Breach (The Blood Bargain) (9 page)

“So, they send the one that captivated my
Dimitri and damned my Antonia” I got the feeling he was evaluating my every pore as his eyes moved from my feet to my hair.  “To me you are not overly engaging nor unique, yet you polarized my children.  I still do not understand why you had such an effect.”

What does one say to that?  I’m sorry?  You’re welcome?  Next time I’ll get your little dog too?

I shrugged.  Breathing deep he leaned down, putting one of his massive hands in the small of my back.  I stood utterly still.  His smell was so different than Dimitri, while he was a rich pine mixture of masculine power, Caius was an olfactory assault of cool water for men.

Dull scratching on the side of my neck, a familiar dragging of fangs.  I twitched, an involuntary motion from the pin points.  His rich baritone voice, laced with more
vampiric hype than any I had heard to date, was at my ear.  “Do I frighten you little love?”  He straightened, pulling back to look me in the eye.

“Is that why you’re crowding me? To scare me?”  I huffed.  “Look I’m here because the council
volentold me, you don't want me? I’ll send the old fart.”  I glared up at him, determined to find a way to look down my nose at someone who was almost three feet taller than I was.

Caius snarled, deep and primal.

“If I wanted to frighten you, I would.  I could make you scream in a fraction of a second, I could rip out your spine in the blink of an eye, tear out your very being in an instant, if I so chose I could dine upon your beating heart before your dying eyes.” Swallowing hard, I shoved the fear I wouldn’t admit I was feeling down further in my gut.   “Keep this in mind when you address me little love.  I, unlike my children, demand respect.”  In a blur of motion he was across the room, lounging comfortably on the edge of the sofa, a glass of wine-I hoped it was wine-in his goblet.  Caius took a sip, that smug superior smile plastered to his face, staring at me like a dog that had just demonstrated the proper ability to sit.

“Must be utterly boring for you.”  I muttered.

“What?”  He sat down his glass on the end table, folding his hands in his lap.

“Being all powerful, able to control us all at the flick of your little
puppeteering wrist.” I started pacing, sarcastic sympathy dripping into my voice.  I didn’t care if I pissed him off, if he lunged at me and ripped out my spine or drained me dry.  The whole nosferatu routine was not happening.  This was not a game; I was not a toy or a pet or a...whatever the hell.  I was so pissed I couldn’t think.  “How constantly dull, always knowing the story before it unfolds.  Tell me, do you do the same thing with all of us, or is each person a different scenario?  I suppose you could role play anything you wanted.  Why you’ve probably been Don Quixote, Darth Vader and Zorro all in the same week.  Honestly though, if this is going to work with you and me, cut the shit. ” Caius face was flat, like I had slapped him.  Then slowly the corner of his mouth kicked up, one side at a time.

“I’m beginning to see why he liked you.”  My lungs deflated, there was only one ‘he’ that was worth mentioning.

“Is he alright?”   I had to ask.  Caius gestured to the sofa beside him, giving the seat cushion a little pat with his long fingered hand.

“An inquiry of your council or one born of your thoughts?”  Slowly I walked over to him, and sat across from the giant hunk of vampire.  Trying to keep as much room as possible between us. “I want to know.”

“Well then we both want something.” It was hard to tell with him how many of his words were serious and how much he was testing my reaction.  Perhaps each syllable that left his mouth was both threat and jest.

“And what is it you want?”  His fangs elongated, despite my best efforts, I paled.

“When Dimitri saved your life you incurred a blood debt, doubly so with the newest member of my brood...”

“I fed
Dimitri...”

“And due to circumstances outside of your control, that feeding duration was less than the three month period for a blood liaison. I wish to complete your tenure.”

“It’s not a request is it?”

“No.”  He was beside me again, thick arms enveloping my waist.  “Now you are frightened.”  Caius nuzzled my neck.  “...and a little something else.”  My cheeks flushed as he spoke.  I was not going to admit that this was even slightly appealing.  He was not attractive.

No way.

In a quick movement he dragged me over his waist, turning me to face him.  I didn’t struggle, I knew there was no way that I would be able to get away from his iron grasp. Thrashing about would just be an outward display of weakness, which I was not going to give him.

“Do all your meetings with the council go this way?  If so I’m going to have to spread rumors about Mr. Graham.”

