Blood Leverage (Bloodstone Chronicles Book 1) (20 page)

“Okay,” I acknowledged. “I’m glad you’re pleased. But come on, don’t you want to taste it before you get all emotional?” I was dying to see if things would work out for my oldest friend, and also, I supposed, my newest friend.

His smile brightened to its normal wattage as he accepted the blood bag. I found it vaguely humorous when he brought out a paper-thin crystal wine glass, as Keanu came off as more of a drink from the bottle sort of guy—or in this case, from the bag.

He poured a nominal amount and gently swirled the blood around the glass with his hand cupped beneath the bowl portion of it.

“Warming it a little?” I guessed.

“Truer sense of the flavor than when it’s cold,” he confirmed. “This is what’s known as a tasting glass.”

I stared in open disbelief. “You two must be the prissiest vampires alive.” Or not alive—whatever.

A squeak on the tiles diverted me from further mockery and I looked over my shoulder to see Ian shuffling to the fridge, a pair of headphones clamped over his ears.

“He’ll be listening to classical music at full blast,” Keanu whispered. “Those headphones are specifically designed to accommodate a high volume to help vampires block outside noise. Ian likes music when he’s ill.”

I studied Ian from behind as he retrieved an ice pack from the freezer, oblivious to our presence fifteen feet away. “Can he hear us at all?”

“If he’s listening to his usual volume, not likely. He’s
trying
not to hear anything. If I wanted his attention I’d have to flash the lights or thump the wall or something.”

Wanting to at least wave hello, I lightly tapped the heel of my shoe on the tile floor in hopes the vibration would get his attention. As he turned around I sucked in a breath at the sight of him.

He looked horrifically ill in a way that gave him an ethereal sort of beauty. His expression was pinched as though every movement was painful and he moved with the stiffness of an old man instead of the irritating grace I’d become accustomed to. Still, he smiled when he saw me and I pushed my chair back with the intention of greeting him.

His smile froze when I stood and he snarled to the point of showing fangs. I stepped back with the intention of retreating when I realized Ian was snarling at Keanu. Confused, I looked back and forth between them as Keanu continued to swirl his prissy tasting glass without seeing it.

Meanwhile, Ian’s snarls grew louder with every second that passed. I looked back at Keanu, still motionless except for his hand, and then it hit me.

The wineglass. The blood bag. Holy mother of God.

“Keanu…” I began backing away toward the counter. “Put the wineglass down
now
! Don’t you get it, he thinks the blood in your glass—”

My warning was cut short as Ian sprang through the air. The glass and blood bag went flying as Ian smashed into his best friend like a boulder, destroying Keanu’s chair.

“—is mine.” I finished too late, sighing as the two vampires began crashing around the room, wreaking havoc as they went. Any possible explanation was aborted as I hopped onto the counter to avoid being trampled by my so-called friends.

Unfortunately, evasion wasn’t an option for the furniture. One of the table legs was promptly reduced to splinters and was followed by a second table leg—at which point the table came crashing down altogether only to have Ian and Keanu smash through the heavy glass tabletop a fraction of a second later.

Meanwhile, I was alternating between shrieking for them to stop and screaming that the blood wasn’t mine. Not that it mattered. Ian couldn’t hear me.

I stopped shouting long enough to yelp as the men smacked into the cabinet below me, causing a cascade of coffee mugs to come raining down from the cabinet above. I scooted to another section of counter and decided a new plan was necessary, one that had me exiting this room and staying far away until these two idiots wore themselves out.

Okay, maybe I wasn’t being fair to Keanu here. I mean, not that he wasn’t an idiot—I was still irked about the peaches—but he hadn’t been the one to start throwing punches. Besides, Keanu
could hear me. It just wasn’t helping.

Damn it. I’d been going about this the wrong way. I directed my next scream at Keanu. “Keanu, you idiot,
PULL HIS EARPHONES OFF!
”

It took a few seconds to sink in, but then Keanu deliberately dropped his guard and stopped moving. Ian took the opportunity for another punch, but even as Keanu’s head snapped back he snaked his arm behind Ian’s head and ripped the headset from his ears, flipping it in my general direction to land on the counter beside me.

