BloodGifted (14 page)

I couldn’t believe he’d do such a thing. It was a side to him I’d never
seen before. Was this how he behaved at work everyday? I realised then I didn’t know Matt well at all and for a moment I disliked him—and that shocked me.

‘Adolescent blood. T
welve to thirteen year olds?’ Matt suggestively asked.

I glared at him.

‘This isn’t the most appropriate place to ask me that,’ Alec answered in a quiet voice.
‘But since we’re on the subject, I prefer mine a little older and more mature.’ His gaze slid to me.

A muscle ticked in Matt’s jaw. Whether
deliberately or not, Alec seemed to be pushing all his buttons. Matt’s hands balled into fists, forgetting one of them held mine. I winced and tried to pull free.

‘You’re hurting her,’ Alec warned.

‘And you didn’t?’ Matt spat out. He unwound our fingers and turned my wrist up to expose the discolouration. I’d never seen him so angry.

Alec blanched at Matt’s comment. ‘Let her go, Sommers,’ he said quietly and dangerously. His eyes paled.

Conversation in the café stilled and heads turned in our direction. My heart stopped. On top of everything I had to cope with since my life had been turned upside down, we were now the centre of attention of a trendy café crowd. Could things get any worse? I had to leave—and quickly—before it all became too much.

I snatched my hand fr
om Matt’s grasp, picked up my handbag and rose to leave.

‘Wher
e are you going?’ Matt asked and grabbed my arm.

‘Let go
, Matt. If you want to cause a scene, you’re on your own cos I refuse to be a part of it.’ I leaned down till our faces were barely a breath apart. ‘I didn’t mean any harm by coming here and meeting Alec in a public place, so please have the decency to respect my judgement.’ I straightened up. ‘I’m leaving now and going shopping.’

‘I’ll be in tou
ch, Laura.’ Alec stood and inclined his head toward me.

It was unusual to see such old-world manners.
It was nice.

‘
The hell, you will!’ Matt rose to face him, his chair scraping across the floor as he did so.

I briefly closed my eyes in exasperation
, turned my back on Matt and walked away just as my coffee arrived.

Chapter 8

The Boyfriend

ALEC

Laura walked off and left me alone with Sommers, which was not exactly the scenario I had envisaged for the day. On the other hand, maybe Sommers was right and this was a good opportunity to find out about those exsanguinated bodies, and determine whether he would be a future threat. I had little doubt he’d make an implacable enemy, as he’d already proved to be.

I could see w
hy Laura was attracted to him. He was confident and intelligent, but he demonstrated a ruthless streak, which unless tempered, could later develop into something hard and brutal. Strangely enough, I didn’t like the idea of Laura ending up with such a man. She was bright and independent and he would only stifle her.

I shunted the
thought aside. The woman was beginning to haunt my thoughts and I had no intention of becoming emotionally involved, yet I couldn’t rid my mind of the endearing way she bit the side of her lower lip when she appeared to be thinking something through. And when she smiled the two small freckles above her upper lip dimpled slightly.

Enough!
I grabbed my chair and pulled it into the shade. Sommers turned on hearing the movement. I was once again seated with my arms folded on the table.

‘Please, sit down, D
etective. We need to clear some things up.’

‘Is that so? If you think—
’

I raised my hand palm outward and pointed to the chair.

He dropped into Laura’s vacated seat, keeping a safe distance. Wise move. I hadn’t fed in days and his blood smelled good. In fact, everyone did. If only they knew about the predator in their midst. I clenched my teeth and kept a tight reign on my hunger.

‘Let me explain something to you. Regardless of your objections, Laura needs
my protection and in return allows me to feed. I’m sure she explained this to you.’

‘She did.’

‘In order to achieve that, I need your co-operation not your belligerence!’

His lips
thinned—at least he stopped objecting—sat back in the chair and regarded me a while. ‘All right, you have it for now.’

‘That’ll do.
Now, tell me about those bodies.’

‘T
hree juveniles. Entirely emptied of blood.’

‘When was this?’ I couldn’t let him know Laura had already mentioned it to me.

‘Last five days.’