“Humor to diffuse a tense situation.  Refreshing.”

“So you’re just going to take what you want?”  I looked him right in the eye.  Ice blue, just like Dimitri’s.

“As you said, I am the puppet master.”  How quickly he moved, those long fingers in my hair, holding my head to my shoulder.

I opened my mouth to respond, instead the only thing that left my lips was a hiss.  A sharp sting at my neck interrupted everything in my mind.  The bastard had bit me.

For a moment I felt like panic would overtake my very being, my arms shook despite my efforts to remain rational, I endeavored to scream to no avail.

Then a wave of serenity washed over me, every fear in my mind lost in a fog.  I was at peace, safe...secure.

At some point my grip relaxed, my head resting against his palm and body propped up by his other arm.  The arm that was under my shirt, stroking my back.  So inappropriate.  Wrong. This whole thing was wrong.  Still for some strange reason I felt safe in his grasp, I wanted him to hold me.  Yearned for him to take whatever he wanted, however he wanted.

D had made me feel that way too once...hadn’t he?  A look into his blue eyes that had driven me mad.  Blue eyes I couldn’t remember.  Caius had blue eyes.  Beautiful blue eyes. A tiny voice screamed in the corners of my mind that those feelings made no sense, a trick.  A dirty trick.

I didn’t care.  I was with Caius, I nestled into his hold.  He lifted his lips from my skin licking the wound and sending a shiver up my spine.  Pulling away from me he nestled back against the lavish pillows of the sofa and I followed, laying my head on his chest.  His long fingers still tangled in the mahogany waves around my head. He had fed longer than D, the long pulls at my neck left me light headed and slightly nauseous.

How slowly the moment went from serene and relaxing to feeling...wrong.  The little voice in my head that had been trying to throw warning signals and exit signs got louder and louder.  We were not a couple relaxing after a heated moment, this was the first night I had ever spoken to this once man.  How dirty I felt as that voice screamed for sanity, yet I did not move from his loving arms.  Caius would always keep me from harm, stand before all others to protect me.

Wait...what?

Against my instincts I sat up slowly and moved to the other cushion of the sofa. Unfortunately for me it was a loveseat and he was enormous so I’d only managed to put a few inches between us.

Trickery...

I don’t know how he did it, I wasn’t sure how it worked, but he sure as shit was messing with my head.  There was nothing in the last fifteen minutes that described a rational reaction or behavior.  Even my thought process was skewed.  I had seen this before though, hadn’t I?

“May I ask something of you?”  I said in no more than a whisper, still unsure of where my mind was at.

“How quickly you learn to be respectful.  What do you want little love?”  He all but purred at me.

The words left my mouth in a rush.  “Please don’t make me forget.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well I remember...Anna.  I had asked
Dimitri and he said that when you fed you liked to do that.  I just...I don’t want you to do that to me.  If you’d be so kind.  I won’t say anything about the feeding.  I just don’t want my mind tampered with.”  Forcing my jaw shut to cease the rambling I waited for his response.

“If that is your request I see no reason not to honor it, given your past interactions with our kind.”

“Thank you.”  I cleared my throat, hoping the awkwardness of this whole situation would disappear with it.  “So back to the beginning...with the reason I am here.”  I sat up straight and tried to sound official.  Like such a thing was possible after all that.  “As you are fully aware we had an incident at the north wall yesterday.  The council would like to request further and more thorough sweeps of the surrounding area as protection is outlined in our arrangement.”

He inclined his head.  “We will cast a wider net.”

Awkward silence followed, he was still playing with my hair and smiling at me in that wistful imaginative way.  When I couldn’t bear it a second longer I spoke.

“So is
Dimitri okay? You still haven’t told me.”

“You are correct, I haven’t.”  I knew at this moment in time, I should stand up, scream good day to you sir and leave immediately.  Walk out the door, try to erase this whole evening from my mind and resume as close to normal as I could.  I shouldn’t say another word...

Life would be a lot easier if I listened to myself.

“Do you...think we will have another event like that?”

“I do not know for certain.”  Frowning, I wrapped my arms around myself.  The temperature in the room had dropped a few degrees and judging by the scowl on Caius face I knew pressing him at the moment would be like kicking a bull in the balls after waving a red flag in front of its eyes.

