be able to
find out w
ho the
demon
was that
he bit.
"

"That sounds like a reasonable plan, and hopefully we'll hear back from Balam tomorrow and finally gain some insight on
exactly
how to combat these
beasts
."

Evie stood and hugged me tightly. "See
,
Christian. You're going to make a wonderful Sire."

I watched her walk out of the office to start the evacuation of the
club. It made me happy to know
she had such confidence in me, but at the moment, I
didn't feel like a wonderful
Sire. I felt like a complete lo
ser.
I was so
distraught over
how all of this would
affect
my clan
that I'd almost forgot
ten
what
had started
this whole situation
...
Rose's scream.

I raced towards the bookcase and hit the button to open the secret door to the pit. I
was
overwhelmed with concern about
Rose's
involvement in this. I feared that i
f
someone hurt her, I would end up killing every single person in this club, regardless
of whether or not
I was infected by the demon
's blood.
If they
'd
hurt Rose,
drifting dark was a price I was willing to pay
if it meant putting an end to the demon.

* * * * *

(Rose)

I heard footsteps and voice
s
in the hall,
followed by the rattling of
chains. I didn't have to look to know that they were chaining up
Kennedy
at the opposite end of Terrance's cell. There was only one holding cell in the pit, but it was big enough to house three prisoners at once.
Two down, one to g
o.

Though if Terrance continued to drift back, the prisoner count would soon be back to one.
Oh
,
crap!

If Terrance was drifting back because Meredith's blood had left his system then that meant unless I found a way to slip
Kennedy
my blood on a continual basis, he'd start drifting back too.

Looks like I'd be finding a way to leave here sooner than later.
But not before talking to Christian
,
apparently, because in a blur of speed he flew into our room and
suddenly I found myself
nestled
tightly
against hi
m
.

"Oh my god, Rose. I'm so glad you're okay." He
continued to hold me close as
the rise and fall of his chest slowly returned to
a
steady pace.

I slowly pulled out of his hug and eased myself down onto the bed. "Christian, what's wrong? Why wouldn't I be okay?"

The puzzled look on his face had me sweating bullets. I didn't know if sticking to my story was a good idea at this point or not. I decided to see what he said next before incriminating myself with a lie that could possibly blow up in my face.

"
I he
ard you scream. And I just left a private room where we located a vampire that
we think
drank from
a demon
. T
he room was covered with your scent."

Dammit!
Time to put my acting skills to the test. "You'r
e kidding me
!
A demon? Here?"
I've never
detest
ed
myself more tha
n
I did
right now.

"Yes. We think so, but since there's no sure way to tell, we
had to chain
the vampire up
and we'll be waiting until he drifts back to get t
he exact identity of the demon
he bit."

I d
idn't know what to say or do. I
felt the walls closing in on me
,
and all I wanted to do was run. But run where
?
I still had nowhere to go that wouldn't lead back to my dad and Meredith. If I went to Jillian's, her parents would notify my
dad for sure. Actually, if I
showed up on
any
of my old friends
'
doorsteps, I was
sure my dad and Meredith would be on the scene
within hours. I thought of going to stay with Justin's clan, but t
here was no way
that would work either.
The
y
would
notify Evie and
Christian
,
and
that certainl
y wouldn't end well.

Maybe I should just leave the state completely. Start over somewhere new. Somewhere where I didn't know the local vampires or demons, and live my life
like a normal human girl again.

"Rose. Wh
y were you in that room? And what are you thinking about?
" Christian's voice
was layered with suspicion and I thought I'd been busted without even saying a word.

"Everything. Nothing. I guess I'm just in shock thinking about all of this." My
vague
answer must have been
enough to trigger his protective side,
because he sat down on the bed next to me and g
ather
ed
me in his arms once again, thank
fully ignoring the fact that I hadn't
answer
ed
the first part of his question.

"I know things have been tense between us, but Rose, you have to know I would never let anything happen to you. I love you so much and I'll do anything to protect you."

