No Man's Land (12 page)

Bars, strip clubs, casinos were all businesses that vampires had a hand in. Kelly hadn’t been old enough or high enough to be privy to all the operations of the family, but she’d managed a lot of the accounting for the various holding corporations. Strip clubs weren’t just good business, they were easy hunting grounds. Drunk men were plenty, and the frequent drug activity made it easy to feed from the dancers too. Blood laced with cocaine had a certain spicy flavor, a quick rush. It was very nice.

Kelly prowled the outer edges of the club and planned a strategy. She’d look for a dancer or a customer drunk or high to the point of losing consciousness, and then she’d make her move. Grabbing an empty beer bottle from the parking lot, she smashed it against the curb and held the neck, testing the sharp edge with a finger. It would look like a drunken fight, a barroom brawl gone wrong, and a victim that was drunk or high would likely not remember enough to tell the police.

It took great patience. She squelched down the anger and the hunger inside her and waited. Man after man left the strip club. Two o’clock came and went. Finally, around four o’clock, a single man staggered out the door and made his way to the far edge of the parking lot. He fumbled for his keys and dropped them on the ground. Weaving side to side, the guy reached for the keys and lost his balance, face planting on the dirt.

Well, this one should be easy
, she thought, tying her overly large t–shirt in a knot under her breasts before staggering up to him as if drunk. Not that it probably mattered. This guy was so far gone, she could have been a donkey–faced leper and he’d have hit on her.

“Hey,” she slurred. It wasn’t hard with her missing teeth. “Got a cigarette I can borrow?”

The guy stumbled getting to his feet, and Kelly thought for a moment that he would go face down in the dirt again. He stared at her with huge bleary eyes.

“Cigarette?” she asked again.

He stared at her and patted clumsily at his pockets.

Oh, for Christ sake
, she thought. What did she need to do to get this guy in the car so everyone coming and going wouldn’t be witness to a bloody mess?

“Wanna screw?” That might work. He was at a strip club, after all.

The man’s eyes bugged out in surprise. He nodded, looking down her body and swaying against the car. Picking up his keys, Kelly beeped off the car alarm and helped him in the driver’s side where he slumped against the steering wheel. At least she wouldn’t need to worry about him actually trying to take her up on her offer.

Carefully closing the driver’s door, Kelly glanced around, scenting the air and listening carefully for any sound that might indicate her werewolf minders had caught up with her. Mike always made a racket, as if he didn’t care that she knew he was following her, but Jaq was nearly impossible to detect. The only werewolf smell that she caught was old and faint, and she got none of Jaq’s distinctive icy pine scent. Clear sailing — for now, but she’d better make quick work of this and get back.

Kelly slid into the passenger side, carefully keeping one eye on the club’s door to make sure she was not observed. The man made a snoring noise and lurched to the right, collapsing on top of her in a heap, and crushing her at an awkward angle against the car door. The overwhelming odor of alcohol fumes crashed over her senses.

“Ugh. Get off me.”

He snored in response. Just lovely. The guy felt like he weighed a million pounds. As a vampire, Kelly should have been able to easily move him, but for some reason this was difficult — another indication of her weakened state. Finally she managed to shove him aside and scoot herself into position. Again ensuring no one was in view around the parking lot, she sliced his wrist with the broken beer bottle. The guy didn’t even grunt.

It was hard and messy work. The blood spilled out across the man’s wrist and Kelly found herself frantically chasing every drop, cutting him again and again as it clotted and slowed. The blood hit her starved system like a hammer, making her feel oddly weak and giddy. Or maybe it was the alcohol rushing to her head. Wow, this guy was drunk, drunk drunk.

More. She needed more. It wasn’t just the alcohol in the man’s veins seizing her control and making her greedy and reckless, it was her body taking over her common sense — demanding what she’d been without for too long. The taste pushed her over the edge. Warm, like sweet silk on her tongue, the burn of alcohol a nice compliment to the rich flavor. Some small part of her brain screamed at her to take only a pint and walk away, to be cautious, but she ignored it. There may not be another chance — not for a long time. She battled with her conscience, starvation getting the upper hand. So what if she killed him? This was just a human. He didn’t matter, and she desperately needed every drop he had to give.