Still it was a boon, anger showed his hand.  Had this just been a random occurrence, why would he burden himself with such an emotion?  He was too old, too calculating for that.

My father was once a military man, as such he raised me on the benefits of strategy and calculations, well as much as a young girl would listen to such concepts.   He’d have his little quote books and phrases of the day, telling me how things could be applied to something as simple as a math test or as complex as a debate competition. Time to do a mental rundown of what I knew of Dimitri’s destination to date; the vampire citizen/overlord up there was named Zhang Qi, Chinese heritage.  Based on statements that had been made by our local blood sucking denizens, Zhang was old.  Super old.  If he was a grumpy old dinosaur like Caius he was traditional.  Traditional methods, traditional education...

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” I murmured.  Edge of those thin lips of his kicked up.

“Sun Tzu.  Wise words even over human tongues.”

“I...I don’t think that was random.”  I plunged into my thoughts, talking quickly, hands moving in excited gestures.   “I think those things were led to our doorstep. 
Dimitri told me that Zhang Qi was not going to be happy with the deaths of what he considered to be his property.  What better way to get at us without lifting a finger than to coerce a horde to weaken us?”   In response to my rant his face darkened, those black brows coming together in a sharp V.

“My son has been too candid with you.”

“Am I wrong?”  I pushed.  His hand was on my throat in an instant, pushing me back against the couch.

“Does it matter if you are right?”  His smooth voice registered in my head.  Not that I cared what his words were at the moment.  My energy was focused on that room temperature hand that was wrapped tightly around my neck.  There was no pressure applied, it was more a sign of control.  Any moment he could snap me in half or squeeze until my head popped like a grape.  I held absolutely still, not sure why I did.  He wasn’t a snake for crying out loud.  If he wanted to strike, he was going to.

His ancient blue orbs focused on mine, a look that carried a thousand consequences unstated.

“Away with you.  Keep your theories in your mind and not on your lips.”  His hand lifted from my skin, then he was gone.

I was alone.

My feet did not hesitate to comply. I ran from the room, down the stairs, out of the house; not bothering to shut the front door behind me.  My recovering leg failed me off the porch steps.  In a mess of tears and limbs I collapsed to my knees on the sidewalk.

All around me, the ground was white.  It was snowing.  That beautiful blanket of purity that coated our world, freezing the dead and bringing illness to our living.  Our reprieve from one hell, only to struggle against another.

Winter had come.

When the snow fell everything about our world changed.  When the ground froze, the dead followed suite, solidifying like morbid sculptures along the horizon.  We still don’t understand how their cells get through it without bursting, living tissue doesn’t go through such conditions without severe damage.  It was probably due to whatever keeps them moving when their bodies rot to begin with.

At first thought one would think that the frozen status of our enemy would delight us.  Many asked during that first winter why we didn’t just use the opportunity to expand our walls, go further for supplies or simply walk along and decapitate all of our foes.

Sentiments from the ignorant who had never lived through a winter without heat, or had to walk through the snow because we did not have any vehicles within town. Ever try to climb a wall when it was covered with ice?

No, when they freeze we stay indoors.  No patrols aside from the vamps.  Our goals are purely food and warmth.

Warmth is a hard one.  Come mid-February most folks-the ones who do not have second story fireplaces-will have forsaken the upstairs levels of their homes and be sleeping exclusively in their livings rooms, huddled around the fire.  It sounds quaint until you do it every night for a week.  A month.  Two months.

My dad had long talked about having geothermal power installed in a multitude of buildings within the next decade, a movement many men in town smiled and called ‘getting the lights back on’.  A phrase that brought a whole new slew of concerns.

To make a simple light bulb you needed glass, some sort of inert gas-argon, nitrogen, xenon-to fill it, tungsten filament, wiring, glass mount, an electrical contact and insulation which in our modern world was usually
vitrite.  With no advanced manufacturing facilities getting all of the components was laughable.  Sure we could scavenge for bulbs in derelict buildings, but that was a finite resource.

In truth the want for electricity was not for lighting, but to power furnaces, stoves, microwaves and our long forgotten refrigerators.  Definitely furnaces.

So here it was, the first night of heavy snowfall.  The unspoken signal that everyone would remain indoors until the first thaw.  I accepted that mandate happily as I wandered home from Caius and crawled into bed for the evening.  It would be months before I’d be forced to visit with him again.  Months to sort out the cluster of what the hell he left in my brain.

