Vampire Elite (6 page)

“Do you want it? Honestly.” Arianna insisted.

“Yes,” Simone startled herself by answering. Her voice sounded distorted in her ears. She raised her eyes, finally, to meet Arianna’s.

“Then come to me. Don’t be afraid. Everything will be okay.” Arianna moved to stand before Simone. Adrenaline raced through Simone’s blood, all her senses accelerating. At the same time, she felt like an unprepared student taking an unavoidable test. Great Sekhmet, if only someone would help her, guide her. She would fail. Her legs shook.
 

Arianna took Simone by the shoulders and pulled her closer. “It’s okay,” she repeated. “Trust yourself. You know how to do it. It’s in your genes.” She tilted her head back, exposing her neck.
 

The situation was absurd. Simone was the predator here—it was she who was supposed to make the advances—but instead she awkwardly tried to escape, twisting in Arianna’s grip. Arianna brushed her lips across Simone’s cheeks and her tender fingertips fluttered against her spine like butterfly wings. There was a sensation of ghosts floating by and embracing Simone as they passed. She was descending into a void, completely losing herself—

The next moment a powerful electrical impulse almost ripped her apart. This was it: her inner predator, breaking the chains, bellowed in triumph and lunged forward. Dimly, Simone realized that she had lost all control over it.

“You leave me no choice,” she hissed. Surrendering to her inner beast, she sank her fangs deep into Arianna’s jugular.

As the warm gush of Arianna’s blood filled her mouth, Simone’s mind roared and spun in a whirlpool of exhilaration, then sank into a cosmic stillness, absolute nothingness. For a few moments, she ceased to exist ... and then she was floating among the stars, drifting mindlessly, but completely and utterly alive.
 

Simone awoke to the soft touch of someone massaging her temples.

“Simone? You okay?” a voice asked. Simone opened her eyes. Arianna was leaning over her, concern furrowing her brow

“What
was
that?”

“Did you like it? Arianna’s face was pleased, maybe even a little ...smug.

Simone struggled to sit up, Arianna helping her. “It was absolutely spectacular, the most incredible experience of my life, like dying and being reborn.”

Okay,
smug
was definitely the right word.

“What’d you do?” Simone felt her own face twisting into a caricature of suspicion.

“I wanted to see if I could do it. My father taught me the theory, but obviously I’ve never done it. And ... obviously I can.” Arianna wiggled her eyebrows, smug
and
all hocus-pocus.

Simone just stared at her.
 

“It’s an Amiti’s natural talent. When we share blood with vampires we can project our emotions, desires, and dreams into their minds. We can expand their reality and consciousness and create these profound experiences for them. I decided to create a death-rebirth experience for you to empower you. Can you believe that? All I had to do was
think
it—and it became your reality! Can you imagine how much power we can have?”

It was true. This hadn’t been anything like casually drinking blood from a glass. This was an out-of-body experience—astral projection, literally. Every part of her body, every cell, pulsated with life and joy. She felt strong, powerful, fearless, lethal, a true Sekhmi, what she’d always dreamed of being. She understood now why Sekhmi who were blood-bonded with Amiti were the strongest of vampires.
 

“Why doesn’t the bloodstocks’ blood give us the same feeling? In fact, now that I think about it, I always feel worse afterwards.”

“Blood is a powerful substance. It carries the life essence and emotional charge of whoever it’s taken from. Think of how much your bloodstock hate you. Since you’re absorbing their hatred along with their blood, you probably don’t just
feel worse
; you probably hate yourself just a little bit, don’t you?”
 

Left unspoken in Arianna’s question was an accusation, one Simone refused to address. Somewhere deep in her heart, she knew that Arianna was right; it was wrong to feed on bloodstock. But what else was she supposed to do—what else were
all
Sekhmi supposed to do? Simone couldn’t be expected to have all the answers. She did know one thing, though: that after drinking Amiti blood directly from the vein, blood charged with the best wishes for her, she was repulsed by the idea of going back to bloodstock. Trying to make it look easy, she struggled to her feet. She needed all of her strength, or at least the appearance of having it.

“Will you feed me from now on?” she demanded.

