Bled Dry (5 page)

“In all fairness, the other party needs time to choose another candidate and then campaign.”

Alexis understood. She was all about fairness, being a prosecutor. When it worked in her favor. Or her husband’s. But she was tired of the endless banquets and cheesy speeches. Most nights when she wasn’t doing consulting work—daysleeping had killed her prosecutor’s career—Ethan expected her to paste on a smile and a dowdy suit and play Laura to his George. But the problem was, Laura Bush was a nice woman, and Alexis wasn’t. It taxed her patience to be pleasant to people she didn’t like.

“Well, I still think it sucks. And what’s up with you having to basically be nominated again?”

“In light of recent circumstances, it seemed wise to take another primary vote and ensure I am still the candidate with the most popular party vote.”

He was so good at talking political BS. “I’m sure you are. And by the way, what happened to Gwenna’s daughter? I got the feeling you were keeping something from Brittany.”

Ethan turned away from her—one of his lie tells—and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s probably irrelevant to Brittany’s situation.”

“What is?”

“That my niece went insane in her twenties and killed herself.”

“Do you know who Brittany’s father is?” Corbin asked Carrick, having cornered him in the casino several hours later. He had made sure Brittany was home, safely tucked in her apartment, and Ethan’s wife was swimming laps in the casino’s indoor pool, so they would not be interrupted.

Carrick looked at him sharply, before glancing back out over the casino floor. They were seated at a table in the casino’s five-star restaurant, on a balcony that jutted out slightly into the action of the floor, yet kept them above the noise. They had drinks in front of them, since a vampire could digest liquids but not solids, and a serving staff that knew to leave the owner of the establishment alone.

“Why?” Ethan asked.

“Because it would be beneficial to know if he has a particular recessive gene I have run across in both mortals and vampires.”

“So what if he does?”

Corbin tried not to feel frustrated. He realized Ethan was trying to protect Brittany, but Corbin didn’t think he could explain one hundred years of research in genetics to Ethan. “It’s complicated, but you know that vampires carry a virus for vampirism that is transmitted through saliva and blood, yes? Well, that virus lies dormant until a person is drained of blood. The virus is activated, the person feels the urge to replenish their damaged blood cells by drinking blood, and the change is complete. The question in my research has been if I can inhibit the virus even after a body has been drained, even after years of living as a vampire, and reverse its effects. In essence, return a vampire to mortality, with a dormant vampire virus. I believe the answer is yes.”

“Okay. This is shaky territory, Atelier. You know as well as I do this sort of knowledge could split the Nation into two camps. As it is, there are plenty of Impures clamoring for vampire population growth.”

“I know. And what none of them understand is that they are the very key to true vampire procreation because, statistically, a large number of them have the gene from their mother. Vampires can only mate and create a child if they or the mortal woman has the recessive gene I mentioned. Vampires without it who copulate with mortal women without it will never create a child. But what happens when a half-breed Impure, like Brittany, mates with a vampire? I have the gene, and Brittany got it from her mother. I have the active virus, Brittany has the dormant virus. If Brittany has the gene from her vampire father as well, our child gets essentially a double dose of the virus and one whole reproductive gene.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Corbin looked out at the flashing lights of the casino, thoughts troubled, self-recrimination great. He had known the facts, but he hadn’t done anything about them. He had been focused on the creation of a drug to inhibit the virus, not on reproduction. “It means that our child will be born immortal, with no need to feed on blood. Essentially, a superbaby.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Bloody hell.”

“This cannot be found out. No one can know this, or my child will be in danger, Carrick. Those who want growth, like Donatelli, they’ll want this baby. They’ll want to understand how to re-create him, how to generate a superrace, if you will, and that I cannot allow.” Corbin shifted, uneasy, angry. “You know how Brittany is, what a wonderful woman she is. This child has every chance, and every right, to have a normal life with her as his mother. That is what I want, that is what Brittany and our baby deserve, and I cannot let anyone hurt either of them.”

“You have my complete support, Atelier. I don’t want Brittany or the baby hurt, either. But I don’t know who Brittany’s father is. Only her mother knew that, and she’s been dead for fifteen years. I’m not even sure the vampire who slept with her knew there was a child. If he did, there is no evidence of it.”

“I have a DNA database of about twenty percent of known vampires. I can run Brittany through it and see if we can find a genetic match.” He would have to secure a sample from her. The night he had drawn her blood, the night they had conceived their child, he had actually left without taking the vial filled with her sample off her dresser. The whole reason for entering her apartment had been to ask her for a donation, and he had just left the blood sitting there. Utterly ridiculous.

“You have a DNA database? How the hell did you do that? Do you have my DNA?” Ethan looked outraged.

“Yes.” Corbin shrugged, feeling just a little sheepish. “It’s not difficult to collect, you know. A stray hair here or there, a glass left sitting there with saliva, skin, blood... ” He trailed off at Carrick’s expression.

“That is just wrong, Atelier. That’s stealing.”

“It is not. If you leave your DNA lying about, it becomes public property.” He wasn’t going to apologize for it. He wasn’t a criminal or an evil scientist. He was conducting his research to give vampires
choices
. “The point is, I know who has the gene and who doesn’t.”