Again and again she sliced the unconscious man as each wound started to clot. She should stop. She needed to stop, but her body had a will of its own, and she just couldn’t pull away. It was getting more and more difficult to suck blood from the man, and she felt his cool flesh against hers, heard his heart stutter.

“Stop it! Stop!”

Strong hands grabbed her shoulders and ripped her from the car as if she were a rag doll, tossing her aside to the gravel. Gripping the bottle defensively, Kelly looked up into silver eyes in a freckled face.

Jaq loomed over her, but instead of attacking Kelly, she began to berate her brother for his carelessness. “I swear he
wants
you to do something like this so he has an excuse to kill you. I’m going to kick his ass for this — off playing poker when he’s supposed to be watching you. Worthless cur.”

Kelly waved the bottle at her in what she hoped was a menacing fashion. Sometimes there was one Jaq, and sometimes there were two, fuzzy and blurring together. How much alcohol had been in that guy’s blood?

“And you!” Kelly cringed as both indistinct Jaq’s pointed a finger at her. “What do you think you’re doing? I warned you not to go after any of the humans. The pack will have your head when they find out what you’ve done.” The werewolf looked at the man in the car and uttered a soft oath. “Stay there. Don’t move.”

Surprisingly, Kelly obeyed while Jaq crawled into the bloody car with what she was sure was a dead body. In a daze, she looked down at herself. Blood coated her hands and her shirt, splotches darkened her sweatpants. She felt the sticky texture of it down her chin and neck and guiltily licked her lips. Oh God, she’d killed him. She’d lost control and killed someone. She needed to run. Get as far away as possible before Jaq called the police. Or worse, called in the other werewolves. She should run.

Where would you go?
The little voice in her head taunted. She had nothing. A vampire wandering another’s territory, covered in bloody too–large clothing wouldn’t exactly blend into her surroundings. Plus there was that annoying lack of cash. Her only hope to get back to her family was doing this spy job for the Master. If she left, there would go her only chance of redemption. If she stayed, the werewolves would kill her. The little voice laughed. Either way, she was dead. Dead like the man in the car. Horror gripped her. She’d killed someone — someone whose only crime was being drunk at a strip club.

Power danced through her as her body absorbed the blood. Kelly breathed out and stretched her hands in front of her, dropping the broken bottle to the ground. How much of her sensation of invincibility came from the large infusion of blood after near starvation and how much was from the alcohol her victim had been swimming in? She was invigorated. Ready to eat a decent meal of solid food, rest a bit and begin looking for Kincaid scouts.
Or fight for her life
, she thought, eyeing Jaq’s shadowed form inside the car.

A strange light filled the vehicle, almost as if the werewolf had turned on one of the interior lights, then it faded, and Kelly saw the woman’s long legs as she awkwardly backed out of the vehicle.

“What were you doing?” Jaq’s voice was barely controlled fury, and Kelly stared up at her, dazed. The werewolf practically glowed, her eyes shifting from silver to gold in the moonlight. She should be scared. She should be bounding to her feet ready to run or battle, but all Kelly could do was gawk drunkenly at the woman looming over her.

“Dinner. Was hungry.” The words slurred from her in an incoherent ramble. “I didn’t mean to kill him. Didn’t want to kill him.”

Jaq moved her hands as if she’d like to wrap them around Kelly’s neck. “I
fed
you. I brought you food, gallons of blood. Are you insane, attacking a human like this? Do you want to die?”

No, she didn’t want to die. Kelly struggled to clear her head, realizing that if she had any hope of making it through the night, she would need to get this werewolf to understand.

“I was starving. Blood has to be human. Live prey. Too long without human supply and we die. Animals are only good for a day or so.”

The other woman put her hands to her face, and Kelly saw something sparkle in her eyes and on her cheek. Was she crying?

“Why didn’t you tell me?
Why
? I could have let the others know about your needs, taken up some kind of collection from the human neighbors — a blood donation or something.”

“No! Less humans who know, the better,” Kelly slurred. “Need live prey, but I’ve got no fangs. People will know. It will hurt them and they’ll kill me, so I thought this drunken man would be best, but I was too hungry. Or maybe he was too drunk. Wow was he drunk. I don’t think I can stand up.”