“Do you want me to?”

“Yes.” Simone felt a possessive rush. In general, Sekhmi considered Amiti to exist for them, to satisfy their need for feeding, but the blood-bond connoted an entirely different level of possession. In the eyes of Sekhmi society, Arianna now belonged to Simone. Sekhmi with true blood-bonds were the envy of everyone else in the Elite. But did Arianna know the rules? Did Arianna know that she was hers, Simone’s? Would she accept her as her master?

“Do you know that you are mine from now on?”
Please say yes.
Simone’s Sekhmi nature demanded to be recognized and obeyed, to be acknowledged as superior. If Arianna refused, Simone might have to kill her, she realized.

Arianna started to laugh.

“
Why are you laughing?
”

Arianna came to her and looked into her eyes: no fear, no submission. “Because it’s
you
who are
mine
from now on, Simone. Seriously, think about it. Amiti can blood-bond with as many vampires as we want, but each Sekhmi can only blood-bond with one Amiti. What does that tell you about who holds the reins?
 

“But I don’t like the mentality of ownership. I’d prefer to have you as my sister and my friend.” Arianna smiled as she said that last bit, but she was being intimidating. Simone only half recognized her.

“If you want me to be your friend, Sim, you have to change your rotten Sekhmi mentality. You do not own the Amiti. We are children of the Goddess and we’re a free race. If your people subjugated mine, it is
not
because our destiny is to be your bloodstock; it is because you,
vampires
, dwell in violence, and love is inaccessible for you. That is why you all feel incomplete,
always
, like something is missing in your life.”

Simone stared at Arianna, dumbstruck and blinking. Arianna was right: Simone’s life and death was in Arianna’s hands. She couldn’t demand to be fed; it would always be Arianna’s choice. Arianna also could choose Simone’s experiences, lifting her to heaven or dropping her to hell. It was Arianna who would decide whether or not to share her powers with Simone; Simone had no control over it. All she could do was to ask and wait. Simone hated it, but that was the reality she had to accept.

Damn, Sekhmi lived in delusion.

Chapter 5

The next afternoon, Arianna stood before her bed, which held one very large mountain of clothing and one very modestly sized suitcase. When Simone had been in there with her, Arianna’s expression had been friendly, excited, but now, her face was unguardedly forlorn. It was more than just the ratio of clothing to available space, but wasn’t that an apt metaphor? The poor girl had no idea what she was packing for, or whether anyone would help carry her luggage on the trip.
 

Simone would offer, of course, but that was only because Simone never had to carry her own bags; if she ever did, Arianna wouldn’t be getting any help from the princess.
 

Meanwhile, Herself was busy packing the car with an ice chest full of cold drinks and snacks for the trip, like they were going picnicking. And she was being all covert-ops about it, trying to avoid detection by Anock and Odji.
 

It might have been funny—except that it was really damned boring.
 

Anock and Odji each sat on one of the twin-sized beds in the cottage’s guest room, laptops running the real-time security camera footage of the wannabe escape artists. Anock had assigned himself to follow Arianna’s movements, leaving Simone to Odji, who was much more benevolently disposed toward her.
 

How ironic that Anock was feeling sympathetic, instead, toward this Amiti, who was now doing process-of-elimination packing, hurling the rejects into her closet.
 

What time were they supposed to be meeting the Legacy guys again? Not that it mattered; Anock was clearly watching the pace car, who wasn’t measurably closer to having her belongings in that suitcase, and Simone would know that Antar and company wouldn’t leave if she and the Amiti girl—the Amiti Queen, Anock reminded himself—didn’t show up.
 

This next step was going to be such a cakewalk, it was almost anticlimactic. It had been a year since the Guardians of the Lioness, the vampire counterpart to the Amitis’ Order of the Eye of Ra, had initiated surveillance on Arianna and her house. It had been Anock’s idea; he’d figured that high-level Order operatives would come to retrieve their Queen now that she’d been left on her own. And since Anock was the leader of the Guardians and one of Tor’s most trusted advisors—not to mention one of the King’s adopted children—Tor had agreed to the plan, entrusting Anock with the immense responsibility of keeping tabs on her so that Tor could step in as soon as the Queen’s powers began to manifest.

