Blood Law (13 page)

Tasha’s stomach felt as though it were performing cartwheels.

Stephen tossed the pen aside and rubbed his eyes as if trying to wipe away the memory. “The smell of fresh blood sent Varik over the edge. I think Alex would’ve let him drain her if I hadn’t shown up. She barely survived as it was.”

Tasha had seen what an out-of-control vampire was capable of doing. A shoot-out she’d been part of as a rookie had been the final result of a domestic violence dispute between two vampires. A husband killed his wife and then tore through town. She’d pulled his car over for running a red light. He’d pulled a gun and shot her three times. Luckily, two of the bullets were deflected by her body-armor vest, but the third had struck her leg. She’d shot him twice before her leg gave out and she fell to the ground. Drawn by her blood, he’d been moving in to bite her when her backup arrived.

Fear coiled around her spine and made her shiver. She swallowed, forcing the memories to retreat and willing herself not to vomit. “So, that’s why Alex left Louisville?”

“I’d already moved here to take the job as regional sales manager with VTC. I’d gone home for a visit but stuck around after the attack so I could keep an eye on her and make certain Varik stayed away from her while she was in the hospital. Once she was finally out, Alex packed up and we left town together.”

Tasha felt cold, numb. “She never told me any of this.”

“Like I said, Alex doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“But if Varik needed blood, why didn’t he just find a donor?”

Stephen shrugged. “I’ve asked myself the same question. All I know is that Alex is the only reason I didn’t kill that son of a bitch then. And she’s the only reason I didn’t kill him when he showed up today.”

“You think Alex still has feelings for him?”

“I’m sure of it, and not because of the blood-bond, either.”

“The what?”

“Because Varik took so much of Alex’s blood, there’s a psychic connection between them. It’s hard to explain.”

“You mean Varik can read Alex’s mind?”

“That’s part of it, yeah. Right after the attack, he was able to track her, sense where she was, that sort of thing. She could do the same to him. She had to learn to put up mental barriers to keep him out of her head.”

“Can they still do that?”

“Probably,” he said with a shrug.

“But it’s been six years!”

“Doesn’t matter. Once two vampires share blood, a permanent bond is forged. They feel what the other feels. If one has blood-hunger, so will the other. Every emotion is amplified, and unless they learn to control it, they could lose themselves in the bond. And if they continue feeding off one another, the connection grows stronger, to the point that if one dies then the other could die as well.”

“Shit,” she whispered.

“Now that Varik’s in town, my concern is that he’s going to try to find a way to strengthen the bond again.”

“How would he do that?”

“Either bite her or find a way to have her drink his blood. Time and distance weaken the bond, but it never goes away.”

Tasha’s brain worked to comprehend what Stephen was telling her. She’d suspected a bigger connection between the two Enforcers, but this was beyond anything she could’ve imagined.

A knock on the door made her jump in her chair and Stephen smile. “Come in,” he called.

The woman from the bar, Janet, poked her head around the door. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need more vodka out front for the Bloody Marys.”

Tasha took the interruption as a sign that it was time for her to leave. She stood and nodded to Stephen. “I’ve got to get back to the station. Thanks for the information.”

“Anytime,” he replied, as he rose from his chair.

She passed the bartender with a polite nod.

“Tasha?” Stephen called.

She stopped with one foot in the hallway and waited for him to continue.

“Be careful around Varik.” Stephen’s eyes were slowly bleeding over to amber. “If he sees an opportunity to get Alex back, he’ll take it and won’t care who gets in the way.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Tell Alex to call me.”

“Will do,” she said over her shoulder and hurried
down the hallway, leaving Stephen and Janet alone in the office.

She hurried through the less crowded bar and outside into the cool new darkness. Once she was in the car and moving, she cranked the heater up and turned onto Jefferson Boulevard, trying to chase away the cold that had crept into her bones.

ALEX DRIFTED ALONG INVISIBLE CURRENTS WITHIN THE
darkness. The sensation of being carried aloft by thousands of hands gnawed at her. She fought against the unseen hands, tried to work against the forward movement, to no avail. Time slowed as she dipped and spun through the void.

