Thirst (22 page)

Daimhín’s
home was much more discreet than Maximus’s had been. Her guards
were scattered around the building and well-hidden except for the
obvious emptiness in my other sight. Her tastes were muted,
designed to be forgettable, just like her. I wished I could forget
all about Daimhín, but she wasn’t about to let me.

One of
her followers led me into a cosy living room where Daimhín sat
surrounded by vampires, and even a human or two. Daimhín signalled
for the others to leave. As they all trooped out, I couldn’t help
noting her vampires weren’t exactly starving. Most of Maximus’s
vampires had been gaunt and hungry looking, not to mention less
than loyal.

“Sit
down, Ms. Delaney.” Daimhín’s low voice was still commanding enough
to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I sat on
the chair furthest from her and waited. She smoothed her linen
trousers, her outfit as understated as her slow yet precise
movements. The leader of Irish vampires, Daimhín was pretty
ordinary looking, apart from her burgundy eyes; even her skin
wasn’t as sickeningly parched as the other vampires.

Feeling a
little queasy as I wondered what she had in store, I fidgeted under
her stare. I crossed my fingers and hoped it wouldn’t require a
murder. She wasn’t likely to be pleased when I refused.

“I have
work for you,” she said at last, each measured word a perfect
enunciation. “Nothing problematic. I’d like you to accompany one of
my children. He’s been undergoing a punishment set by the Council
for some time now. Tonight will be his first feed. You are to
accompany him. Ensure he doesn’t lose control.”

I stared,
my mind blank. “What?”

“Is this
a problem?” Her pleased expression sent my whole body on alert. I
sensed her testing my limits, first with Maximus’s death and now
with a potential vampire feeding frenzy.

“No
problem,” I said, surprising her.

“Good.”
She glanced at the door and raised her voice. “Rose, come back in
here.” Rose turned out to be a short, chubby human in her late
thirties. She greeted me with a pleasant smile; I wondered why
someone better suited to a school-run was hanging around with a
vampire coven.

“Rose.”
The sudden sweetness in Daimhín’s tone was a dramatic change from
the norm. “Tell Zion to release Jules from the cage and bring him
here.”

Cage?

Rose
beamed back at Daimhín then obediently trotted away. I couldn’t
think of anything to say to Daimhín, who proceeded to stare at me
expressionlessly. The more time I spent with the vampire, the more
freaked out I became—it was impossible to read her intentions. I
could have thanked Rose when she returned, followed by two
vampires.

A vampire
with the largest afro I had ever seen led the smaller one into the
room by the hair and shoved him toward. He landed in a ball at her
feet.

“Good
evening, Jules.” Daimhín’s lips twitched as though she were
covering amusement.

Jules
looked up at her; his long, blond hair covered his eyes so I
couldn’t see his expression. I stared at his hollow cheeks—so like
Arthur’s. Although I had said yes to accompanying this vampire to
his first meal in who knows how long, I had really intended to do
him harm. Now he reminded me of Arthur, the vampire I had taken
Carl from, and a little of the kindred feeling I experienced with
that vampire reappeared.

Crap.

“This . .
. lady will be joining you for dinner tonight. See that you mind
your manners.”

Jules
turned toward me and flicked his hair from his eyes with a jerk of
his head. His eyes were free from the scarlet tinge that signalled
a vampire. My own eyes had gained a tint of red once or twice after
ingesting blood. I wondered how long he had gone hungry to have
such pure green eyes.

“Of
course, you may join his meal, Ms. Delaney. The Council haven’t set
a quota on you,” Daimhín continued. I’d heard a few things about
the Council, and I fully intended to steer clear of them. The less
they knew about my existence, the better.

“Um,
yeah, that won’t be necessary,” I said, unable to tear my eyes from
Jules. Curiosity spread across his face as he sniffed the
air.