A lot of Brethren had arrived in Sydney for the Coming-
of-Age ceremony. Among them were some of the oldest vampires on the planet—Zhao from China, Kwome from Nigeria and Maris Quesnel from France—who together with Luc, Marcus Antonius Pulcher and myself, made up the Eldership. They would be conducting the ceremony. Each had arrived with their own entourage in privately chartered flights. Normally they would have been welcome to stay in Luc’s extensive mansion in Vaucluse but, fearing for Laura’s safety, the house had been cleared of all but our immediate circle.

Sommers watched me clos
ely. If I were indeed a suspect then he’d be waiting for any clue, any word or expression, that would confirm his suspicions.

‘Any marks on them?’

‘Plenty. Coroner found punctures on the pulse points—neck, ankles, wrists, back of the knees, inner arm and groin. Whoever did it, took their time and drained them slowly.’ He grimaced.

‘Ages?’

‘The oldest was no more than fifteen and the youngest, only twelve. I thought we were dealing with a psychopath who thought himself a vamp, but never imagined it might be the real thing.’

‘It doesn’t mean one of my kind did it. It could still be a human.’

‘Lebrettan said roughly the same thing when I questioned him last night.’

He watched me
closely. I know what he was trying to do; hoping the mention of Luc’s name would somehow get a reaction out of me, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction, yet the description he gave… suspicion entered my mind.

His brows knit together as he stared at me. ‘You know who it is.’

‘Give me a day or so.’ I needed evidence. ‘Can you get me a read out of the saliva in the victims wounds?’

‘It’s one of your lot after all, isn’t it?’ He looked at me accusingly.

‘I’m not sure.’

‘They’re in the case file. Why, can you get me a match?’

I sat back and thought for a second. ‘Possibly.’

‘This happened on my turf, Munro and
I want him.’ He leaned across the table and his eyes narrowed.

‘What will you do when you have him
? How are you going to hold one of my kind? We’re many times stronger than humans and no jail can hold us. Iron bars are like paper and bullets are useless. A cornered blood drinker is a very dangerous creature. You’ll lose a lot of men.’

He
swore under his breath, but I hadn’t finished yet. ‘What happens when daylight comes? You know the old myths, one touch of sunbeam and you’ve got a pile of ash without a suspect. How would you explain that to your superiors?’ I watched as Sommers expression changed from frustration to exasperation.

‘E
ven if you somehow manage to convince them these murders are being committed by a real vampire,’ I continued, ‘do you honestly think they’ll release that information to the public? Imagine the panic, the media circus. You know very well that won’t happen.’

The city authorities would do anything to hush this up and expect those involved to keep their mouths shut as well. Sommers could wave his career, let alone his promotion
, goodbye.

‘Shit!’

‘Couldn’t have put it better myself.’

He threw me a filthy look, so
I knew I had him in a corner.

‘I’m going to ask you to let me handle this.
If
it’s one of my kind, I’ll find the one responsible and deal with them,’ I offered.

From the look on h
is face, Sommers hated the idea, and I didn’t need to sense the subtle chemical changes in his body to know that. This was not how things were done in his world—not an accepted investigative procedure and he was not in control.

‘Why should I trust you?’

‘You want to do this another way?’

He regarded me for a while
and looked to be weighing up his options. ‘Okay, we’ll try your way first.’

‘I’ll find the one responsible
because I’m the only one who can do it.’

He removed a notebook from his pocket and proceeded to write down a number. ‘You
can reach me on this,’ he said, ripped the page out and slid it across the table to me. ‘But if we find another blood drained body, I’m coming after you.’

‘Don’t threaten me, Sommers.
’ I leaned closer to him. ‘Or you might just find yourself suffering from pernicious anaemia!’

He
paled. ‘You son-of-a-bitch!’ Then without any further hesitation he slid his chair back and walked out.

I had a feeling we would meet
again, quite soon.

I left the café and mad
e my way to the nearest florist where I picked a single long-stemmed crimson rose with a matching silken ribbon tied around the stem. Carefully tearing a slip of paper from my pocket notebook, I wrote a brief message to Laura and tied it to the stem. Now all I needed was to drive to her flat and leave it at her door.

I parked in front of her
block of units and walked through the main corridor, stopping at the first door on the right. I didn’t sense her presence inside, but her perfume permeated the corridor, a delicious floral with a hint of musk. It was the same one she had worn last night. I inhaled deeply as her face appeared in my mind and I realized I was looking forward to seeing her again.

After leaving
the rose at her door, I went back to my car and within fifteen minutes I was back in my city apartment. Weakness had spread further and my body was shaking. Bright light, which streamed in through the harbour-facing windows, and which I had enjoyed these fifty years, now hurt my eyes.

