Silent Cravings (45 page)

I’m from a small town outside Florence, Italy. I was born in the late 1500s. My father was a baker, my mother a seamstress. It wasn’t the kind of life I wanted. I always admired the gypsy performers in the streets when they visited in the summers. I auditioned for a part in a play, which later gave me the opportunity to take part in one of the first operas.

I stayed in theater for a few years. That was how Max Carlyle found me. I thought he was handsome and charming, and he seduced me with the promise of centuries to perfect my art.

Max took me with him as he traveled, introduced me to many, showed me off like some great prize he’d won. After a while he pressed me into doing things to “liven up” the performances. At first I agreed, and for two hundred years I did everything he asked of me.

Once, he found a young man with a voice to rival the angels to sing beside me before an audience of vampires that included the Master of Rome. During a break, he advised me that once the boy finished his last note, I should drink of him until he truly died, the way the hero of the tale we were singing was supposed to.

I refused. He listened to my arguments, tried briefly to persuade me, but in the end, agreed to let the boy go when it was done.

He did not bring it up again until we returned to Massachusetts. The next several years were spent experimenting with ways to destroy my voice without damaging the rest of me.

Alec eventually rescued me and drove Max out of Boston. He installed another Master for the city. Max was furious, but there was little he could do. He shifted his operations to Chicago and has been the Master there ever since.

I have remained with Alec since then. I owe him more than my life for taking me out of that Hell. Now I guard his home and the people in it so they won’t fall prey to Max or anyone like him.

Christoph took a while to read the notes. When he finished, he nodded slowly, at a loss for words.

Finally he spoke up. “That’s... pretty intense.”

She smiled wryly, nodding. Then started writing again.

John is from somewhere in England. He claims he was present for the Boston Tea Party, but I think he’s lying. He’s been with Alec for about 40 years now.

Alec used to travel a lot, like Max, and for a while he spent time in Ireland and Scotland. Another vampire turned Angus against his will and was using him and his warriors to set up his own fiefdom, with Angus as his pawn. When Alec got there, there were too many vampires, not enough humans to support them all. They were surviving by raiding nearby villages and other lords’ manors. Alec heard because someone he did business with had come to hardship over the losses of his serfs.

By the time Alec tracked down the culprit, most of Angus’s people were already dead, and what was left were pale shadows. Alec slew the one who turned Angus, but his people were already scattered or destroyed. Angus chose to stay with Alec and, like me, has supported him ever since.

Clarisse is from Ireland. She’s never told me her story, so I don’t know who turned her or why. I know she’s at least as old as Angus.

Lisa is also from Ireland. Angus turned her a long time ago. He found her when Alec was passing through on business, decided to keep her.

Wesley tells everybody he’s from England, but he’s not. His accent is faked, and he speaks some other language when he’s angry. Alec met him in Morocco, ask him to tell you the story sometime. Very funny!

Ken is from San Francisco. He’s only been a vampire for 20-some years. Don’t know why Alec picked him, except his killer (haha) fashion sense. Reece is from New York. Ken manages the clubs, and Reece handles choreography for the entertainment.

I think I already told you about Alec. Very old. Aside from Max, I think he’s the oldest in the U.S. right now.

Christoph grinned at the notes. He thought for a second.

“I know Ashi is from Korea. His real name is Dae-shim Phoong. His family owns Sakura Distribution in Singapore. No one knows much about him, except that if you call him Dae-shim he’ll do his best to kill you.

“Analie was born into Goliath. Her mom... well, her mom was turned Were at eighteen or so and promptly slept with every willing guy in the pack. Got knocked up. Two weeks after Analie was born, her mom crossed a street against the light and misjudged how fast the cars were going. Gavin’s an official pack caretaker and he took her in.”

Mouse nodded again, considering this.

I know Analie misses Gavin. She talks about him a lot.

“What do you do in your off time? You go to the movies or anything?”

She nodded and started writing.

I like going to the movies. Snuck into the zoo a couple times after hours. Moonwalkers didn’t like that.

She smiled slyly as she wrote that last.