“Do what
you like,” Daimhín said. “Jules… Jules! Look at me. Go upstairs,
and get cleaned up. We don’t need you running the streets looking
like a castaway. Hurry up. Ms. Delaney, you may wait outside until
he’s ready.”

Dismissed, I wandered outside the gates. I was unimpressed
with my latest assignment. I couldn’t watch a vampire harm a human
and not step in. On the other hand, a major part of my core didn’t
want to see a vampire go hungry either. It didn’t feel fair, but I
knew how seriously screwed up of me it was to think like
that.

I needed
to stay on Daimhín’s good side, particularly when things were on
such an uneven kilter. I didn’t know what to do and, this time, I
had no one to ask.

Jules
leapt in front of me, surprising me. He smelled slightly less
repulsive, and his eyes sparkled with excited energy as he bounced
on the balls of his feet. I felt jittery just looking at him. If
his skin hadn’t been so grey and dried up looking, I might have
seen a teenager standing there.

“Let’s
go,” he said, and moved on without looking back. I wandered after
him but soon found I had to run to keep up. He jogged for at least
twenty minutes in what seemed like a totally random direction. My
dread built with every step; I didn’t have a clue what to do next.
Jules came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the street and looked
all around, reminding me of a dog following a scent.

This was
it—decision time.

Jules
rotated, one slow step at a time, his fangs already showing. He
tensed, then raced past, knocking me to the ground in his
urgency.

“Shit.” I
jumped to my feet and sprinted after him, trying to catch up. He
got out of my line of sight within seconds. I had messed up
already. Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard, using my other sense
to seek out Jules, to find that pocket of emptiness screaming,
“Vampire.”

A
scattering of voids dotted the nearby area. I decided to go after
the closest one, the one moving away. Fast. If I hurried, I might
catch him, but not before he approached a pulsing red source of
fresh blood.

Snapping
back to reality, I sped up until I caught a strong whiff of his
odour. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Puzzled, I paused, then
realised he must be inside a building already.

I spied
the open door just as a woman screamed. I had never heard such
terror come from a human’s mouth. I stormed into the building
faster than I could have imagined and found myself in an
ordinary-looking living room, ordinary apart from the cowering
woman in the corner.

Jules
crouched over her, and I could see why she looked so scared. His
fangs glinted in the light; his eyes were giddy with need. He
grabbed a handful of her hair and smacked her head against the arm
of a chair to knock her out.

Arms
outstretched, I jumped toward him without thinking, catching his
fangs with my hand before he could bite down on her skin. I could
only yelp in pain because he swung his arm around and whacked me
hard in the face even as we both tumbled through the air. Rabid
with hunger and utilising a scary amount of strength, he rolled me
over and dived on top of me. I grabbed his hair to stop him from
biting me again, but he pulled himself out of my grasp with ease.
The blood from my hand distracted his attention from my arteries,
just in time.

His eyes
intensely focused, Jules grabbed my hand tightly and lapped at the
wound even as I punched him in the head. He shifted his body,
seeming to barely notice the blows. He sucked harder, a harsh moan
coming from his throat.

I
frantically tried to worm my hand away from him. Suddenly, two
vampires approached and separated us by kicking Jules in the face
until he let go of my hand.

Even as
one vampire held him steady, Jules looked around for me with a
creepy sort of eagerness. I didn’t think he even noticed the other
vampires, he was so intent on getting back to me. Judging by his
expression, my blood didn’t taste half bad. Great, something new to
worry about.

The two
vampires belonged to Daimhín; I remembered seeing them both at her
home. I wasn’t scared, but I was worried. They stared me down,
giving me a few seconds to get off the floor. I couldn’t bring
myself to lick my wound, not in front of them, and especially not
after Jules had slobbered all over it. It stung badly, just like
the bite I’d gotten on my chest. I still had the scar from that
one.

“You’re
to see Daimhín tomorrow evening,” the vampire holding Jules said,
never taking his eyes off my hand. “Don’t be late.”

