Night Huntress 06 - Eternal Kiss of Darkness (26 page)

“Hey,” the guy said in greeting when Kira sat next to him, Mencheres on her other side. She couldn’t bring herself to respond. Guilt and hunger competed in her. Could she really
bite
this young man and drink his blood?

The attendant pulled up a metal safety bar, checked to make sure it locked, then they were on their way into the next section of the ride. A recorded voice blared out from speakers inside the carriage as the narrator continued to drone on. It wasn’t dark to her eyes inside the ride, but with the various spots of shade, Kira knew the other guests would have a hard time seeing what occurred inside this aptly named Doom Buggy—except for the times when the ride deliberately twirled the buggies.

“I don’t think I can do this,” she whispered to Mencheres as the guy laughed and waved at his friends when the ride spun the carriages to briefly face each other.

His gaze was steady. “You must.”

The pain spreading throughout her body with ever-increasing intensity seemed to agree. Mencheres was right. She was a vampire now. She still might not be used to the idea, and she certainly hadn’t asked for this, but it didn’t change the facts. Either she learned how to harmlessly take someone’s blood, or she’d risk killing someone later when the need rose beyond her control, and there wasn’t a plasma-vending machine conveniently nearby.

Mencheres leaned forward, catching the laughing young man’s attention. His eyes flashed green before he spoke.

“Lean back with her into the corner. Say nothing. You feel no fear.”

That familiar complacent look settled over the young man’s face as he draped an arm around Kira and leaned them into the side of the carriage. She almost gasped. With half his body pressed to hers, his pulse seemed to drown out all the other noises around them, focusing her attention on that delicious, steady rhythm.

“The hand is safest until you have more experience. Then advance to the wrist, then the neck—but
never
bite the jugular unless you mean to kill,” Mencheres instructed in a calm voice. The ride entered a faux ballroom filled with images of dozens of dancing ghosts dressed in eighteenth-century attire.

Kira looked at them instead of the young man’s face as she slowly drew his hand to her mouth, reminding herself to exert no more pressure than she had when handling those eggs. If anyone could see them, all they’d notice was a couple huddled in the corner of the Doom Buggy, the man’s hand over a woman’s mouth as if urging her to silence. Her glasses hid her glowing eyes, and the young man’s hand blocked her fangs from anyone’s view when they popped out as that throbbing pulse beneath his thumb neared her mouth.

She closed her eyes, chanting “gently, gently” to herself as she pressed her fangs into the vein jumping against her lips.

The ambrosial flavor that immediately filled her mouth washed away her last vestige of hesitation. What she swallowed was richer than chocolate, smoother than cream, and it spread with luscious warmth all through her. Her mind hazily mused that this wasn’t anything like when she’d fed from those bags.
That
always had a faintly acidic taste and left her with a sense of wrongness, but this felt entirely natural. Like she was part of an ancient chain of life that was at turns sacred and mysterious, dark and beautiful.

After her fourth swallow, Kira’s eyes fluttered open. The young man’s face was the first thing she saw. She braced for an accusing glare, but his eyes were slitted and a smile of pure bliss wreathed his face. He’d pressed closer to her, until his head lay on her shoulder and his body was an insistent brand against her right side.

One look at his lap revealed that he was enjoying this a little
too
much. Kira’s gaze flew to Mencheres, but instead of jealous or censuring, his expression was faintly amused. Carefully, Kira pulled out her fangs, surprised when Mencheres gripped the boy’s hand before she could even ask what to do next.

“One way to heal the punctures is to cut your tongue on a fang and hold it over the wounds before you remove your mouth,” he said. “Or you could draw your thumb across your fang and press your blood across both holes. In either choice, preventing more blood loss and stained clothing is the intent.”

