Of Blood and Passion (18 page)

“Kassius?”

Arturo nodded. “He was startled to discover the vamp slayers were, in fact, vampires. When he realized it, he understood what drove us and he convinced us to join his kovena, which was run by a vampire worthy of both loyalty and admiration. We lived there for nearly three centuries in relative peace until another vampire challenged our master and killed him. Our new vamp master was of a darker spirit, so the three of us left. It was 1725 and I had heard Cristoff’s name from time to time over the years and knew him to be a powerful, though fair, vampire master. I wanted to see him again, so decided to seek him out. Bram and Kassius, who knew my history by then, accompanied me. Cristoff was much as I remembered him and we hit it off at once. I had not yet found the time to tell him who I was when the incident occurred that you witnessed through Kassius’s eyes. After that, I knew I never could. The three of us pledged fealty to Cristoff and stayed. Before long, I became Cristoff’s favorite and one of his most trusted.”

“This all took place in Italy?”

“In the lands that are now considered Italy, yes.”

“Then Cristoff decided to move your kovena to D.C. during the Civil War.”

“War is a great temptation for pain and fear feeders. The move was to have been only temporary, and many within the kovena remained behind, initially. But we liked America and when the war was over, we decided to stay. Phineas Blackstone offered to create Vamp City…for a hefty price, of course…and Cristoff was intrigued by the prospect of a world without sunlight. We all were. It was everything Blackstone had promised it would be. For a time.”

Arturo fell silent, stroking her back. “Sleep,
amore
.”

But too many thoughts fought for attention in her head. “Cristoff can find me with that sword. It’s not safe for me to stay here.”

He ran his fingers through her hair. “You are safe here.”

“I think I should see if Savin will take me in.”

“Absolutely not. Quinn…Cristoff is no longer looking for you.”

“What? Why not?”

He sighed. “If you are not going to sleep, then let us find Micah and Kassius. I have something I need to share with all of you.”

“That sounds ominous.”

Arturo said nothing more as they quickly dressed. Minutes later, the four of them filed into the sitting room. Arturo closed the door and pulled a folded sheet of paper from his back pocket.

“Cristoff has called off the search for the sorceress,” he told his friends. Turning to her, he said, “He’s come to realize he’ll never catch you by direct methods. He believes you able to disappear at will.”

“Which she can,” Micah said with a small smile.

“Then what’s his plan?” Quinn asked, but a sick knot was already forming beneath her breastbone. “He’s going after Zack.”

“Not just Zack.” Arturo handed her the paper.

Quinn unfolded the sheet to find a photograph taken a little over a year ago of the three of them—Quinn, Zack, and Lily. Zack and Lily had surprised her on her birthday with a cake laden with candles. Zack had taken the selfie of the three of them and posted it on-line. All three of them had been tagged.

She looked up sharply. “Where did you get this?”

“Cristoff.”

Quinn felt as if she’d been gut-punched. Not only were hers and Zack’s shared last name a dead giveaway that he was her brother, but the two of them looked so much alike as to be twins. Cristoff knew what her brother looked like. Zack and Lily, both.

“Where did he get this?” Quinn demanded.

“He sent Traders to hunt for any humans you might be close to.”

“So he could use them against me.”

“Yes. One of them is quite adept at computers and searched social media to find this picture. Over and over, he found pictures of you with Zack and Lily, and no others.”

As the room began to spin around her, Kassius grabbed her arm. “Sit, Quinn.”

She did, sinking onto the small sofa.

“I am sorry,
tesoro
. Sooner or later, he was bound to realize he could find the information he sought if he looked in the right place. The real world, as it turned out. But Zack is here and safe.”

“Lily isn’t.”

“No.”

Quinn paled. And now Cristoff hunted her. Dear God, if he found her… “We have to find her first.”

“We are looking for her, Quinn. We will redouble our efforts. You realize she may no longer be alive.”

