CREAM (On the Hunt) (13 page)

Teaghan handed Jeliyah down to one chair and sat on his after moving it closer to her. Mekhail left the room, closing the door after, and then Niccolo spoke. “I understand you got in the way of a family-head transition.”

Teaghan said, “If I’d known that was the deal, I would have taken my necromancer back to a hotel and holed up there the rest of the night like they wanted. It’s not my style to interfere with politics. I leave that to the ambitious sorts.”

Niccolo nodded. “Yes. I requested your record before granting your petition. You are quite the impressive enforcer. Very dedicated. A born killer, as one person annotated in your file.” He tapped the file in question, which sat on the desk in front of him.

“I never said otherwise. If they didn’t want the rogue killed, they should have never told me about him.”

“I agree. That was stupid on their parts.” Niccolo turned his gaze to Jeliyah. “You are new to the field and yet have broken every rule of your training from almost the first day.”

Jeliyah didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t deny it and didn’t know how he knew.

The man smiled. “I like that about you. It’s the reason I decided to grant you asylum. You intrigue me. Not many necromancers would go against years of conditioning to willingly sample a vampire’s blood.”

“How did you know?” Too late, she realized her question might be revealing too much.

Niccolo held up one of the files. “Your campus wants you back badly. They sent out bulletins detailing your transgressions along with a sizeable reward to the one who delivers you.”

Jeliyah swallowed back the tears that threatened to precede her pleading for her life.

“Take heart, my dear. No amount of money would entice me into giving you to those jackals. Neither will they enter my territory to try to take you. You are safe here.”

“Thank you, sire.”

“Call me Niccolo. I am no royalty. I got this position after I killed my predecessor, which is why I chose to take on Machiavelli’s name.” He tented his fingers, with a slow smile curving his lips. “I want to tell you both a story. It’s my story and it will explain why I’m helping you, so Teaghan stops acting like I will attack you at any moment.”

Jeliyah glanced at Teaghan, who sat back in his seat with a bored air. She guessed Niccolo’s vampire eyes could see something she couldn’t. She didn’t hear anything from Teaghan’s thoughts either. Not that that surprised her. He could block.

Niccolo said, “I was once known as Reginald Van Helsing.” His smile grew at Jeliyah’s loud gasp. He nodded. “I see my family’s reputation remains well-known.”

“Yes sir,” Jeliyah whispered in awe. “The books said your family was killed.”

“After a while, yes, we were. But only after a while. The necromancer families came after us for my uncle’s part in the making of Bram Stoker’s book. They gave us to the vampires for punishment, specifically to Ulrike, who was the head of the Amsel family at the time. She made us all Renfields to toy with at her leisure. I was her favorite.” He paused and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Every time I displeased her, she killed a member of my family—brutally and without compassion.”

“I’m sorry.”

“This is long before your birth, my dear. You have nothing to be sorry for. The last of my family to die was my twin sister Regan. Ulrike thought I conspired against her so she had my sister raped and mutilated before ripping off her head in front of me.”

Jeliyah covered her mouth, muffling her horrified gasp.

“The conspiracy Ulrike imagined was a surprise birthday party. When she learned that, she shrugged away her actions with a halfhearted apology and permission to bury my sister. As though I needed permission. After that day, I courted her favor in all things, making her think I loved her. The day after she granted me vampirism, I used my new strength to rip off her head and claim her spot as ruler of this family.

“Of course I was challenged, but none could stand against me. The Van Helsings were all high-high class necromancers. It’s funny to note that necromancers retain their abilities whether we become Renfields or vampires. The negating powers of the necromes don’t affect us. I think it is because of our blood or our chromosomes, or possibly both. And you, my dear, have firsthand knowledge of what vampire blood can do to your abilities. It is more so for Renfields and vampires.”

Teaghan said, “This is a great story but what’s it got to do with us?”

“I hate the necromancers’ guild—now called higher-ups—for their part in the massacre of my family. My uncle’s punishment for his crime shouldn’t have carried to us all. It was a cover. They used a small infraction to act on their petty jealousies. The Van Helsing line always produced high-high and middle-high class offspring. We were the best and the others hated us for it. The vampires couldn’t have cared less about Stoker’s book. Similar tales had been spun for centuries without chance of outing but Ulrike didn’t want to pass up the chance of having new toys.”

“She did the higher-ups’ dirty work,” Jeliyah said.

“She made them think she had. She was supposed to kill us all and told them she had. Instead she made us Renfields to use our powers as a way to reinforce her position.”

Teaghan said, “Smart woman.”

“She was.” Niccolo pushed the two folders containing Jeliyah’s and Teaghan’s information aside. “As to Teaghan’s earlier question, given my past, I am happy to keep Jeliyah safe from the higher-ups. Of course that means Teaghan can stay as well.”

Jeliyah relaxed, barely keeping herself from sliding off her chair in a grateful puddle. “Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.”

“Provided you can prove you have truly broken your conditioning.”

She stiffened once more. “How do I do that?”

Niccolo gestured to Teaghan. “Under him or beside him. Your choice.”

“Excuse me?”

Teaghan said while holding Niccolo’s gaze, “He means as my Renfield or as my progeny.”

“What?” Jeliyah didn’t mean to yell and didn’t try to excuse her tone.

Niccolo didn’t appear bothered. “The outing gave the higher-ups what they needed to extend the power of their cult—enticing young, impressionable youths with limitless credit cards while indoctrinating them to be good little acolytes. You are no different, Jeliyah.”

“I—”

“How much is your balance, Jeliyah? What must you give them to retire? A word we both know doesn’t mean what it should.”

Jeliyah felt the trap closing around her. She whispered, “There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t.”

“Please?”