She thought it was ironic that the ride took them through a singing graveyard as she followed Mencheres’s directives. She opted to cut her thumb instead of her tongue, placing it over the twin punctures she’d made when Mencheres lifted his hand. Seconds later, when she checked, those puncture wounds were completely healed and so was the slice on her thumb. No evidence at all remained of what had happened, except the satiated warmth spreading throughout her body in place of that former gnawing hunger.

The guilt and shame Kira expected to feel was curiously absent. Instead, she felt better in a way that wasn’t only due to her lack of hunger. All the heartbeats and the warm bodies inside this building no longer felt like temptations seeking to turn her into a murderer. The people around her felt like
people
again. Who would have thought that feeding from a human would make her feel more connected to her lost humanity instead of less?

“Take your glasses down,” Mencheres said quietly. “Then look into his eyes and tell him he remembers nothing of what transpired except the entertainment of the ride.”

She shot a glance at Mencheres. “I can do that… already?” She felt worlds better, stronger even, but not like someone who could alter a person’s memory with a mere stare and a comment.

His mouth quirked. “Yes, already you have that ability.”

Kira tried to muster her inner hypnotist as she slipped her glasses down her nose, directing her gaze at the young man who still leaned against her with a dreamy smile.

“So, ah, nothing happened except, um, you liked the ride,” she stammered. God, that was a pathetic attempt at mesmerism. She’d have to do better to make this stick.

The young man sat up, that blankness leaving his eyes as the buggy started its trek toward a set of mirrors where the automated voice informed them that soon they’d see if one of mansion’s ghosts had hitched a ride in their carriage. Mencheres reached over and pulled Kira to him, his arms encircling her in a loose embrace.

“That
worked
?” Kira blurted to him in astonishment.

He still had that faintly amused expression. “Of course.”

She was overwhelmed with how smoothly everything had transpired when the young man turned to her with a grin.

“Look. You’ve got a ghost sitting on your lap.”

She looked at the mirrors lining the wall across from them to see video footage of a plump bespectacled man superimposed over her in the carriage. The sight of the three of them with their grinning ghostly passenger only added to the surrealism Kira felt. Her first feeding as a real vampire was graced by a fake ghost.

The ride slowed as the next room revealed the disembarking platform with its large conveyor belt. An employee took down the safety bar in front of them and the three of them exited the carriage. The young man waved at his friends with the same hand Kira had bitten before he walked away, never realizing he’d been involved in a true supernatural event on the fake haunted ride.

M
encheres and Kira were almost back at Big Thunder Mountain when he felt a shift of power in the air around him. For an instant, he tensed, but then that wave of energy struck a chord of recognition in him.
Bones.
How like him to be early.

“My co-ruler will be here momentarily,” he told Kira.

She took her sunglasses off as if just remembering she didn’t need them anymore. Her eyes hadn’t flared once after her feeding, and her manner was far more relaxed. He hoped she’d recognize the wisdom of forgoing those plasma bags in the future. Not only would fresh blood taste better and make her stronger, it would also satisfy her hunger more thoroughly.

He saw Bones and Cat part through the crowd on the other side of the roller coaster. His co-ruler did not look happy.

“Bloody hell, grandsire,” were Bones’s first words as he approached. “You’ve left behind a wreckage of burned bodies, dead vampires, missing persons, threatened Guardians, and video evidence of our race’s existence. Then you go on holiday. You really
do
have a death wish.”

Kira’s jaw dropped. Mencheres gave her hand a squeeze, noticing Bones’s sharp brown gaze follow the gesture.

“Not anymore,” he replied coolly. “I knew that establishment was being monitored; only a fool wouldn’t expect those rooms were videoed. Yes, I intended to kill those three vampires, but not anyone else, and certainly not while leaving a tape behind with my actions documented. I did not do this deed.”

“You were going to kill Flare, Patches, and Wraith?” Kira asked, shock plain in her voice. “I didn’t believe Radje when he said that…”

Mencheres glanced down at her. “They tortured you. Of course I was going to kill them.”

