Vampire's Thirst (The Awakening Series) (10 page)

D
uncan sat behind his desk and studied Natalie’s handwritten report in front of him. With a scowl, he reread one particular paragraph:
Big Tom keeps pushing for humans to be taken to the park for exercise, only now he’s also insisting it be once a day instead of three times a week as he’d asked before. In my opinion, his animosity toward vampires has increased, and I believe he’s looking for an excuse to start something. One of the last things he told me before I ended our meeting was “Sometimes a situation becomes so intolerable the only avenue left open is a good, old-fashioned revolt.”

Duncan scrubbed his hand over his jaw. If someone had told him how much damn time he’d spend behind a desk, he might have rethought his plan to kill the former enclave leader. Maybe he’d been too hasty in castigating Maddalene for her heavy-handed way of running things. Some people—vampires and humans alike—seemed to only understand the way of the world when it was explained through violent means. Maybe if he bent Big Tom over his arm and sank his fangs into the man’s neck, he’d finally get just who and
what
he was pissing off with his ridiculous demands.

It appeared he had two tasks taking precedence right now. First up was to find a doctor for Kimber and the other humans, and second was to nip Big Tom’s insolence in the bud. Because things were still so volatile from the change in leadership, Duncan couldn’t leave the compound for the length of time it might take to find a physician. By default, that meant it was up to him to deal with the rabble-rouser. He’d send Atticus and his team out for a doc.

As if his thoughts had summoned him, his second-in-command poked his head through the open doorway. “Got a minute?” Atticus asked.

Duncan motioned him in with a wave of his hand.

The other vampire sauntered into the room and settled into one of the leather armchairs in front of Duncan’s desk. “Any updates?” he asked.

To Duncan’s way of thinking, that attitude was one of the reasons Atticus made such a great right hand. He never waited to be called by his boss; he made it a point to check in regularly. Duncan knew part of it was that he liked to keep busy, and being stuck inside was a surefire way to drive anyone crazy. His lips tightened and he pushed back a fledgling surge of empathy for Big Tom and his cohorts. Their situation was entirely different. Atticus and his team could go out and have a good chance of surviving among zombies, but with the way the hordes seemed to be congregating together, Tom and the others would be slaughtered within a mile. Duncan knew the big human disagreed with him and thought as long as they had weapons they could protect themselves, but Duncan had seen how quickly a zombie horde could overtake a group of people, and he still was not willing to risk any vampires to provide an escort.

He blew out an aggrieved sigh.

“Man, now I know something’s up if you’re doing that.”

“Doing what?” He frowned.

“Sighing.” Atticus crossed his legs and curled his fingers over the ends of the arms of his chair. “What’s going on?”

Duncan hesitated while he pondered which situation to bring to Atticus’s attention first. He decided to go with Big Tom even though he knew Atticus had about as much patience for the guy as he did. He’d break the news about wanting him to locate and bring back a doctor for Kimber afterward. Worse news following bad news.

Duncan tapped his index finger on the paper in front of him. “Natalie thinks Big Tom and his cronies may be gearing up for a rebellion. I keep thinking we should just open the gates and tell them whoever doesn’t want to stay is free to leave.”

“And the problem with that would be…”

“They’d probably be slaughtered within sight of the compound.” The office chair creaked as Duncan leaned back. “That wouldn’t do the morale of the remaining humans any good.”

“Hmm. I suppose you’re right on that.” Atticus scratched his chin. “So you want me to go set Tom straight?”

Duncan pursed his lips. “Actually, no. I have another job for you, one outside the compound and I don’t know how long it might take.”

Atticus’s dark brows dipped. “Just what the hell do you want from me?”

Duncan told him how Kimber had been sick earlier. “And it struck me that we don’t have a physician here. If any of the humans get sick, we have no one who can care for them.”

Atticus’s jaw firmed. “Let me guess. You want me to go find a doctor for your girlfriend.” He gave a soft snort of disgust. “Really, we need a doctor to protect everyone else from Kimber.”