After lowering the outside shutters and downing a bag of Judith’s blood I kept in the fridge, I finally dragged my bod
y up the stairs to the loft. Without bothering to undress, I dropped into my bed and let the regenerating sleep take me.

Chapter 9

My Girl

LAURA

After turning my back on Matt and Alec, I went in search of a suitable dress for the Ritual on Monday night. The walk, together with the banal business of shopping, gave me the much-needed time to think and adjust to my new role as a walking blood bank to creatures I once believed existed only in fiction. Every now and then, as I scoured the boutiques and tried on countless numbers of gowns, my eyes focussed on my neck as I imagined two puncture marks there.

Each time
it made me shiver, but what I found more disturbing was the image of Alec Munro’s mouth on my neck. It didn’t so much fill me with fear as with a growing sense of thrill.

What was wrong with me?

I shook my hea
d, checked myself in the mirror and walked out with a lovely pale, silver-blue silk dress with delicate shoulder straps and a pair of peep-toed silver shoes. Since I didn’t have a matching evening bag, I went looking for one of those, too. By the time I got back to my flat, it was around six in the evening and Matt hadn’t rung or messaged. That worried me. Unless he popped around I would have to spend Saturday evening on my own. I couldn’t begin to imagine what happened between him and Alec after I’d left.

As I walked down the corridor to my front door, my eyes
caught something on the ground—a single red rose with a note attached. I bent down and picked it up.

Dear Laura,

L
ooking forward to Monday night.

Will c
ome for you at 9pm.


Alec

‘Can’t get out of it
now,’ I said aloud, hoping no one was within earshot. I raised the flower and inhaled its sweet scent, wishing Matt would give me flowers occasionally.

I unlocked
my apartment door and heard a movement from the living area. My first thought was burglars. But what did I have worth stealing? I dropped my bags and removed one of my shoes. It had a pointy heel and hopefully could cause some damage. I then peered into the room.

‘What are you thinking of doing with that shoe, Laura?’ a cool male voice asked.

It had come so unexpectedly from the direction of the sofa that I squealed. ‘Matt! What are you doing here?’

‘We swapped keys, remember? And
for your information, I’ve been here most of the afternoon waiting for you to come home. Where have you been?’

The temptation to throw the
shoe at him was overwhelming, but I controlled the urge, lowered my arm and switched on the light instead. Matt was comfortably settled on the sofa, feet up on my coffee table looking pretty annoyed.

Well, that wasn’t my fault.
‘I do have a mobile you know. Why didn’t you call?’

‘I prefer to see yo
u.’
Neither of us had yet moved.

‘
I told you I was going shopping.’ I pointed to the bags now abandoned on the floor.

Matt got up from the sofa and made his way toward me. I swallowed. He must have gone home to shower and change, for he
wore a clean, tight fitting, light-grey T-shirt that showed his every muscle. He took the shoe from my hand, dropped it, drew me tightly to him and lifted my chin to meet his mouth. For the next few minutes I forgot what day it was with his lips firm on mine, caressing, teasing, demanding, from one side of my mouth to the other and back again.

‘My girl,’ he
murmured and caressed the back of my neck before his hand gently removed the band around my ponytail to let my hair fall freely over my shoulders and down my back. Interweaving his fingers in its thickness, he pressed my mouth more forcibly to his.

I s
tood on tiptoes, reached up and slipped my arms around his neck. His hair felt a little damp as I twirled some of it around my fingers.

‘In a better mood now than you were this morning?’ I asked.

‘Yeah. I wasn’t happy finding the bed empty when I woke up.’

‘T
hought that might’ve been it.’

He resumed kissing me and after a while said,
‘By the way, were you thinking of doing something violent with that shoe?’

‘Uh huh!’

He shook with laughter before lowering his head to kiss me again. ‘Laura, what if I really was a burglar?’

‘I’
d hope my scream would scare him off.’


‘I’m going to install a burglar alarm in here.’


‘To keep you away?’


He laughed again
and went back to nibbling my lower lip.

I enjoyed his kisses, although it seemed as if he were
trying too hard. Ensuring I was his? Just then my stomach reminded me it hadn’t eaten anything other than the coffee I drank at the cafe.

‘Have you eaten yet?’ I asked him.