Tears filled my eyes and I could
n't
help but sink into his embrace. I'd missed this so much. Being held by the man I loved, and feeling how perfectly we fit together. Knowing
he
was strong and that I had nothing to fear as long as I was with him. Yes
...t
his was every girl
'
s dream
. Too bad it was
currently
my nightmare.
Before I had a chance to pull away and put the necessary distance betwee
n us once again, his
next statement left me
reeling.

"I have something important I need to tell you. Only Evie, Dax and
I
know, but once I tell you, you have to keep it a secret. Not even the others can know about
it
." He took a deep breath and placed both hands on my shoulders, pulling away on
ly
enough to look me in the eyes. "Evie and I completed the Passing of Powers ritual earlier
tonight
...I
'm
now official
ly
the new Sire."

* * * * *

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Meeting

(
Meredith)

I didn't know how I was going to get out
of
accompanying Jeremy to
that damn club
.
It was obvious by the snap of his phone, that I'd pissed him off when I
'd
said we should talk about it first.
Oh well. I
wasn't willing to
risk my life by walking in
to the enemy's
lair just so he could go searching for that half-breed daughter of his.

I took
a few deep breaths
,
cleared my mind
,
and
prepared myself for tonight's meeting
. Everything else, including Jeremy's "exciting plans" were just going to have to be dealt with later.

It was 7:40 p.m. and apparently I'd arrived before Damien. I hurried to gather the containers of blood and the rest of the supplies for tonight
's
festivities
while trying
to contain my annoyance that he wasn't already here to help.

The conference hall was a
large
facility on the bottom floor of an office building that had been closed down last year. The
owners
kept the bottom level open and used it to book meetings, conferences, wedding receptions or whatever else would pay the bills while they negotiated with investors as to
what to do with the
p
l
ace. It worked perfect
ly
for me, because there was never any worry of
random people
showing up
un
invited
to our meetings
.

I set up the tables, taking extra care to
cover them with the nice tablecloth
s I'd brought along. I wanted to make
sure that
our food and
drink
station
was extra a
ppealing tonight. After
setting up the four large crystal bowls
and
the cups and utensils along the long table, I finally began mixing the punch.
I
couldn't help but giggle. This punch was definitely going to pack a
"
punch.
"

Just as I finished putting the la
st dose of blood into the mixes
,
I heard Damien's truck pull
up
outside
. Glancing at my watch
,
I breathed a sigh of relief because even though he
was running slightly late, he'd
still arrived just before 8:00 p.m., which gave us a half
an
hour to go over the plan
once more
.

He seemed a little disheveled as he came running
through the door. Breathing hard he said,
"Sorry, bo
s
s. I got held up." He finished tucking in his shirt and straightening his tie, and it made me wonder if by
"
held up
"
he meant
"
having sex.
"
Not that I cared.

"No problem. We still have plenty of time to go over things one more
time
before everyone starts to arrive. But first, take these containers and put them back in the trunk of my car."

I checked my reflection in the mirror hanging on one of the walls
while I waited for him to return
. My hair was shiny and smooth
,
and my eyes sparkled with the life essence that flowed through my veins. Anyone looking at me
who
didn't know the true cause of my glowing, might
mistakenly
think I was pregnant.
Oh my god!
Could I be pregnant? I hadn't even considered
the possibil
it
y
until just this moment.

"Okay. We're all good. Let's go over the plan once more." Damien
's
eyes roamed my profile, lingering on the shape of my ass a little too long.
That served as
the perfect motivator
to snap my attention back to the situation at hand. I'd have to ponder motherhood another time.

"Alright. We're going to treat this just like any other meeting. We
'll start by welcoming everyone,
making sure to introduce anyone who is new. Then I'll talk about our heritage for a bit and what a blessing it is to finally have a demon community that can actually come together...etc.
,
etc. Then we'll invite them to enjoy the food and drink while they mingle."