They
escorted Jules outside, leaving me alone with the unconscious
woman. I didn’t wait around for her to wake up but, after listening
to her heartbeat for a minute, I called an ambulance, just in case.
Who knew what her story would be, but people would likely assume
she’d been attacked, robbed, and probably hallucinated the bit
about the fangs.

I hurried
home alone, sick to my stomach at the thought of facing Daimhín
again. Things hadn’t gone according to plan—not at all. First, I
had let Jules run off without me. Then when I saw he was about to
feed, I got in the way. I had a feeling letting him taste me wasn’t
the best plan I’d ever had; it was lucky two of Daimhín’s boys had
turned up in time.

Wait. Why
had they turned up? I realised with a groan that they must have
been following us the whole time. Not good.

Making it
home unharmed, I ignored the vampires outside and ran into my
building to clean my hand. Fourteen times. Overkill, maybe, but I
was under a lot of stress, and fourteen was a safe
number.

My only
source of income was crumbling around me, my grandmother was
putting pressure on me to act like the past never happened, and all
of the people I thought might be my friends had either disappeared
or else weren’t all that trustworthy after all.

Counting,
safe numbers, and my normal routine were the only things keeping me
together. I was a bag of nerves all over again, worse, probably,
now that I knew what was out there in the world.

Convinced
it was finally clean of vampire saliva, I tentatively raised my
hand to my mouth and licked the bite marks. The blood didn’t stop
flowing. The wound didn’t heal.

The cold
presence, or spirit, as I’d taken to calling it, drifted across my
face, either trying to tell me something or to reassure me. I could
never tell for sure.

The wound
bothered me, it should have healed. I’d managed to heal wounds a
number of times.

“Maybe
it’s stress,” I said out loud. I couldn’t deal with any more
surprises.

***

The next
evening, after passing by a number of leering vampires outside my
home, I headed for Daimhín’s place again. I was so paranoid about
being jumped on by my stalker vampires that I kept the dagger
hidden under my long sleeves so I could easily grab it. Mostly, I
felt secure if I could touch it. It stayed by my hand in case
Daimhín decided she needed to punish me. If she wanted to end my
life, I could at least take one of her vampires down with
me.

Rose let
me in and accompanied me to Daimhín’s living room. I should have
worried about dealing with Daimhín, but I was just thankful my hand
had finally stopped bleeding.

“Chin up,
love,” Rose said, looking sympathetic. Even Daimhín’s pets knew I
was in for it.

Daimhín
didn’t clear the room this time. Jules sat at her feet and began
panting like a dog when he saw me. His eyes were a scarlet red; he
had obviously drank his fill, somehow. From Rose perhaps, as her
cheeks lacked the natural flush of the night before.

My
interest grew when I saw a familiar vampire sitting next to
Daimhín. Petite and pale, the intriguing child vampire’s eyes bore
light traces of pink. She stared right at me, but I couldn’t find a
child-sized vampire intimidating, even if I probably
should.

“Last
night didn’t go very well.” The look on Daimhín’s face told me she
had gotten what she wished.

“Really?
I thought it went great.” I scowled at Jules and hid my bitten hand
in my pocket.

Daimhín
leaned back in her seat and glanced at the child vampire. “Yes,
well, at least we know for certain what you are not capable of.
I’ve been thinking of another use for you. Courier work, the
occasional debt collection. Can you oblige?”

“Uh,
sure. Where and when?” Finally, something that wouldn’t test my
morals.

“Now.”
Daimhín moved to the mantelpiece; it appeared as if her feet only
skimmed the surface of the carpet. She opened a large jewellery box
and took out a square brown package. The child vampire’s eyes
widened slightly. I took a step forward, then thought better of it;
Jules’s fangs were out again. He licked his lips, still staring
intently at me. I held his gaze and experienced an odd sensation,
like cold raindrops on my skin. I shivered a little, and he looked
puzzled.