“That’s enough.” Duncan stood and leaned forward, bracing his weight with his palms flat on his desk. He wouldn’t allow his friend to disrespect the woman he loved, no matter how much the other vampire might feel it was deserved. “Look, I get that she hurt you. She didn’t do it on purpose—even you admitted to that. So why are you holding so hard on to this animosity of yours?”

Atticus stood, too, and began to pace in front of the desk, going from the outer wall to the inner one and back again. Duncan could see by the struggle on his face that his old friend searched for the right words to explain what he was feeling. Finally, his second-in-command said in a low voice, “I’ve never had anyone take me down like that, Duncan.” His silvered gaze met Duncan’s. “It’s not an experience I want to repeat. She…rattled me.”

“I get that. I do.” Duncan came around and leaned one hip against the front of his desk. He folded his arms across his chest. “You deal with this however you need to, as long as you stop disrespecting her and glaring at her whenever she comes near. She feels badly about it, you know.”

Atticus gave an abrupt nod and came to a stop in front of him. “But if she can do something like that on her own, what do you think three of them together could do?”

That was the million-dollar question. But he had to trust her at some point, or how much was his love worth? “That’s why I have guards on all of them, including Kimber.”

“I’ll put together a team and we’ll head out tomorrow at dusk.” A grin twitched at the corner of Atticus’s mouth. “I guess that means you’ll be handling Big Tom and his buddies?”

“Not that I want to, but he’s not going to respect anyone with lesser authority.” Duncan clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’ve got the easier job of it, I think. Someone gets in your way, all you have to do is chop off their head. Much as I might like to do that to Big Tom, I can’t.” He moved back around behind his desk and checked the time on the wind-up carriage clock on his desk. Calling out to one of the guards by the door, he asked him, “Please find Kimber and ask her and the other necromancers to come to my office.”

The vampire acknowledged the order with a crisp nod and hurried away.

When Kimber led the other two necromancers into his office several minutes later, she was the only one who seemed confident. The other two appeared to be scared shitless. As the guard closed the door behind them, Kimber breezed right up to Duncan and planted a kiss on his mouth. As she stepped back, he looked her over. Her face was still a little pale but otherwise she was as beautiful as ever. “How are you feeling?” he asked quietly, stroking his fingers down her satiny cheek.

“I’m fine.” She kissed him again and then moved around to the front of the desk. She perched on the edge so she could look at him as well as Maggie and Jason, who’d taken seats in the two leather armchairs in front of the desk. Atticus stood by the window where the two sitting in the armchairs would have to turn their heads to talk to him. Kimber stared at him a moment, then said, “Atticus.” Her tone, full of regret and uncertainty on how to proceed, bespoke of the rift in their friendship.

He didn’t move for a few seconds; then he dropped his hands to his sides and walked over to her. He stared down into her face before lifting one hand to softly brush her chin with his knuckles. “We’re good, Kimber,” he said. Leaning closer so that only she and Duncan could hear her, he added, “But if you ever do that to me again, our friendship will not save you.”

“I understand.”

Atticus shot Duncan a look as if daring him to take exception to his threat. Duncan held his gaze, knowing that if it ever came down to Atticus or Kimber, Duncan would back Kimber any day of the week. He let that knowledge sit in his eyes, and after his friend tipped his chin down, he knew the message had been received.

Kimber made the introductions and Atticus took his spot by the window again.

Duncan saw how the necromancers looked across the desk at him with a combination of trepidation and awe. “Am I the first vampire you’ve been this close to?” he asked.

“Well, no,” Jason said. “But you’re the king, right? That’s a bit…” He sighed. “Intimidating.” It was clear he didn’t like making that public knowledge. As if Duncan couldn’t sense his emotions anyway.

“As long as you follow the rules, you have nothing to fear here,” Duncan assured him. “As I’m sure Natalie has explained to you.”

“Oh, yes,” Maggie rushed to say. “She’s been great.” She faltered and looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. Apparently Jason wasn’t the only one a bit put off by him.

Kimber glanced toward the door, then looked at Duncan. “Shouldn’t Brigid be here, too?”

“I’d prefer as few people as possible right now, until we know more. If I decide to allow you to move forward, then we’ll bring her into it.” He leaned back in his chair and stared at Kimber. “So, tell us this plan.” He kept his gaze on her as she explained what she wanted to do.

