The Blood Bargain (24 page)

“I get that. Do you have other siblings besides from Antonia?”

“Not anymore.”

“Sorry for your loss.”

“Do not be. I do not grieve him.”

“Are you ever going to be an elder?” The equivalent of the do you want kids question I suppose.

“No. There is a population freeze during the crisis of the unrested.”

“That is a pretty name for it.”

“While our food is in flux, we are not to increase our numbers. Vampires in a limited market for sustenance get....territorial and very violent. Many of our kind were put to earth during the outbreak as well.

“They were killed by their own kind?”

“Yep.”

“Harsh.”

“Balance of nature, if a field is all fox and no sheep, neither survive.”

My stomach rumbled in a very embarrassing manner, screaming in the soft night that I had neglected it.

D stood. “I will cook for you.”

“You don
’
t have to.”

“I will feed you.” My cheeks flushed at his words. He shoved the issue he had been reading into my hands.

“Sit. Read. I will call you when the meal is prepared.” I wasn
’
t one to be ordered around by anyone male or female. Yet I found myself yet again nodding my head at his orders and relaxing into the couch.

There was a whirl of motion in and out the back door. By the time I was on page five the scent of something delicious poured into the living room. A scent that made my stomach rumble, heavy seasoning salts and meat. Real meat.

“Dimitri what are you...” I called from the couch.

“Quiet now, you will spoil it.” He interrupted me, calling back.

With a patient smile, I settled back into the ratty couch and read on. Twenty minutes later there was an announcement of dinner. I stood with a stretch and wandered around the corner.

Two plates decorated the table, in the center there was some sort of meat and various vegetables.

“
Is that...” I blinked.

“Deer.” He smiled proudly. “What better offering to my own Athena?”

“It smells heavenly.” I approached the table slowly as if in a trance. Candles. He had lit candles in the center and arranged the silverware. I suddenly felt like I should be wearing a skirt. This was...this was a date. Our first real one.

“Sit.” I complied.

It had been a very long time since I had red meat. It was a wasteful thing to eat. All the animals we had we kept for eggs and milk, rarely they would die and their caretakers would serve them for dinner. I was not part of a farming household nor did my father ever exercise his

council status to obtain such food.

The tender cut felt foreign and familiar on my tongue. Delicious. There was no other word to describe it. Slightly salty impossibly juicy.

“I take it from your visage that you find it appealing?” A proud smile crossed his handsome face. I took another bite. Then a third.

“This is simply...amazing. You are just a completely awesome cook. I tried to cook something fancy once for
M
other
’
s day. Let
’
s just say I didn.t know meatloaf could catch fire.” I chuckled at the memory; Dad had been so pissed off, his arms flailing around like a chicken trying desperately to fly. I looked across at Dimitri, he had yet to put anything on his own plate.

“Aren
’
t you going to have some?” In
an instant his smile was gone. His skin paled, like someone who had just gotten off the tilt-a-whirl at the fair.

“I have to go.”

“D...” He stood, covering his mouth with his the back of his hand.

“Dimitri stop!” I barked at him. His eyes widened slightly, he lowered his hand showing me his elongated fangs.

“I have to go now.” He growled at me. “Or I will not be responsible for my actions.”

“If you are hungry I told you I would feed...”

Taking a step toward him I started to raise my arm. He hissed at me, a sound that made my blood run cold in my veins.

“Stay where you are damn you.” I froze he had never cursed at me. Ever. His eyes were wide. Not with anger but with fear.

Then he was gone.

My shoulders sagged as I sat back down to my meal. I finished eating in the quiet room, the meat losing some of its wondrous flavor in my sadness. Did I push him too far?

He was another race. I had forgotten that. It was a fact that deserved respect. No matter how many nights we tried to be nor
mal, our relationship just wasn’
t that. He was a vampire. Not some Goth kid with an attitude. He was flat out deadly and here I was playing house like he

was Mr.
Normalpants
with a little polo, a love of fine ports and a golf hobby. No, his activities consisted of killing deadheads, reading comics and drinking the blood of humans.

How stup
id was I to like him? This wasn’
t a
relationship. It couldn.t be. No more so than the sheep could run off with the wolf.
You can’t change what your heart
wants
. My mom’
s voice echoed in my mind. She told me that once, when I asked her why she put up with some of Dad
’
s annoyances. At the time I didn.t realize how true it was.

I scrawled a note for D and put it by the door to the basement. Then, leaving the beautifully decorated table exactly the way it was, I went to bed.

Later that night there was a knock at my door.

Twice before I was awake enough to answer.

“Yes?” I groaned.

“May I enter your chamber?” The velvety voice asked. He was back; I hadn.t heard the front door open.

As I sat up, I wiped the embarrassing drool line from my chin. Duh I hadn.t heard the door, I was sawing logs.

“Yeah come in.”

“My sincere apologies for earlier…I only wanted to do something nice for you. Create a happy memory of our time together, instead I acted like a savage and spoke unto you with harsh words. Please know that it was not my intent.”

“It
’
s alright. Sometimes I forget what you are.” He didn.t answer; he just loomed in the doorway, a pine scent drifted into my room. I got the feeling there was something else.