“Alexandra,” a voice called to her from the surrounding gloom.

“Who are you?” she asked the voice, twisting within the void to search for its source.

A light in the distance sliced through the unending blackness.

“Alexandra.”

The voice floated to her along the currents flowing from the light. The stream through which she drifted seemed to swell into a rising wave, rushing her toward the growing brightness. She tumbled and fell, rolling into the light, and found herself in a wide-open field. Trees dotted the landscape, and sunlight glinted off the
surface of a nearby pond. Gentle wind ruffled her hair, and she smoothed it away from her face. She turned in a slow circle, searching for a clue to tell her where she’d landed.

In the distance, beyond the pond, a form moved. She watched for a time while it shambled forward, stopped, seemed to quiver and disappear only to reappear a moment later in a different location, but always advancing steadily toward the pond and her.

Seeing no other signs of life, she walked in the direction of the pond. The voice that had called her name in the nothingness through which she’d fallen was now silent. She frowned. In fact, the world was
too
silent. Although she felt a breeze brushing against her, she heard no rustling of leaves from the scattered trees. Her footfalls were devoid of sound.

She stopped. Whoever or whatever she’d seen earlier had disappeared completely. Where could it have gone?

Uneasiness roiled her stomach and prickled her skin. A blast of frigid air sluiced up her back. She spun and instantly recoiled, feet backpedaling from the headless corpse standing before her.

Its swollen and discolored hands reached for her. Sound returned to the world as a wheezing voice issued from the bloodied neck stump. “Alexandra …”

Alex turned and fled. She ran toward the pond, glancing over her shoulder at the motionless corpse.

A low rumble sounded from below the ground, and the earth pitched to one side.

She tumbled, rolled, and regained her footing.

The ground trembled and undulated beneath her.

Stone monoliths sprung from the dirt, blocking her path.

She changed direction and more stones appeared, cutting off her escape, hemming her in.

The sky darkened with storm clouds. Windblown debris pelted her, but she continued to run, following the monoliths as they sprang up around her, shifting her path whenever one appeared to block her.

She’d lost sight of the headless corpse long ago. Her sides began to ache from the strain of running. The earth continued to rumble. She heard the groaning of more stones breaking to the surface and sliding against one another in the distance.

Part of her mind realized she was running blindly through a maze and if she didn’t slow down, she could easily miss a turn that would lead her out of it. However, her rational mind had given up control to the primitive part of her brain that was ruled by fear.

Her heart slammed inside her chest. Her breath came in short, ragged gulps. Her pulse beat in her ears and temples. Her legs became lead pistons that churned mechanically. On and on she ran through a seemingly endless labyrinth. She turned a corner and skidded to a halt.

The path before her was blocked, a dead end. The corpse she’d been trying to escape stood with its back to a wall of monoliths, its arms outstretched as if awaiting an embrace.

Breathing heavily, Alex backed away. A now familiar rumble grew louder. She fought to keep her balance while the earth pitched and moved like a living creature.
A monolith rose beneath her feet, and she was forced to dive out of its way.

All movement ceased, and silence descended once more. She looked up at the stone that had risen beside her. It had effectively boxed her in with the corpse.

“Alexandra …” the corpse wheezed.

“Who are you?” she asked, picking herself up off the ground where she’d landed on her knees. “What do you want from me?”

Shadows appeared in the makeshift room’s corners. Time skipped, and the shadows slithered forward. A high keening wail pierced the silence, forcing her to cover her ears and close her eyes. The keening softened gradually, fading to a fluttering of invisible wings. When she looked again, the original corpse had been joined by two more.

Alex stepped back in surprise. All three were nude and had gaping wounds in their chests, which rose and fell in time with the sound of air whistling through the ragged openings of their necks.

Staring at the lead corpse, the one she’d first encountered, she no longer felt overwhelmed by fear. A feeling of recognition and kinship had replaced her terror. “What do you want from me?” she repeated.