“I refuse. You want my help and this is the price. Do not think you can go to another territory and receive better. They would hand you over to the higher-ups the second you made yourself known. I am your only option and I demand you prove yourself. I will not suffer a necromancer in my midst just to be stabbed in the back when the higher-ups offer an adequate lure.”

Jeliyah looked at the men flanking Niccolo. They showed no reaction to the situation. That wasn’t right. “What about them? They’re necromancers.”

Niccolo spared them a glance. “They are Renfields and have been since they came into my employ. The higher-ups don’t know that and won’t figure it out for another few decades.”

“Willing Renfields?” Teaghan asked.

“Very willing. You see, these two gentlemen went quite wild when given their credit cards after entering the campus. They were treated like royalty because they are both middle-high class. This one,” he pointed to the man on his left, “bought a top-of-the-line sports car with all the options. By the time he graduated, his retirement price was well into the millions. The other is no different. They were doomed to a life of paying off their debts like a middle class, hunting rogues since no one thought they were worth their debt. I made them the same offer I’m putting to you, Jeliyah. Come to me as a Renfield or a vampire and I’ll make it all better.”

“All better.”

Niccolo picked up her folder and held it out to the man on his right. The man walked it to the fire across the room and tossed it in. Niccolo said, “Your debt cleared, your transgressions bribed into nonexistence and the freedom to do as you please with the rest of your immortal life. Death is the only way the higher-ups will free you, Jeliyah. I offer you the choice of how you will die.”

She fought to keep her breathing steady when all she wanted to do was hyperventilate with the panic spreading over her. Teaghan and Niccolo had to hear the thundering of her heart beating against her rib cage. She couldn’t do this.

“I know you’re scared, my dear. That is the years of brainwashing clawing to retain control. Push it aside the way you did when you took Teaghan’s blood, the way you did when you invited him to take your body.” Niccolo stood and rounded the desk. He stopped in front of Jeliyah’s chair. Stooping down, he caught her gaze and said, “Very little changes. I promise you. Necromancers and vampires are made from the same magic. We are opposites on the same coin. You do know that, don’t you?”

She nodded, unable to speak.

“Good. That might be the reason you are able to fight their conditioning. Don’t stop halfway. Take the final step and break their control completely.”

Teaghan moved to her side, placed his hand on her shoulder and said to Niccolo, “She needs time to think about this.”

Niccolo stood and backed up a few steps. “Of course. I hadn’t expected her to come to a decision right away.” He returned to his seat. “You have twenty-four hours to prove you want to be free or else I’ll give you to the higher-ups myself.”

Jeliyah stared at him in disbelief. Twenty-four hours amounted to no time at all. How could he expect her to make such a heavy decision so quickly?

Teaghan asked, “What about me, Niccolo?”

The man waved in a dismissive manner. “You are free to stay or go as you please, enforcer. Mekhail has vouched for you but I have no need of your services. Jeliyah is not the first necromancer to hear my ultimatum. Quite a few of the vampires in my territory are former necromancers. It’s the reason we don’t need enforcers.”

“How?” Jeliyah asked in a hoarse tone. “The higher-ups would have noticed necromancers coming to this territory and never returning.”

“Who said they belonged to the higher-ups? They aren’t the only ones able to locate and recruit young necromancers as they come of age. My territory has no campus. I ousted the one that was here, after dispatching Ulrike. Any recruiter coming here chances death. The necromancers born in this territory must be trained so I provide that service. Unlike your campus, I teach of the similarities between vampires and necromancers and have my trainees taste vampire blood as part of their training. There are no low class amongst my students. And all choose to be changed after they graduate or they leave to take their chances outside.”

Niccolo stood again. “But enough of this. I am wasting the time you need to decide. This time tomorrow, you will come to me changed or you will leave chained. Decide if your loyalty to the higher-ups is worth what they’ll do to you if they get you back.”

Teaghan helped Jeliyah stand. She used his arm to keep herself upright as they walked back to their room. She didn’t see anything except the choice Niccolo gave her.

While she understood his hatred of the higher-ups, why force her to make this decision? There had to be another way to show she had broken her ties with her former caretakers. They wanted her back so they could bleed her and worse. She would be an idiot to want to return.

“Then let me change you,” Teaghan said in a low voice as he closed the bedroom door.

Jeliyah met his gaze with a disbelieving one. “What?”

“Niccolo won’t bend his one rule for you. Don’t try him and think he will. He’s right to demand this. I’ve seen your world, Jeliyah. It’s a cult, like he said. All the higher-ups have to do is offer a shiny enough carrot and you’ll go back to them.”

“I won’t!”

“You will. That’s what you’ve been trained to do. I can hear your thoughts, Jeliyah. Every decision you make is based on the lessons they taught you. You took my blood and invited me into your body and then tortured yourself with images of what the higher-ups would do if they found out.”

She wanted to cover her ears to block out his words. Her emotions teetered on the edge of sending her into a spiraling abyss of depression. This wasn’t safety.

“It can be.” Teaghan framed her face with his hands. “Come to my side, Jeliyah. Be with me.”

“You mean under you,” she snapped, pulling out of his hold. His answering grin made her itch to smack the expression off his face.

“I don’t want to make you my Renfield, Jeliyah, but I do want you under me. On top of me too. You ride me so well.”

“This is nothing but sex to you. This is my life,” she screamed.

“Then prove it,” Teaghan said in a normal tone. “Let me change you. Claim a life that will be completely yours. No more debt. No more waiting for the campus to give you new orders and work you into an early grave. No grave at all.” He pulled her into his arms and held her as she struggled. “Don’t fight this, Jeliyah. You know the decision you must make. You wouldn’t have run if you were the type to accept punishment easily.”

“I need more time.”

“No, you don’t. The choices won’t change in twenty-four hours or twenty-four days.”