‘No, and by the sounds of things neither have you.’

‘You like stroganoff? I’ve got some in the freezer. Cooked up a whole batch the other day.’

‘Love some.’

While I reheated our meal, Matt got the dishes out and set the table. ‘I’ve got ticket
s for the footy Monday night. Starts at seven thirty. Pick you up after work?’

Oh crap!
‘Matt, I can’t go. I’ve got to attend a special ceremony that introduces me to… them.’ I couldn’t say the word, “vampire.” ‘It’s always held on the first full moon after the Bloodgifted comes-of-age.’

Matt looked like thunder.
‘The same night?’

‘If I don’t show, they’ll come after me and Alec won’t be able to protect me from them all.’

‘Oh, hell!’ He slammed the dishes down and cracked one.

‘Hey, that’s my only dinner set, Matthew Sommers!’

He swore under his breath.

I brought the stroganoff to th
e table and ran my arms around his waist. ‘It’s only one night. The next takes place fifty years from now. You can survive without me for one night.’

‘How you getting there
?’

I hesitated, then said, ‘Alec’s picking me up.’

Matt’s face darkened even further. I placed my finger on his lips as I could see he was about to protest. ‘Alec Munro’s my chauffer and my guardian. That’s all. Trust me?’

‘
It’s him I don’t trust!’

I reached up and kissed him.

‘Okay, I’ll go with Jonno.’ Jonathan Besser was Matt’s partner. ‘If Munro makes a pass at you I’ll personally rip his teeth out!’

I laughed and reached up to kiss
him again. When we sat down to our meal I related what Alec told me about the Ritual, deliberately omitting the, if-he-loses-control-while-feeding-I-die, bit. It was best Matt didn’t know about that. He’d go ballistic.

‘What?’ Matt was unhappy when I
also explained my prearranged “feeding sessions” with Alec several times a week. His eyes frosted over. ‘I’ll be coming with you. No way in hell is he getting you on your own!’

I sighed. ‘Matt, he needs me
so he’s not going to do anything stupid. It’ll only be an hour, at the most, and he’s driving me there and back.’

Matt huffed and shook his head. ‘I hate this! I hate this whole damn thing!’

I left my seat and sat on his lap. ‘I know, but there’s nothing either of us can do about it. Look at it as the price for my protection.’

‘I can think of another way.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Eliminate the lot of them!’

My blood chilled. ‘Matt, you can’t! There’s too many—over two hundred in the city alone.’ The thought of him turning into a vampire hunter and going after Alec and Luc horrified me. He could be killed, but what struck me more was that I cared for Alec’s safety. I cupped Matt’s face in my hands. ‘Promise me you won’t do anything rash. Let me handle it. My family’s been doing this for over a thousand years and as you can see, we’re still here. Please, don’t interfere.’

He looked at me long and hard before finally letting out a resigned breath, althoug
h the stormy look in his eyes didn’t entirely disappear. ‘I won’t make any promises.’

‘I’ll take that as a yes
.’

‘You can wrap me around your little finger, you know that?’
He slapped me lightly on the bottom.

‘Liar! You always do whatever you want and somehow get me to go along!’

He laughed, rose with me in his arms and headed for the bedroom.

‘Matt… I can’t!’

‘Why? Is it that time of the month?’

‘No, it’s not that
. But if we make love, I’ll conceive for sure. Aunt Judy told me last night.’

‘I’ve got protection.’

‘You want to risk it? If I fall pregnant now, our child will carry my gene, and… well, you know what that means.’

Matt stared
at me a while then put me down. ‘When can we have sex?’

‘I don’t know.’
I leaned back against the wall and hoped he wouldn’t press me.

‘This is ridiculous! First the game and now this! When will it end, Laura?’

‘Let me check with Aunt Judy. She might know a way around.’
There has to be a way,
I thought.
Surely my aunt and Luc haven’t abstained all these years?

‘And i
f not?’

‘
I don’t have the answers. This is new to me too, you know.’

He let out an exasperated breath. ‘Okay, fine.
I take it fingering and tasting isn’t off limits?’

‘
Not at all. You may touch and taste all you want, Detective Sommers!’

A slow
smile spread across his face, highlighting his dimple. ‘You do taste delicious, Miss Dantonville!’

I laughed
as he picked me up—caveman style, over his shoulder—and carried me into the bedroom.