Cat cleared her throat in the tense silence that followed. “Uh, before this goes any further, let’s at least introduce ourselves to your friend. I’m Cat, and this is my husband, Bones. We’re part of Mencheres’s twisted little fang family.”

Kira shook the hand Cat extended to her after replying with her name. Bones shook Kira’s hand as well, but with a far more speculative gaze than Cat bestowed on her. Mencheres met his co-ruler’s gaze impassively, not answering the silent question Bones directed at him.

“Normally I would believe you, because you are the most patient, calculating person I’ve ever met,” Bones said, getting back to the original topic. His gaze flicked to Kira again. “Yet in this instance, I’m tempted to believe Radjedef’s assertion that you were motivated to act without your usual careful planning.”

“Is it safe to talk about this out here?” Kira asked, nodding at the families who passed by on their way through Frontier Land.

Mencheres gave Bones a challenging look. “It is if you weren’t followed.”

Bones let out a snort. “I was careful, grandsire.”

“That ‘grandsire’ thing is too weird, considering you look older than he does,” Kira muttered.

A dark brow rose even as Cat laughed. “You know, I never noticed, but she’s right. Especially now, with his whole baseball cap and Disneywear thing going on. Quite a different look for you, Mencheres. Don’t think anyone would recognize you like this.”

“Yes, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” Bones agreed, with another pointed look at Kira.

“You told him you weren’t the one who torched the club. If he doesn’t want to believe you, we should just go,” Kira said quietly, but with underlying steel in her tone. “I’m sure you have other friends who will be willing to listen to your side of the story.”

Mencheres felt a swell of pride as Kira squared her shoulders and returned Bones’s hard stare. She might have choice words for him later about his lethal intention toward those three miserable vampires, but all Kira showed now was her steadfastness—and her inability to be intimidated. She was a strong woman. Strong enough to survive this murky human and inhuman world once he was gone.

“That may be true, yet I don’t see anyone of them here,” Bones replied, encompassing the park with a wave of his hand.

“Nor will you see them. I’m meeting them without you,” Mencheres stated calmly.

Both of Bones’s brows went up. “Indeed? And why is that?”

“The less you know about my plans for Radjedef, the more that ensures the safety of our line if I do not succeed,” Mencheres replied, his tone hardening when Bones’s expression darkened.

“You know, I could really use a drink,” Cat said, again breaking the tension. “Kira, mind keeping me company while I hunt for some gin and tonic?”

Kira glanced at Mencheres. “I won’t be long.”

It both amused and touched him that Kira felt protective of him. How long had it been since anyone felt the need to shield
him
from others?

“Gin and tonic, huh?” Kira asked as she walked away with Cat. “I’ve got some bad news for you. I don’t think this park serves alcohol.”

K
ira’s prediction turned out to be true, and her new companion settled for a lemon slush instead. She was about to head back to Mencheres, but Cat waved a hand at a nearby table and benches.

“Maybe we should give the guys a few minutes by themselves. That way, they can burn off some excess testosterone. Sit with me?”

Kira could still glimpse Mencheres through the passing throngs of people, even if all the surrounding noise made it difficult for her to hear him. She eyed the redhead warily, but Cat’s smile was bland, devoid of any of her husband’s thinly veiled antagonism. Cat slid her lemon slush across the table when Kira sat down.

“Enough sugar to make a dentist cry, but it’s good.”

Kira took a sip to be polite, but then was unable to stifle her grimace at the taste. It was like wet sawdust.

“Sorry, not my favorite,” she managed, sliding it back over.

Cat took another gulp, unoffended. “Right, you’re a newbie. Nothing will taste good aside from blood for your first couple weeks. Then your taste buds will even out.”

Kira knew the woman across from her was a vampire; her lack of heartbeat had given that away the instant they met. She wondered how old Cat was. The tingle Kira had felt when she shook Cat’s hand was far less than the vibe Bones gave off.