The words were another blow. “I know that. But I need confirmation. I need to know where she is, one way or another. Because if Cristoff captures her…”

There was no need to finish the thought.

If Cristoff got his hands on either Zack or Lily, he’d order Quinn to surrender. And she would.

Chapter 20

L
ily Wang peeled potatoes, tossing them into the large cooking pot as several other humans worked around her in the cramped kitchen, chattering and arguing.

“That bitch is crazy, with all her woo-woo stuff,” Veronica said, only partly under her breath.

Lamar grunted. “She takes good care of us. I have no complaints.”

“Yeah, but she hurts me every time she feeds from me.”

“Then don’t offer up your arm, moron.” Lamar wasn’t the most patient of people, but he always said what Lily was thinking, and she liked him for that. “Octavia doesn’t require you to feed her, you know that.”

“But I feel so good afterwards.”

Lamar made a sound of disgust and Lily suspected he was rolling his eyes. “Then quit complaining.”

“Fuck off, Lamar.”

Lily had barely been here two days and was already tired of Veronica’s whining. The girl…and she was still a girl, barely seventeen…had never seen a vampire other than Octavia and her friends. Apparently, they’d snatched her out of the hands of a Trader right after she’d walked in through a sunbeam. Veronica didn’t know how good she had it here.

Lily let the heatless argument roll over her, glad to be helping with the cooking for this crowd. There were thirteen humans living in this house somewhere in the middle of nowhere, two of which had turned Slava. But they weren’t slaves. They were well-fed and well-treated. And they were completely free to leave if they wanted to. None of them did. Most knew what awaited them outside. Most knew that escape from Vamp City was impossible. No, not impossible. Anything was possible if you just figured out the key to the puzzle. And Lily fully intended to figure out that key. Eventually.

“It’s time to practice the earth ritual,” Octavia called, sweeping into the room with a clap of her hands.

Veronica groaned loudly, but the others dropped what they were doing and followed their hostess without complaint. Lily still couldn’t believe her good fortune in stumbling across Octavia. She’d escaped Castle Smithson—a vampire kovena housed in the original Smithsonian Castle—a few days ago, determined to find her way home. But surviving in a place as dead and dangerous as Vamp City was a skill she hadn’t mastered. She’d found shelter that first night, but the next morning, she’d quickly found herself surrounded by hungry werewolves. That would have been the end of her if Octavia hadn’t appeared suddenly, her bow cocked, her arrow aimed at the skull of the lead wolf. Octavia had asked Lily to come with her. She’d
asked.

And while Lily had, rightly, suspected she was a vampire, the decision had been an easy one. Vampires didn’t need to kill to eat. Wolves did.

Never had she expected to be brought to a cramped, homey house filled with generally good-natured humans. Why they were here, no one seemed certain. Octavia fed from them, sure, and asked them to cook both for themselves and for the wolves so that the wolves wouldn’t have to hunt people for food. But that was it. It was like they were her charity project. Except, that’s not what she’d said to Lily when she found her. She’d told her she wanted her to join her army.

Her army.

Lily had expected to be handed a sword or bow, and taught to fight. Instead, Octavia taught them New Age-y, Wiccan-like rituals, making them practice for a few minutes every few hours. Which was okay with Lily.

As they followed Octavia into the other room, Lily caught several of her companions rolling their eyes as if they thought the whole thing was ridiculous. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But it didn’t hurt anything or anybody and, in Lily’s experience, that was unusual enough for a vampire to be just short of miraculous.

Octavia was a tall woman with plain features, nondescript hair that she wore perpetually twisted into a knot at the nape of her neck, and an old-fashioned, Little House on the Prairie dress in a color that might be best described as summer mud. Despite that, there was something about her…a glow that permeated her skin, her body, her very being…that made her somehow beautiful. She was definitely the most intriguing person Lily had ever met.