Cole had elected to sleep at his own place, leaving the bed extremely cold.  Despite my exhaustion I had a hard time sleeping.  I flexed my hands and wiggled my feet, trying to keep my temperature up.  My non volunteered blood loss earlier in the evening probably didn’t help me keep my core temperature up.  Unable to keep warm, I wandered across my dark room to my armoire and layered on another sweat shirt and a third pair of socks.

I knew I looked ridiculous but who cared?  Better to be a cloth rolly polly than a popsicle. Settling back into my sheets it registered that this would probably be the last night I slept upstairs.  Snow usually signaled first floor by the fire living.  We’d all huddle up like a bunch of bears in hibernation and wait for spring.  In a way it was kind of like a vacation.  A make food last, don’t freeze to death or catch a bad case of cabin fever and kill everyone vacation.  Every spring when our doors opened there would be a few pieces of bad news.  Someone who caught a cold and didn’t make it or a suicide.  First winter we lost everyone in four houses in a row. Viral outbreak of something or other.  After that winter the seclusion mandate started, under the premise if you’re going to fall ill, the casualties would be limited.  Sure we could fetch the good doctor in extreme situations but well, that was when we had a doctor.

I pulled my covers up to my chin, chastising myself for thinking of
Tommen this close to bed, last thing I needed was images of his lab dancing in my dreams. “You awake?”

“What the hell!?”  I sat up with a shriek, looking around the room frantically.  In the darkest shadows of the room, someone was on the ceiling.  It was a man, perched like a spider in the corner, his body was forward but legs back against the drywall.

“Adam.  Hey.”  I collapsed back against the bed.  “You freaked me out.”  He hopped down and walked up to me casually.  The cold didn’t seem to bother him at all. He hadn’t bothered with a jacket, wearing a banged up red flannel and jeans.  I wondered for a moment how long he’d been hanging there.  Did vampires have any sense of privacy?

“Sorry, I got home and smelled you...had to make sure you were okay.”  With those words my anger for towards him immediately deflated.  Health and wellness check gave someone a partial pass on breaking and entering.  Plus it was obvious he was giving me a once over.

“You don’t look okay.” He frowned, an odd expression on his usually chipper face.

“I...I’m...”  Fine. Dandy. Amazing. On top of the world.

“Not fine.”

“Not fine.”  I echoed.

“Gonna fill me in?”

“First I woke up and had some eggs.”

“Fill me in with important facts?”  I bit my lip and fiddled with my fingernails, when that seemed too obvious I refolded the blanket in my lap.

“Your boss is a scary guy.”

“Bull, you can handle scary.  Truth up.”  I inclined my head to the side, flashing twin puncture wounds in the moonlight.

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah that pretty much sums it up for me.”

“That all he do?”  Adam’s jaw was clenched.  The fact that he even asked made me
ponder why he wiped the minds of all his past blood liaisons.

“Yeah but...”  I felt awkward telling Adam this.  “I
kind of got the feeling he was into more.”

In response Adam growled, a deep throated holy crap that’s a big dog growl.  His white fangs caught the dim light of the room making him seem capable of anything.  If I was anyone else, I would be shaking in my sheets.

“I don’t want you coming back over to our place.”  A demand that caught me off guard.

My eyes widened, slightly taken aback that he had the balls to try to order me around. “Not your call. Council made me the official liaison to the vampires.” “Zack?”  More of a guttural bark than a word.

“And his ol’Daddy.”  The temperature in the room seemed to rise, heat emanating not from the vents of the long forgotten furnace but from Adam himself.  His face twisted, friendly features became a mask I didn’t recognize.

“I will disembowel them both, I will hang their heads
on spikes in the yard, I will feast upon their hearts!  Then...oh yes then we will see what your council decides.”  He spit out the words with foreign venom, pacing in my small room like a caged beast.

“Adam!  Stop it...”  He stopped pacing, and turned to stare at me.  The murderous intent in his eyes was so strong.  Had he not promised
Dimitri, I would have worried my blood may run on the sheets if I dared to utter another word.