With Tor’s blessing, they’d installed security cameras throughout the house and grounds, gotten a Guardian operative hired as Arianna’s housekeeper, even managed to buy the house next door. For a year, they’d kept watch on Arianna 24/7, simultaneously using her as bait and keeping her safe.

It was more than a little disappointing that no one had showed up. They were all getting a little too experienced, he reflected; they’d all done their jobs a little too well. The Keeper, Marcus, with everything to lose if his daughter’s identity fell into the wrong hands, had kept his human identity very close to his chest.
Very
close. It had taken Tor, with all his resources and a known deadline, playing for high stakes, almost the full twenty years to find Marcus. And then ... Anock rarely wanted to smack his own forehead in frustration, but the cleanup crew he’d sent to intercept Amiti attending Marcus’s funeral had actually been
too
thorough; they seemed to have already caught everyone who knew about Arianna’s whereabouts. Which helped keep her accessible to Tor, but had made her lousy bait.

So it was probably just as well to let Simone play out her little field-trip idea of getting Arianna Sanctuary. Simone would probably find a way to screw things up, but with Odji and himself playing bodyguard, nothing serious could happen. If it did, he was prepared to give his life to protect Arianna on behalf of his father and his King.

Huh.
In her room, Arianna had clearly made some kind of decision and was now doggedly filling her suitcase. Wow, she could work fast when she needed to.

“Showtime,” he muttered to Odji, switching the security feed from the laptop to his iPhone. They started for the door; there was a Guardian vehicle waiting for them in the neighboring garage so they could tail the girls up to the city.

Oh, shit!
Simone had changed course and was heading down the hallway toward their room. Anock signaled frantically to Odji. They leapt back onto the beds and tried to look casual, like she was just interrupting some lounging around.
 

A hesitant knock; then after his answer, the door swinging open. Simone with a tentative smile on her face, like she was going to ask him a favor. But Simone never wore that smile—

Just as Anock registered that something was wrong, Simone’s wrist flipped up, quick as a whip, and shot two blasts of energy into the room.

Damn, I underestimate the princess
was Anock’s last thought as he lost consciousness.

Simone entered the room and gently placed the weapon she’d stolen from Anock on the bed next to him, then slipped out of the house and got in the driver’s seat of the Lexus.

Chapter 6

The sun hung low in the sky, finally dipping below the horizon, as the convertible sped along from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. The melancholy splendor of the picturesque hills in the slanting light matched Arianna’s mood. Even though she knew she was no longer safe anywhere, it felt like she was saying goodbye to all familiarity and safety along with her beloved redwoods. She might never see them again. She looked to the side to hide her tears from Simone, who had initially tried, very obviously, to cheer Arianna up, but now was thankfully leaving her alone with her thoughts.

The entire time, her intuition kept tugging at her, but she didn’t know what it was trying to tell her, its message drowned out by the heavy sadness aching in her heart. Or maybe, they were the same thing; these heightened senses were all so new to her.

She started feeling a little better once they reached San Francisco, the energy of the city and the relief of doing something—anything—about her situation taking hold of her. And Simone inspired confidence, weaving her way through the city as though she had spent her life there.

“Here we are,” Simone said as she turned into a multi-story parking garage several city blocks away from the main downtown area. “The Legacy has a helipad on the roof here.”

Arianna abruptly registered that Simone was on high alert, her head and eyes making repetitive circuits to the front and side, then in the rear-view mirror, and her grip on the steering wheel tight, white-knuckled. At the same moment, Arianna felt her own intuition leap inside her.
Something’s wrong
. With a rush of adrenaline, her senses went on full alert. Suddenly riding in a convertible lost all its glamor; it just made her a sitting duck.

“I think there’s a car behind us,” Simone was muttering through clenched teeth like she was afraid someone would read her lips. “Listen to me, Ari. I’m going to stop at the next stairwell. Jump out and run up the stairs to the roof. You can tell who’s Legacy because they all have arrow tattoos, above their thumbs, on their right hands. Undo your seat belt,
now
.”