"Sounds simple enough."

"It may sound simple, but that's w
h
en things
could
get difficult. Once they start to ingest the blood, it
shouldn't
affect them in a noticeable way since it's just a small amount, but
obviously since every demon reacts differently to it
, we truly have no way of
knowing what their reactions will be
. What I nee
d you to do is help me monitor everyone in case somebody starts to show
signs of the blood
'
s
e
ffect
s
."

"No problem. Since most of them are my family any way, it should be easy enough to tell if someone's
acting
unusual
. But for the few
w
ho
actually
know what's
going on
, can I have them gather in the other room so we can talk to them, and see if they feel anything different?"

"That's a great idea. As everyone arrives
,
just let those few know
that once they start drinking the punch to
nonchalantly head towards the first alcove on the right. We can meet them there and question them like you suggested."

I glanced at my watch and felt a rush of energy run through
me. It was almost time for people to start arriving. Damien grabbed two glasses and scooped up some of th
e blood mixture. "Cheers. To the
army."

I lifted my glass to his as the smile spread across my face.
"
To the army."

* * * * *

(Renard)

We followed Meredith's car by using our vampire speed to hop from shadow to shadow. It took around thirty-five
to
forty minutes before she parked outside an empty building and headed towards the ground floor.

We stayed hidden for another cou
ple of minutes before moving in
to the shadow
s
that hugged the east corner of the building. From there we were able to see through one of the small windows
into what looked like a large meeting facility.

Meredith was busying herself with setting up tables and a small food spread.
But what really drew our interest wer
e
the two large containers of blood we saw her haul inside that were now being split between four large punch bowls. Loni and I
ha
d smelled the blood the moment she pulled the containers from the boot of her car.

We watched in silence for only a few minutes before a
n
old blue Ford pickup pulled up and parked next to Meredith's car.
Our hiding place
was apparently
perfect because the Hispanic man walking into the building
showed no indication of
noticing
our presence.

As soon as he entered the building, Loni and I focused our vampire hearing, and could now hear their entire conversation.
It started off
pretty normal until Meredith got to the part about how she was going to talk about their demon heritage and how grateful she was that they now had a community of demons
who
could get together
to discuss their history
.
Bloody hell
. Evie was not going to be happy to hear this.

We continued to listen only to be stunned
further
. Apparently it was Meredith's plan to trick these other demons into ingesting human blood in order
to increase their demon powers, and based on what we'd just heard,
she was doing this in order to create
a demon army.

"
This situation just went from a
seven t
o a
ten-plus
on the
'
we're fucked
'
scale," Loni whispered.
I don't think I'd ever seen her this upset. Her hair and eyes had drifted completely black.

"You've got that right, love. We need to get back to The Rising Pit and repo
rt this to Evie
right away
.
"

We took off at lightning speed to retrieve our car
from its present location
. T
he information we now possessed needed to be reported as soon as possible,
but I couldn
't risk leaving the car behind
since t
he plates were registered to Dax and The Rising Pit.

Once we
were
safely inside
the car
and headed back towards Masen
,
I pulled out my cell and dialed Evie.

"Hello
?
"

"Evie. We're headed back now and you aren't going to believe what we found out."

Her heavy sigh was the only indication that she wasn't looking forward to
our
news. And who could blame her? This truly had the potential to send the vampire community into a panic. Demon armies...bugger me.

"Alright.
When you arrive
,
come straight to my office and fill me in. I should be done dealing with our current crisis by then. Once I have all the information
,
I'll gather everyone together and deliver the news without having to repeat myself.
Be safe and we'll see you two soon."

She didn't even give me the chance to ask what the "current crisis" was before hanging up the phone.

"Well, that didn't sound good." Loni's deadpan tone mimicked
the sinking feeling in my gut.
I looked over at my beautiful wife and her gorgeous hazel eyes, and suddenly
wished
we'd never returned from England.