I’d underestimated the level of volume a vampire required to block outside noise—a decibel capable of shattering human eardrums—and thought I was going to die. Forget about explanations, there was nothing but
noise
. I clamped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t help. With my last bit of focus before I lost consciousness, I kicked the headset into the suds-filled sink.

Then I passed out and rolled off the counter onto the floor full of glass.

CHAPTER TWENTY
-
ONE

IN what was becoming a pattern, I woke
with two faces hovering above mine—only this time I woke pissed. My first coherent impulse was to smack Ian, which I did with all the force of a leaf fluttering to the ground.

In response, they beamed down like they’d performed a miracle.

“Oh, thank God,” Keanu said fervently. “She’s alright.”

“Pity I can say the same about you two idiots,” I muttered, attempting to sit up. Then I glanced down and froze. I was wearing an elegant ivory slip made from silk of a stunning quality. Under most circumstances I’d have been thrilled to wear such a garment but this qualified as an exception, particularly since the apparel could only belong to the oh-so-fabulous Ms. Parkes.

Now I could add a posh wardrobe to my growing list of reasons to hate her.

“Ian…” I sat straighter and glared at both of them. “
Where is my dress
?”

They took a simultaneous step backward as I slid my legs off the bed to face them. “
WHERE IS MY DRESS?”
Whoa. I felt off balance and wondered what sort of healing I’d required this time.

“I’m very sorry, Aurora,” Ian muttered, looking at the floor.

“Consider it a casualty of war?” Keanu suggested.

I took a deep breath and managed to wrangle my rising temper—for about five seconds. And then I let it rip.

“I can’t believe you morons wrecked my dress! I can’t believe I went to all the effort to get blood from my best friend, drove here, and even found my way through that stupid maze to bring a surprise to two such enormous
assholes
as yourselves!”

They blinked in unison and looked at one another, ignoring me.

“Did she call us assholes?” Keanu murmured.

“It would appear she did,” Ian rejoined blandly.

“I’m sitting right in front of you!” I shrieked, out of control.

“Oh, she’s feeling better.” Keanu nodded approvingly. “Her color is back up.” 

“If she feels any ‘better’ she’ll give herself a stroke.” Ian gestured toward my face. “That vein in her forehead is troubling—see how it’s twitching? Her blood pressure must be through the roof.”

Since strangling them wasn’t feasible, I flopped back down and pressed my hands to my face, marveling at the chain of events that had brought my life to this moment.

Maybe I should take a page from Jenny’s book. Surely I could find a nice man
somewhere
who’d knock me up and turn me into a walking incubator like other women my age. They all appeared complacent enough and it was a safe bet they never found themselves in situations like this.

I heard my own teeth grinding.

“We’re sorry about your dress, Rory,” Keanu said. He looked pitifully sad but I wasn’t buying it. “I’ll replace it, I promise. Even better, I’ll buy
two
new dresses, because we were idiots.”

“No argument there,” I retorted, “but I’ve
seen
your wardrobe, remember?” I shook my head, noting a slight ringing in my ears. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Hey! That t-shirt was vintage and irreplaceable!” Keanu looked highly offended.

“Please.” Ian rolled his eyes at the friend he’d been trying to murder a short while ago. “Vintage and irreplaceable describes every piece of clothing you own—and not in a good way. So
I’ll
pick the new dresses and spare Aurora from your sense of fashion.”

“We’ll
each
pick a dress,” Keanu staunchly declared, “and Rory can decide who chose better.”

It was impossible to stay angry in the face of such mental deficiency, though I’d done my best.

“Okay, fine. Great,” I added. “But I need something else to wear home and if you’re still interested in making an arrangement with my friend, you’ll need to pay for a second sample.” Even if I could wheedle another freebie, these morons didn’t deserve it.