“I want to capture at least three zombies and chain them up so it’s safe for us to touch them. We’ll have at least a dozen other zombies in a separate enclosure so we can use our mojo on them and see if we can put them down.”

Maggie squirmed in her chair, drawing his attention.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She nodded, then shook her head. “I’m sorry.” She rubbed her swollen belly. “I should be done with morning sickness, but sometimes nausea hits me at the oddest times.”

Kimber glanced at him. “Wastebasket,” she mouthed.

He scooted his chair back and pulled the metal bin out from beneath his desk. She handed it over to Maggie, who gave a shaky “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Kimber pointed to the door behind Duncan’s desk. “But there’s a bathroom, if you need to, you know, and you have enough time to get in there.”

Maggie gave her a smile and a soft, “Hopefully I won’t need to.”

“What do the two of you think of this plan?” Duncan asked after a moment, his gaze going from Maggie to Jason. “Are you certain you can pull it off?”

“I don’t know if any other necromancers have ever tried to combine their powers before. I never have, so, no, I’m not certain of anything,” Jason said. “But if it can stop the insanity, I’m all for trying.”

“Maggie?” Duncan prompted.

Clutching the wastebasket to her chest, she swallowed. “I’m willing to try, but”—she looked at Kimber—“you said it might be bad for my baby.”

“I can only tell you that it was a tremendous strain on my body,” Kimber said. “You’re already under stress just by virtue of being pregnant. But it’s your decision.”

Maggie nodded. “If you think it could work, I want to give it a try.” She paled and swallowed rapidly.

Duncan glanced at Kimber and was surprised to see a funny look on her face, an almost…guilty expression. Now, why would she look at Maggie and feel guilty? When Kimber’s eyes slid to his and the guilt deepened, he straightened abruptly. The way Maggie looked right now was the way Kimber had looked earlier, right before she’d puked her guts out. Without taking his gaze from his lover, he said, “Jason, Maggie, Atticus, would you please excuse us?” When the door closed behind them, he leaned back in his chair. “You have something you need to tell me, sweetheart?”

Her mouth opened, closed, opened again. Closed again. She swallowed. “Um…ah…” Her lips pressed together. “I was getting around to telling you,” she whispered.

“Telling me what, exactly?”

She jumped off his desk and faced him fully. “I’m pregnant.”

If his heart could beat, he knew it would stop with the shock of what she’d just told him. Shock gave way to joy that became muted by the misery he saw in her face. That a vampire could get a human pregnant was as close to a miracle as they could get. He wanted to shout his delight to the world, wanted to find a bunch of cigars and start handing them out. He and Kimber were going to have a baby! But she didn’t seem to share his elation. He stared at her and wondered if he imagined that she was a little thicker, that her breasts were already a little bigger. A primitive caveman inside of him beat his chest with pride. He’d given his woman a baby, a little copy of the best of both of them. “You’re not happy about this,” he stated, beginning to feel miserable himself.

“The timing could be better.” She threw out one hand and paced in front of his desk. “I’m having a baby in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, Duncan.
And
I have a piece of the Unseen inside me.” She stopped, her eyes misty as she met his gaze. “What if that does something to the baby?”

He didn’t like the sound of that at all. He went to her and drew her into his arms. “Is that possible?”

“I don’t know!” she wailed. She jerked away from him and walked over to the window. “It’s not like anyone’s ever had the Unseen inside them before. Not that I know of, anyway. At any rate, it’s not like there are any alternatives here,” she said with her back to him.

He went still. The only alternative he knew to having a baby was to
not
have a baby. “You don’t want it?” he asked, his voice raspy with pain.

She whirled to face him. “Oh, honey.” She rushed over to him and threw her arms around his waist, burying her face against his chest. “I want your baby, I do. It’s just…Hello! Zombie apocalypse. Cranky humans. The Unseen making me nuts. It’s all a little scary.”

“You’re not alone, Kimber.” He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently back so he could look into her face. “If given a choice, would I want you to be vulnerable with child at this place and time? Absolutely not. Am I thrilled you’re going to have my baby? Definitely.” He brushed his lips over hers. “We’ll handle this together.”