“What?”

“I read your letter.”

“Ah.” I rubbed my eyes sleepily. The words I had scrawled in a hasty emotional moment. A four letter word and a phrase from my mother.

“This is how you feel?” His voice was no more than a whisper, as though he was shocked at my statements.

“Yeah...yeah it is.”

“It
’
s wrong.”

“Who are you to tell me how to feel? Am I not yours?”

“You are mine.”

“Then what is wrong.”

“I don
’
t...I can.t give you what you need from life.”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don
’
t you try to tell me what I want or what I need. That
’
s a decision that I make for myself. I accept that you are different.”

“You may not live another week to have such an opinion.”

“Trying to talk me out of it?” Corded muscles flexed in the dark as he folded his arms.

“I already made that attempt, now it is merely a statement of fact.”

“A statement of fact because you worry for my safety.” He snorted.

“Come here.” I patted the bed beside me. “Hold me tonight. Hold me every other night until I leave. I want to feel like everything is alright, that the world is just you and me if only for a brief moment in time.”

I laid back and closed my eyes. It was not long before the bed depressed on the far side and strong arms enveloped me. In his surprisingly warm embrace I slept.

And I knew I would every night thereafter.

Chapter
14

When I was a kid I used to love James Bond movies. The suits, the gadgets, secret missions and of course the theme music. Classic one liners and fancy cars. As we lined up by the north east corner of the wall we had none of that. Sure most of us had on our butt kicking threads, but that's where the similarities ended. I had on my thick jeans tucked into steel toed boots, a plain white baby tee tucked in and covered up by my zipped up black leather motorcycle jacket with matching leather gloves. My bow on my back and a knife on my belt loops. I kept my little angel necklace tucked under all my shirts for good luck. The only good luck wish I would get, D hadn
’
t been there to see me off, during our nights together I found he retreated to the basement before the sun came

out.

Cole shot me a grin of apprehension and excitement, the smile looking out of place on his trained killer threads. He sported his dual katana,
camo
pants, a black thermal probably layered over something else and steel toed boots just like mine.

Ben to my surprise was an axe man. He had two hatchets at his hips and a big
ol
shotgun strapped to his back. His red hair was hidden under a black stocking cap and his bulking frame dro
wned by a leather trench coat.
With his wide striped red and white shirt, he looked like result of a union between Waldo and a lumberjack who then was dropped into the Matrix.

Adam was the odd man out in that he carried no weapons. Instead he looked like a turtle, his thin frame decorated with a gigantic backpack that was obviously
stuffed with as much ‘supplies’
as he could shove in there and still manage to zip it shut. Least the kid stuck with form fitting clothes, a
camo
green thermal covered by a jacket and jeans. Bringing him along still worried me, but he wasn
’
t taking no for an answer.

One by one we went up and over the wall, saluting the watchman as we went.

He was one of us.

The guys who were
‘
in
’
on this operation were going to pull double duty on the guard posts we were leaving vacant. Everyone agreed keeping the perimeter up was a must while we were gone.

Once all four of us had cleared the wall, we assumed a triangular formation with Adam in the middle. As a group we headed north. When we got the road I gasped.

There were parts of deadheads everywhere. It looked like someone had put hundreds of them in a blender. The sound was intense. There were flies everywhere, landing on every piece of limb and face, crawling out of open jaws.

Adam puked.

“Gross man.” Ben commented. He nudged a body by his foot looking a bit off center in his coloring.

“Look at them all...this is nuts...” Cole looked at me, his eyes carrying the same thought I had.

“Followed us back from the city.” I mumbled.

Dimitri said there had been a lot. I just couldn
’
t put it into terms until I saw it with my own eyes. If a horde like this had made it to Junction it would have been all our fault.

Instead the vamps turned them into Swiss cheese.

It was impressive and terrifying all at the same time. I cared for Dimitri, but to think he could do this to me in the blink of an eye was unsettling on a primal survival level. I had seen it the night he rescued me, and now the aftermath one hundred fold.

Ben pointed at the
Onda
Shop down the road. “We need wheels.”

“No Bikes.” Cole and I chimed in unison.

“Ryan said there should be a jeep that still runs
around back, should be a lot quieter.” Adam offered, his eyes still fixed on a pile of hands and a foot.

Past the pile of carnage we crossed onto the blacktop of the derelict dealership. Low and behold behind the large concrete building there was in fact an old green jeep with a cracked windshield sitting patiently in the shade.

“Looks like I
’
m riding
…
” Ben pulled his weapon of his back and cocked it one handed. “
…
Shotgun!” I groaned as Cole cursed at him. Okay I guess we did have cheesy one liners after all.

“No you need to drive, old man.” Adam corrected him. “You.re the only one of us who went through drivers ed.”

“Dude that was a decade ago.”

“Better than nothing!”

“Cole can drive?” Ben offered.

“No!” I laughed, remembering the bike that got away in the show room.

“Fine.” Ben grumbled and got behind the wheel
and Adam stole shotgun. I wasn’
t surprised Cole chose to sneak in the backseat with me.