Both of their faces lit up, Keanu’s in particular. “Oh, the bag is fine! It landed on the refrigerator.”

“Lucky bag,” I grumbled beneath my breath, wondering if anything else in the kitchen had survived. “Did you try it? What did you think?”

“I think you have exquisite taste in friends,” Keanu said dreamily, kissing the tips of his fingers. Then he laughed. “Aside from us, of course. You’re lucky to have her you know. Her capacity for love and loyalty are practically depthless. Also delicious.”

Despite my annoyance, I was glad to hear it. “I’ll see about establishing a schedule.” I stood to shake his hand, but my ankle went out from under me.

Ian caught me and had me back on the bed before Keanu had managed to move. He tugged at the hem of my gown (maybe it was a negligee?), revealing a swollen ankle I hadn’t noticed. “I’m sorry, Aurora. We never checked your ankles.”

“We were mostly focused on the blood running out of your ears,” Keanu added helpfully, placing his hand beside Ian’s on my leg.

I considered that as the now familiar tingle of heat warmed my ankle. Blood coming out of my ears sounded disgusting—no pun intended.

“There, that should do it,” Keanu said proudly. I felt no pain in my ankle when I flexed it so I supposed he was right.

“You should eat something,” Ian abruptly decided. “It took a while to patch you up this time. Does anything sound particularly good to you?” He ignored his own question and left the room, presumably heading for the kitchen.

“Anything but peaches,” I called after him, shaking my head before turning back to Keanu. “I was out for a while, huh? How long did you two keep fighting after I fell?”

“Give us a little credit, Rory.” Keanu looked hurt. “We stopped the instant you hit the floor and the music stopped right after that. That was clever, by the way,” he said, “throwing the headphones into the sink. The water shorted them out.”

“Technically I kicked them, but thanks. If you stopped fighting, what took so long?” My previous healings had taken only seconds.

“Ian is
sick
, Rory. Under normal circumstances he could’ve healed you in a few minutes, but the injuries to your ears were serious. It took nearly an hour to fix you and we still managed to miss your ankle—and Ian will be weakened another day or two from the effort.”

I felt bad to hear that but I hadn’t been the one to start tackling people. “Hey, he started the whole thing by jumping to conclusions. And who the hell is he to dictate who gets to drink my blood anyway? It’s
my
blood after all.” 

Keanu shook his head. “You don’t understand. Any vampire in Ian’s situation would’ve responded exactly the same way. There are
reasons
why humans in cities are required to make their donations to a central blood bank for mixed distribution. It’s not only out of fairness, it’s done to avoid the type of connection the three of us share.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to pair everyone? It has to be annoying to have everyone fetching and carrying blood everywhere.” To say nothing of storage and scheduling and tracking the human births and deaths.

“It might be annoying but it helps keep the peace. Biologically, we’re not designed to live in large groups. We’re territorial and possessive by nature. A city full of paired vampires would be a disaster. They’d be attacking one another left and right over any perceived claim on their benefactor.”

Yeah, and wouldn’t that be a shame
, I wanted to retort, but Keanu wasn’t done.

“On top of that, the majority of vampires don’t
want
that intense a bond. It gives a human far too much leverage—you’ve seen how Ian is around you.”

Yeah, I’d seen him attempt to pulverize his best friend and almost kill me in the process, but the words weren’t worth the effort. I closed my eyes and flopped back, wondering if my headache was returning or if the pain was purely mental.

A draft of deliciously scented air wafted over me and when I opened my eyes Ian was by the bed and Keanu was gone.

A covered silver tray—of course Ian owned one—rested on the bedside table, wedged between one blood stained stiletto sandal and a bowl of glass shards I could only presume had been dug from my flesh.

Golly, I could feel my appetite stirring already…

Struggling with the negligee—not the most maneuverable garment—I managed to sit back up while Ian removed the lid from the tray and set it aside. It held a bowl of what appeared to be potato soup, a small plate holding two beautifully browned rolls and a tiny crystal dish of butter with miniscule green flecks.