Ethan shook his head, leaned forward onto the table. “But what you don’t know is that nine hundred years ago my sister gave birth to a child, just like yours will be. My sister was an Impure, though I don’t know who her father was. I do know, however, who the vampire father of her child was. And I do know that my niece gave every appearance of good health, and no sign of ever needing blood.”

Corbin stared at Carrick, disbelieving him. “There was a child? Who was the father?” He knew Carrick’s sister had been married to Donatelli, who was interested in vampire population growth, and who had been Carrick’s presidential opponent until he had suddenly dropped out of the race. But their marriage had been recent, only a few hundred years ago, he thought, not nine hundred.

“It doesn’t matter who he was, because he didn’t know about the child, and I know he’s no longer active in the Nation. I told you to reassure you about the baby, but I respect my sister’s privacy.”

“I understand. Thank you for sharing what you have.” It did reassure him, though he’d been certain his baby wouldn’t need blood once he had thought through the biological repercussions.

“What happened to your niece? Did she have a normal life span?”

Ethan shook his head. “I’m sorry to say that my niece took her own life as a young woman. She did it thoroughly, through decapitation.”

Corbin immediately regretted the question. “Good God, I am sorry, Carrick.”

Ethan nodded. “Yeah, me, too. So how many vampires have this gene?”

“Of the twenty percent of known vampires I have tested, only ten percent have the gene. So allowing for a margin of error, I would suggest between one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty vampires out of our population of ten thousand. Each of those men are capable of producing innumerable offspring with women who carry the gene. I am one of them. You are not.”

Carrick sank back in his chair, exhaling quickly. “Well, that’s a relief. It’s good to know I didn’t scatter a bunch of kids around over the centuries and not know I was the culprit.”

Corbin winced. “Reassuring for you.”

“Sorry.” Carrick made a face.

“Zat is all right. I am certain Brittany is the first woman to carry my child.” Because generally speaking, Corbin wasn’t intimate with women. He approached women, he charmed and flirted, he coaxed them into pleasure glamours and took their blood for research, but he did not seduce them wholly. Until Brittany.

“So what do you need me to do? How do we protect Brittany and the baby?”

This was the hard part, the dilemma that Corbin had turned around and around in his head because he didn’t like it. But it was necessary and he knew it.

“No one can know the father of Brittany’s baby is a vampire. Everyone must be led to believe she is having a baby with a mortal man, who has no interest in her or the child. Then the child is just a quarter of diluted vampire genetics, and nothing special. No one will care. Then later on, when I marry Brittany, the assumption will be that I am the stepfather, that we have fallen in love the normal way despite her carrying another man’s child, and that I will adopt her baby. That way I am physically present in their lives to protect them both.”

The thought that no one would know that she was having his child, his flesh and blood, really bothered him, but Corbin didn’t see that he had a choice.

Carrick’s eyebrow shot up. “Atelier... what the hell makes you think Brittany will agree to marry you just for protection?”

Well, he wasn’t, but surely she would see the logic in it. “She will want what is best for the child.”

“Is it really necessary? It seems a little drastic.”

“Yes, it’s necessary.” He was certain of it. “Do you know what they will do if they get ahold of this information? There are those who would raise this baby in a lab, testing its abilities, pushing the limits to see what he or she is capable of. The logical conclusions of this scientifically are that my child can lead a skilled team of scientists to the creation of a superrace, either through forced breeding or via cloning.”

Carrick’s face reflected the horror Corbin felt. “Oh, my God, this makes my head spin. It’s a scientific nightmare.”

“Zat is the double-edged sword, Carrick. In discovering how to reverse vampirism, I have also unearthed the means to propagate it.” Corbin swished the liquid in his glass. “Now after tonight, I must stay away from Brittany. No one must have reason to suspect that I am the baby’s father.”

“What are you going to tell her?”

“Nothing. I don’t want to frighten her. You will watch over her, yes? Keep her safe while I keep my distance?”

“Of course.”

Corbin trusted Carrick and his crew of vampire security guards to protect Brittany, though he would have preferred to be with her himself. But he was convinced this was the best way to keep her safe and blissfully unaware of the potentially horrific consequences if anyone knew the real situation. “Then I would prefer she not know the dangers. She’ll only worry.”

Carrick shook his head. “Women don’t like that, Atelier... it will turn around and bite you in the ass later. Besides, how do you know Brittany won’t run around telling everyone you’re the father?”

“She won’t.”

Because Corbin had a plan.

Ringo had a plan and it involved Kelsey cooperating with him. He pulled her onto his lap and gave her a smile.

She tried to shift away from him. “I’ll crush you! You’re still not healthy yet.”

He rolled his eyes. “Kels, you weigh like ten pounds. If your bony ass can crush me, I deserve to die.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Her lip quivered. “I don’t want you to die.”

“I’m not going to die.” Ever. He still had trouble adjusting to his vampire status, the knowledge that he was around for the long haul, but there was no doubt about it. It would take a lot to snuff him out.