I read a lot. I sometimes go out with Clarisse or Jessica or one of my donors. Last week, I went to a Broadway show with Timothy. The week before that, I went to an arcade with Mark and discovered I am not very good at skeeball.

What about you?

Christoph laughed.

“I go running with the guys. We have fake fights and go into the hills to chase coyotes. When I’m pink I watch sports or play cards. Mostly I’m fuzzy in my free time. Amelia—the other caretaker—had this three-year-old named Danica. The kid would ride me around when I ran in the hills. I was mostly doing it for respect to gain rank, but she was a cute kid.”

Mouse smiled at the image that conjured. Shaking her head, she sighed, then frowned, reaching out to lightly touch the collar. It tingled unpleasantly under her fingertips, and she swiftly withdrew. She jotted down a few words.

I’m sorry Alec did this to you. I’d take it off if I could.

Christoph shrugged. “Maybe I can get it taken off now and then. Let out for good behavior and all that.” He smirked. “I have to say, I’ve never played by the rules of your pack. Goliaths push and break their own rules all the time. I have no idea how Analie is holding up so well. Gavin taught her to be the biggest upstart in history.”

Analie entered the apartment hunkered over and her head lowered. She closed the door behind her and rushed to her room.

“Hello to you, too,” Christoph called. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Analie muttered, then slammed the bedroom door behind herself.

Christoph blinked. “Well...fine.”

He turned back to Mouse. “If I ever get fuzzy, I promise I’ll do my best not to do anything to freak you out. You should have seen how Wesley and Thad reacted to Analie when she was full wolf.”

Mouse frowned at him, wondering if he was playing dumb on purpose, or if he didn’t know his own pack’s history. Considering she’d found that Analie had been ignorant of some things, and that Christoph was self-admittedly of middle-rank, she was starting to think that only the higher-ranking Weres from Goliath must be told about their true nature.

Considering Ashi’s attitude, it could be dangerous if he found out and was ever released from the collar. Even Christoph could be a danger. Though she debated on mentioning something about it, she finally decided against it, instead choosing a “safe” answer and shift in topic.

I would imagine so. I saw when Analie shifted the other day.

Most of us are happy here. We are given a place or carve one out for ourselves. The donor structure is something like that. The humans who live here are mostly the ones who are next in line to be turned, and all of them work for Alec in some way or another (except for Jessica, she’s in school). Everyone else gets to stay in their own homes, and we call on them when we need them.

Though some of the humans Alec contracts are shared between those of us who aren’t so good at getting our own donors, a few get claimed and only belong to one person, like you to me, Jessica to Alec, Joy to John, etc. Depending on who you’re the donor to, you also get seniority that way, too. Jessica is the most senior donor right now.

Clarisse has had a betting pool going for the last four months on when Jessica will cave and let Alec turn her. I put my money on two months after she finishes her internship.

Christoph desperately wanted to avoid the subject of getting turned into a vampire. It made him feel sick.

“In Goliath, you earn your rank by gaining the respect of others, either by beating up people or working to better the pack. For most, it’s a combination of the two. Ashi has gained rank almost exclusively by pulverizing those a rank or two above him. He’s a very high-ranking Goliath, very close to the rank of deputy.”

He glanced toward Analie’s door. “Analie is one of the lowest-ranking pack members. She’s been trying really hard to rise, but for the lowest of the low, that’s nearly impossible. She can be a real scrapper, but for some reason she’s trying to climb by learning all the ceremonies, histories and so forth of Goliath, and doing the jobs no one else wants. I’ve never seen anyone try to climb rank like that.”

Mouse seemed puzzled at this. She thought about it and then wrote down her response.

It’s not like that with us. The eldest is usually the most powerful and goes undisputed as the leader. Another elder/powerful vampire might try to take down the leader, but whoever the master is, they appoint their own following. Most of the time, they have a chain of eldest/most powerful down to the youngest/weakest. It’s a little different here. Alec appointed John as his second because he’s so good at figures and running businesses, even though he’s so much younger than, say, Angus.