It all smelled wonderful and I realized I’d skipped breakfast this morning.

Ian handed me a large linen napkin that I draped over my lap, but when I eagerly reached for the soup he snatched it away.

“No,” he said quietly. “You need to rest.”

“To the point of starving?” I asked dryly.

“You won’t starve because I’m going to feed you.”

“You are
not
serious.”

His response was to dip the spoon into the soup and extend it toward my mouth. Okay, he was
serious.

Although the idea was flat out stupid—also embarrassing—for some reason I went along with it. I sat like a doll while Ian fed me spoonfuls of soup and bits of rolls and
butter. (Incidentally, the green flecks turned out to be chives. Good stuff.)

It was easily the strangest meal I’d ever had and, surprisingly, also one of the neatest. I didn’t know why Ian had bothered with a napkin because not a drop of soup or crumb of bread went anywhere it wasn’t supposed to go. Left to my own devices, I’d have been finding crumbs in my cleavage the rest of the afternoon.

I was washing down my meal with a glass of water—which I was allowed to hold—when I noticed the tremor in Ian’s hands. It was barely visible and I wouldn’t have caught it if I hadn’t been admiring their steadiness moments earlier.

Thinking it a trick of the light, I resumed eating and said nothing until it happened again, this time when he was clearing up after the meal. I didn’t see anything but when the spoon clattered softly against the tray I knew.

In my limited experience—consisting of Ian, Keanu and Eggplant—vampire movements could make a prima ballerina look clumsy. They don’t stumble or fidget and they most assuredly do not clatter. It was then I grasped how sick Ian was.

I tossed my pristine napkin onto the tray—with plenty of clattering—and hoisted myself off the bed, much to Ian’s surprise. “Okay,” I said firmly. “That’s enough martyrdom from you. I want you to get in bed right this minute.”

His response was total disbelief.

Using my best no-nonsense teacher tone, I tried again. “I said that’s enough, Ian! If you don’t get in bed right this instant, I’ll put you there if it’s the last thing I do.” I stepped over and pushed lightly against his shoulders, which had no effect beyond raising his disbelief factor even further.

He obviously had no idea how to respond to such treatment. (If Keanu was eavesdropping, he was getting an earful.)

Since I couldn’t
actually
move Ian without his consent, I changed my tactics and softened my voice. “We both know I can’t move you, but I can certainly injure myself trying.” He blinked a few times and it was hard not to laugh, but I had to press the advantage of surprise while I had it.

“Now,” I said sweetly, “if you want me to hurt myself, by all means stay where you are. However, I’d much rather you get in bed for a nice, long nap.”

He looked at me skeptically and I imagined Keanu fighting back hysterical laughter. “That’s all you want? For me to go back to sleep?”

“Nope,” I said breezily. “I have two demands, but the second requires you already be in bed first.”

His mouth fell open and more than anything I wished I had a camera. He looked like I’d smacked him with a shovel and I shook with laughter when I figured it out.

“Good grief, I didn’t mean I wanted
that
!” I was laughing so hard I could barely get the words out. “Even if that was an option, I can’t imagine you’d be useful in your current state. You could end up maimed for life.”

And if I didn’t kill him by accident, his girlfriend surely would. On purpose.

Ian looked disgruntled at my pronouncement on his health and abilities, but instead of refuting it he shouted, “Keanu, if you don’t stop laughing and find something else to do RIGHT NOW, you
will
regret it later!” 

Well, that answered my eavesdropping question.

I couldn’t hear Keanu’s response, but whatever it was, Ian didn’t appreciate it.

I chose to ignore it. “So.” I put on my most angelic smile. “Will you do as I ask, or do I have to start getting rough with, uh… myself?”

Glaring the entire time, he rose from his seat on my side of the bed and stalked around to the other side. “If anyone should be napping this afternoon it should be you,” he muttered, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep the laughter at bay.