The vampiress stood now in the center of the large main room of the house, one furnished rustically with wooden tables and benches that had been pushed against the walls. As the others took their places around the circle, Lily pressed in, too, squeezing between one of the taller young men and Heather.

Heather smiled and made room for her. “How are you hanging in?” Heather was older than most of them—probably over thirty—but slender and toned with curly blonde hair, and kind blue eyes. Not only was she smart and nice, but she had an air of competence and confidence about her that told Lily that if things went south Heather was the one to follow. It didn’t hurt that Octavia had put Heather in charge of the rest of them, even though she wasn’t one of the Slavas.

“I’m fine,” Lily replied. “I like to cook.”

“Good. If you need anything, let me know.”

With an answering smile, Lily nodded, then turned back to the center of the circle where Octavia closed her eyes, lifted her arms, and began to sing what was more of a chant than a real tune. And in a language Lily didn’t recognize, let alone understand.

All around the circle, the others did the same, closing their eyes, lifting their arms, attempting to mimic the words. Some of them were pretty good, but a couple of them, including Veronica and, unfortunately Lily, did an abysmal job of it. The word-mangling didn’t appear to bother Octavia. She just continued to chant until Lily began to get the hang of the words and her arms felt like they were turning to lead.

“Now drop your arms,” Octavia said finally. “And open your palms.”

Arms came down to a smattering of groans and sighs.

“Now we call on the power of Mother Earth,” Octavia said, sounding more like a yoga instructor than a centuries old vampire stuck in a vampire otherworld. “Imagine roots sprouting from the soles of your feet, roots that burrow down into the ground, down, down, down to the very center…the white core of energy…the soul of the earth. Feel your roots connect with the power. Now pull that power up into you! Feel the energy bursting into your feet and racing up your legs, your torso, your arms and head…glorious, incredible power!”

Lily tried, or imagined she tried. In truth, she couldn’t get past the idea of roots growing from the soles of her feet, not to mention the time it would take for roots to burrow the nearly four thousand miles to the center of the earth, if such a thing were even possible.

“I think I felt something!” one of the girls crowed. “It kind of tingled on the way up my legs.”

Octavia smiled and nodded. “Good, Jeanette. That’s good. Whether or not you feel anything is unimportant. The important thing is that you know how to pull the energy.” She clapped her hands. “That’s all for now. You may return to your duties.”

As the circle broke up, Lily turned to Heather. “Do you ever feel anything?”

A small smile breeched Heather’s mouth. “No, not really. But that doesn’t concern me too much. Before she was turned into a vampire, Octavia was a powerful sorceress. She knows things, Lily. She understands the earth and sun and the energies of people and plants and how all of it intertwines. Before she was turned, she had incredible power. She still has a little, which is why the wolves are afraid of her. But mostly, she just has the knowledge of what she used to be able to do.”

“That must be frustrating for her.”

“Perhaps. She’s a good person, older and smarter than all of us combined. And if she’s right about war coming to Vamp City, we want her on our side.”

“What kind of war?”

“I’m not sure. All I know is that it has something to do with one of the vamp masters, Cristoff Gonzaga. Most fear him, Octavia included. He’s incredibly dangerous. Octavia believes he’s going to become far more dangerous before this is over.”

The front door opened suddenly and two tall, powerful-looking males strode inside. Not Slavas. By their air of command, Lily knew they had to be vampires. She froze, her heart beginning to race. But no one else seemed alarmed and a calming hand curved over her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Heather said quietly. “They’re friends.” To the men she said, “I’ll get Octavia.”

“Hi,” Lamar said, greeting the two vamps. “What’s happening out there, William?”

“Nothing good,” one of them, presumably William, muttered. With his long hair, nasty-looking scar over his right eyebrow, and small gold hoop earring in one ear, he looked like a pirate. A pirate in jeans and cowboy boots. His companion was dressed similarly, though, looked more like a professor with his closely-trimmed red beard.