Whispering voices rose from the trio.

“We …”

“… are …”

“… trapped.”

“Trapped where? Why?”

“Void …”

“… limbo …”

“… forgive.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Alexandra,” a voice called from behind her.

She turned and gasped. Before her stood a tall vampire, his nearly snow-white hair short and neatly styled. A streak of bright copper, the only remnant of his original hair color, slashed through the silver bangs above his dark-green eyes. Stubble from a beard that would never grow softened the squareness of his jaw.

“Daddy?”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Bernard Sabian said. “You aren’t ready.”

“How is this possible?” Numbness crept into her limbs, and she felt heavy, as if an immense weight was bearing down on her shoulders. “What’s going on here?”

“Go home, Alexandra.”

Darkness closed around her, stealing the light. It devoured the headless corpses and nibbled at her father. She felt the shadows pulling her into their embrace once more. She reached for the light, trying to hold on to it, on to her father. “Daddy!”

Her father and the light vanished, and she fell screaming into emptiness.

Alex lay motionless on the small paisley couch in the morgue’s employee lounge. All color had drained from her normally pale skin. Varik watched as Dr. Hancock finished his exam and rose to face him.

“She passed out,” he said, and removed his glasses to
wipe his brow with a handkerchief. He replaced his glasses and blinked. “Want to tell me what the hell was going on in that room?”

Varik shrugged. “You were there. You know as much as I do.”

“Seemed to me that you know more than you’re letting on, though.”

“Will she be okay?”

Dr. Hancock sighed. “Keep her warm and she should come out of it soon. You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

Varik moved to the couch and draped his denim jacket over Alex, tucking it under her chin.

“Right,” Dr. Hancock mumbled, and shuffled to the door. “Let me know when she wakes up.”

Varik placed a chair from the single table in the room next to the couch. The chair creaked as he sat down and brushed a stray lock of hair from Alex’s face. His fingertips traced the line of her jaw. “I need you to wake up, baby,” he whispered.

He could feel her mind pressing against his. The blood-bond they shared, though weakened from time and lack of contact, had become more noticeable since his arrival. He was certain that with minimal effort he could slip into her mind, share whatever dreams were plaguing her. He settled for holding her hand.

Sharing a blood-bond with Alex wasn’t something he’d planned. It’d been an accident, the result of primal instinct overtaking the rational consciousness, and not a day passed that he didn’t regret his inability to control himself. He’d seen nearly two centuries pass. He
should’ve known better. He’d been stupid and careless, and he’d lost Alex because of it.

But what was done was done, and he couldn’t alter the past. He could only hope to improve on the future.

The loud techno beat of a cell phone echoed through the room, jarring him from his thoughts.

Varik pulled the phone from its carrying case on his hip and checked the caller identification. “Not now,” he groaned. He answered the phone as he walked toward the door. “I’m not alone. Hang on a second.”

With a final glance at Alex, he stepped into the hallway. “Go ahead,” he said into his cell phone.

The deep voice of Damian Alberez rumbled through the phone. “What’s Sabian’s status?”

Varik rubbed his forehead with his free hand. “The investigation is progressing normally.”

“Bullshit. If it were progressing normally, I wouldn’t be hearing reports of seven dead humans and six others wounded, including one Enforcer.”

Varik closed his eyes and mouthed a silent curse. He should know better than to lie to Damian. The man could smell a lie told two states away. “There’s been a complication.”

“You call a mass shooting a complication?”

“No, of course not, but the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department is handling the shootings.”

“I wanted to have the best investigator in the Bureau on these murders. Now I’m beginning to question my decision to pull you out of retirement. The lead Enforcer in a murder investigation is gunned down in broad daylight, and you just hand it off to the nearest human!”

“There’s no evidence to suggest that Alex was the target or that the shooting is in any way connected to our murdered vampires.”

“
Find
a connection!”

“And how do you suggest I do that? Pull a shiny object out of my ass to distract these dumbass rednecks while I poach their case?”