“That’s not you.”  I lowered my voice, the way one would try to tame a vicious animal. Even though the words left my mouth I wasn’t sure of their truth. Where did all that venom come from?  Adam never had a cross word for anyone as long as I had known him.  His boyish good looks so deformed that he appeared a nightmare of himself.  To see him so twisted with rage turned my stomach.  Was it the vampire in him that took that sweet caring man and morphed him into something else, or was it the core
Dimitri had saddled him with to look out for my safety.  Many creatures in the world reacted like this when threatened, I hoped that’s all it was.

The seething hate slowly sifted out of his gaze as I held his stare.  It was not a quick process, more like a pinhole leak on a tire.

“Sorry Liv.  I ah...”  He blushed, looking very embarrassed.  “I’m not sure what came over me.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”  He shook his head.  “It’s nothing really.  Just ah...adjusting.”

“Will you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“Everything.  What’s it like, how you work...I want to know it all.”

“Figured Dimitri would have given you the run down when you two were shacked up.”  I cringed involuntarily when he air quoted the word shacked.  Yet another person who had insinuated Dimitri had an actual interest in me other than his superman syndrome.  Sure he had kissed me, even laid next to me while I slept those last few weeks, but there had been nothing deeper than that.  We weren’t getting down and dirty like everyone seemed to imply.  For some reason, I think the whole cohabitation time would have reflected better in my mind if we had been.  Instead looking back I felt like a housecat rather than a love interest.

That was my internal humiliation, not something I was going to share with Adam, so instead I looked him square in those blue eyes and carried on.

“He’s really cagey.  I mean he like...told me some stuff; I know you can eat, that you can be in the sun but it’s not a good for you long term, that you have some interesting social and temporal abilities, and obviously that you need to feed quite often.”  I exhaled sharply.  “It’s not enough though,  I want to understand.  Understand him and understand what you’re going through.  Sometimes you seem like you.  Then something like that happens and...I wonder if I’m just fooling myself to not see you as something more.”

Adams shoulders sagged, with long lazy strides he walked over to the bed.  The end of the old mattress dipped, he sat next to me yet outside of arm’s reach.

“I’m still me.” His tone didn’t match his words, despite the positive affirmation he sounded defeated.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah.  I am.”  He looked up from his hands his eyes finding mine in the dim light. “There’s a primal side to all of us, men especially with all our testosterone,” He let out a short laugh, “sometimes it’s like I’m on the most severe dose of steroids you can find.  Not just because of how strong and quick I am, but this temper I have.  I’ve never felt this way before. Nothing used to get to me.  Not one damn thing. Now, it’s like a smile at the wrong moment makes me want to tear down a wall.  I can’t think well when I feel like that, I just see red and I have to get that energy out of me.  Stop the ringing in my ears.  I would have been a great addition to a reality show. Think of the ratings! I could do a lot more than flip a table.”  He smirked, his eyes carrying a sadness that didn’t match.  “That and I thirst, constantly relentlessly unequivocally thirst no matter what time of day it is.  No matter how much I consume.  It’s frustrating which doesn’t help on my temper in the slightest.”

“Does being around me make it worse?”

“Being around anyone makes it worse.  Remember walking into a candy shop, and just getting that deep breath of chocolate that made your mouth water?” My head went up and down on its own accord.  “It’s like that.  I can smell you, see the blood in your veins in way that makes HD video seem like analog, I can almost taste you in my mind just sitting here.  Like a piece of cheesecake with my name on it.”

My expression must have shown my feelings, he reached out for my hand.  “No it’s okay don’t be afraid of me.”

“I’m not.”

“You sure?”  I kicked my chin up.

“You said Dimitri put it in your core not to hurt me.”

“That he did my logical
Liv.”  His smile faded.  “Dimitri told me it will get easier as I get older.  I won’t feel so erratic in a decade or so, the thirst will move from a constant pressure to a gentle hum to quote him.”

“Did he talk to you much?”

“More so than Caius has in our short tenure together.  I only knew Dimitri for a few days before he skipped town, but I miss him like a brother I’ve known all my life.”  I had a feeling that was part of the whole elder thing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”  Even though I knew he didn’t want to see me, I really wished my statement was true.

“Yeah. I’m sure.”  There was no conviction behind those words, but I let it go.

“So what do you and Caius do together?  Charades? Bridge?”

“He watches me feed, making sure I don’t kill the donor.”

“Rocking good time.”

“Could be worse, I could be slouching and moaning on the Fed building downtown.”  He shrugged.