We all have our own jobs, and answer up a chain of command, with Alec at the top. John doesn’t want Jessica turned because he thinks she’s going to replace him. I think he has good reason to be worried.

She smiled bitterly at that. No love lost between the two.

Christoph read the note and nodded.

“The alpha picks his own deputy, but you can gain rank right up to that point. Gavin’s the pack scholar—he knows everything there is to know about Goliath. Barry’s in charge of us at wartime and reports to the deputy. That sort of thing.

“Anyone can gain rank, get pretty damn high. And anyone can challenge the alpha for his position. It just comes down to if you live through it or not.”

Mouse nodded.

An interloper trying to take an already claimed city will be attacked by everyone who answers to the Master of that city if they find out about the attack beforehand. We do not sit back and let our own get hurt. It’s not done often, but when it happens, usually a lot of people die.

She made a face, and then got to her feet, stretching with a silent yawn. It was a remarkably human gesture, except for the glimpse of fang. She scribbled down a few words before moving toward the kitchen, looking at him over her shoulder.

I am going to make tea. Would you like some, or can I get you anything else?

“I’ll try some tea,” Christoph said. “I don’t usually drink it. Thanks.”

The differences between vampires and werewolves had unsettled him. He wondered about Royce and if he loved his pack, or if he just considered himself the ruler of it. Amberguard had no love of itself, but other packs like Walker and Goliath had an alpha that truly cared for their packmates.

Christoph couldn’t see Royce loving anyone like a werewolf could love someone.

Mouse made a thick, black tea sweetened with honey and lemon, the hot mug pressed into his hands as she settled back down beside him. After taking a sip of her drink, she set it aside and wrote again, brows knotted to little furrows. She’d delayed long enough.

You and Analie have said before that your pack has a lot of bad stories about vampires. I’m sorry if I scared you before. I’m sorrier that you had to deal with John.

I thought about what you said and how hard it must be for you to be here. If you don’t want to let me bite you, you don’t have to. You can stay my donor in name only so John will stay away.

While unhappy to give this to him, she kept any signs of her displeasure hidden under a neutral mask, waiting patiently for him to respond to her offer. As much as she liked the idea of sinking her fangs into him, she didn’t want it to happen under duress.

Christoph stared at the note. Now
that
was tempting. He took a sip of his tea before answering. He really couldn’t believe he was going to say this.

“Well, that’d be kind of shitty to you, wouldn’t it? I’d rather not be a dick. Thank you for the offer, though.”

Congratulations! You’re officially bat-shit
insane
!

Mouse had resigned herself to the inevitability that he would jump on the offer, so wasn’t expecting his reply.

She stared, mouth agape once it hit her.

He
wasn’t
rejecting her!

The written word wasn’t going to do her any good here. She pulled the mug he was holding out of his hands, put it down on the table, and rapidly followed up by throwing her arms around him. Never mind that it would terrify the living hell out of him, she was just too excited and happy to be self-conscious. She simply hugged him to show him how pleased she was with his answer.

Christoph hadn’t expected it either, but his reaction wasn’t very surprising at all.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaha, hahaha, ha, oh, it’s a hug, okay, that’s cool, hooo... okay... hahaha... ha... hoooooo...”

He returned the hug, his heart smashing against his ribcage at Mach Five.

As much as Mouse was very much aware of his fear, she was too pleased to be put off by it. She
had
practically thrown herself across his lap. Her grip tightened marginally when he returned the gesture, shifting to place a light kiss on his cheek before pulling back to beam at him. To keep him from being more uncomfortable than ever, she settled in her own seat, taking up her tea once more and watching him with bright eyes over the rim as she took a sip.

He was too afraid of her to risk making him regret his decision. She thought about it for a second, then took up her pad and scrawled a new note.

Go and get some sleep. It’s been a long day, and we can always talk more tomorrow.

He seemed happy enough to be given the reprieve, quickly rising to his feet. She smiled despite herself, nodding at his hasty goodbye, gathering up the cups to take to the kitchen as he rushed out.

Now, she wondered, just when would he lighten up enough to let her do it?