“If you don’t want anyone else to know, fine, but I can’t have you slicing up humans like this. That guy nearly died. He would have if I hadn’t helped him. You can’t do this anymore. Others will find out, and I won’t be able to protect you. No more humans. You’ll have to figure out something else that will work. Do you understand? I won’t be able to protect you from either my pack or the humans if you keep doing this.”

Kelly tried to stagger to her feet only to fall back onto her rump in the gravel. “I’ll be outta your territory soon. Just gotta find a Kincaid spy and interrogate him.” She collapsed in a fit of giggles at the idea. “I do it and my family takes me back. Two weeks tops. If I can make it that long, I’ll be back home with my family.”

Jaq did not seem to find the idea as amusing as Kelly did. “You’re kidding me. They’re just toying with you. They’re not going to take you back, no matter how many hoops you jump through for them.”

“It’s the vampire way,” Kelly announced, again trying to stand. “I prove my worth, and they take me back.”

Jaq moved forward and helped her up, stooping to support the vampire’s weight with her arm. “Then I’ll figure something out. I told you I’d help you with the vampire scouts. I’ll help you find and interrogate this spy, and we’ll find a way to get you enough blood to stay alive. Just no more feeding on humans. No more.”

“Can’t promise that.” Kelly stumbled forward, leaning heavily on Jaq. “It’s like trying to fast while standing next to a buffet. Death by starving, death by werewolves — I’ll take my chance with the werewolves.”

“Well, you’re going to have to figure out a way to restrain yourself. Actually, how about werewolves? We’ve got a pretty high pain tolerance, and we heal fast. Maybe you could use us instead?”

The whole idea was bizarre. Werewolf blood. Would it taste like it smelled? Dogs and old ham wasn’t very appealing, but if it kept her alive it might be worth trying to choke down. “Don’t know. I could try, but I can’t feed from you. Can’t do it.”

“Why not?” Jaq sounded offended.

Kelly patted her shoulder. “Friends aren’t food. Don’t eat friends.”

Kelly could have sworn she heard a quickly muffled snort from the woman beside her. “Well, that’s nice, but you need to eat. Don’t you vampires drink each other’s blood sometimes?”

“Oh. My. God. No.” If anything sobered Kelly up it was the idea of drinking another vampire’s blood. “That’s disgusting. Why would we do that?”

“Well, I thought during sex, or when you turn humans?” Jaq seemed rather amused at Kelly’s reaction.

“Ugh, no way. You watch too much television. Or porn. There’s a gland connected to our fangs for turning. And drinking a vampire’s blood? Ugh. Just …yuck.”

Jaq laughed softly. “Okay. Good to know. Come on, Toothless, let’s get you home.”

The tall woman half supported Kelly as they moved toward the shelter of the woods.

“Did I kill him? He going to be okay?” Kelly nodded at the car.

Jaq sighed. “Yeah. He’ll wake up perfectly healthy, just covered in blood. Not even a hangover, which I can’t say for you. You’re going to be sick as a dog tomorrow.”

14

N
o, seriously, Jonah. We need to figure out a way to get her some human blood or she’s going to die.”

The Alpha snorted, hanging up a pheasant and a brace of quail on a rack inside the pole barn. Early–morning sun streamed through the gaps in the siding, hitting the red and gold plumage on the pheasant. Jaq had met Jonah coming in from his hunt. As usual, he was without gun or a bow. Running down a deer took skill, but the dexterity it took to catch birds with only teeth and claw wasn’t lost on Jaq. Jonah may look like every other human in West Virginia, but even among werewolves his hunting skills were legendary.

“I’d rather she die. It would make it all a lot easier. No, Jaq. No exceptions. I’m not having anyone preying on our human neighbors, let alone some skanky New Jersey vampire.”

Jaq bristled, but held her temper. “Well then, how about we let her have werewolf blood? Just a pint a day. We could run it like a blood donation clinic.”

Jonah examined his catch before turning a stern eye on the other werewolf. “Jaq, my girl, you have surely lost your mind. Imagine that for a moment — werewolves sittin in a chair all nice and quiet like while some vampire chews on their arm. No one is gonna be a blood donor for your pet monster. I’m doin all I can to keep them from ripping her into little bitty pieces. Kill her or drive her out of our territory, because I can’t hold them all back for much longer.”