Blood Leverage (Bloodstone Chronicles Book 1) (7 page)

In any other setting the outfit would have been shriekingly noticeable, but the effect was strangely muted in the purple living room—another plum in a bowl of plums. (Upon further observation she was slightly darker than the rest of the room, a lone eggplant in my hypothetical plum bowl.)

On appearance alone I might not have pegged the woman as a vampire, though I would have gawked regardless. However, the fact that she stood behind the sofa cradling Nicky in her arms served as a big clue she wasn’t normal. Nicky dwarfed the dainty vampire and the contrast would have been hilarious if I hadn’t been struck dumb at the sight of her. I was viewing them from the side, but from the front it must have looked like he was levitating over a pair of shiny purple boots.

Nicky didn’t even realize I was there. I was relieved he wasn’t hurt but he was no help in deciding what to do. It felt like I’d intruded on a private moment and I had a ludicrous urge to apologize.

The eggplant vampire hadn’t noticed me either, though they supposedly have great hearing. However, I had no problem recognizing the precise moment she
did
notice. She turned and snarled, baring her fangs and dropping Nicky on the floor behind the sofa.    

In all fairness to the eggplant, I thought she’d been aiming for the sofa. It looked like Nicky had flipped when she’d meant for him to flop, resulting in a crash that jarred me out of my fascinated stupor and straight into terror.

The eggplant turned to face me and I bolted for the nearest door, hoping to simultaneously evade Eggplant while distracting her long enough for Nicky to barricade himself in the bedroom. It wasn’t a well-defined strategy—I’d skipped the planning and had gone straight to execution—but it was all I had.

Unfortunately, the closest door held the forbidden black box and was unsurprisingly locked. Panicked, I spun around and re-aimed for the open bedroom with no belief I’d make it, lobbing the crystal sculpture I’d admired earlier behind me in a futile attempt to slow Eggplant down.

I didn’t have a precise bearing on her location at this point, but Nicky was no longer behind the sofa and my path to the bedroom was clear. The world’s most flamboyant outfit acted like camouflage in here. What were the odds?

I raced to the bedroom and was already pulling the door shut as I charged through. A surge of triumph flooded through me as I shot the deadbolt into place and struggled to catch my breath.

I had no clue how Eggplant had entered—maybe she knew Ms. Parkes?—but the invitation rule was clear. This bedroom was intended as guest lodging and we’d claimed it for the night. Unless Nicky had been whammied into an invitation we’d be safe. 

My shaky smile turned to glazed shock as I turned to ask what the hell had happened. I’d been
certain
he’d moved—I’d had a clear view behind the sofa—but nonetheless, I was alone in the bedroom.

Nicky was still out there.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

STILL panting, I scanned the room
repeatedly like he’d magically reappear. When the pounding on the door began, it seemed unimportant in comparison. I barely managed mild interest as the metal deadbolt tore a chunk of concrete from the wall beside me. Then I took an unexpected flight as the door slammed into me, answering my invitation question.

As I collided with the wall, gravity reasserted itself and I crumpled to the floor, stunned. Just as quickly, I was hauled upright and slammed back against the wall, my toes barely brushing the floor.

It seemed crucial to notice everything in my last moments, but that wasn’t easily done. Between the unfamiliar room and the shock—not to mention the pain from girl meets concrete—I felt disoriented. I also had a terrified moment where I thought I’d gone blind in one eye, but a few blinks reassured me I was simply bleeding from a cut along my hairline.

It almost made me laugh. You know your day officially sucks when bleeding into an eyeball counts as
good
news.

The vampire had me by the throat and held me with a single white hand, despite my best efforts. The few blows I managed to land were as effective as slapping stone and once I met his eyes I was unable to do even that.

Wait.

His
eyes?

I sucked in as much oxygen as his grip allowed me, and the fog in my brain cleared enough for me to realize this wasn’t the vampire who’d attacked Nicky—if attacked was even the word. This vampire was less flamboyant, wearing black corduroy slacks and an ivory sweater. His feet were bare and he had skin even paler than mine, with black hair and green eyes.

No streaks in the hair, but tiny flecks of gold in the eyes.

Feeling more like myself I gave him the dirtiest look I could—the only show of defiance I was capable of. The heat in my eyes only amused him but if I had to die, it wouldn’t be while staring at the floor. My pride was small consolation compared to my life, but I recognized it as the only thing I might be capable of saving.

The gash on my scalp kept bleeding, as scalp wounds do. Blood ran down my chin, dripping onto the vampire’s hand where it remained locked around my throat. His pallor made my blood look even redder and I pettily hoped he didn’t recognize it as the ‘exquisite vintage’ I’d heard it was. Damned if I wanted him to savor this.

Then my blood trickled down his forearm and his nostrils flared in a bewildered expression. In a lightning quick movement, he released my throat and I staggered before collapsing to the floor. 

“I
know
you.”

My neck and throat throbbed from their use as a human handle but I was coherent enough to know the vampire could have killed me. I’d seen him rip a steel bolt through a concrete wall. (Okay, technically I hadn’t seen it, but I felt confident he was responsible.) My neck was far flimsier than the door and yet I was still breathing. For the moment.

With no thought to maintaining that status, I automatically reverted to my favored defense mechanism. Sarcasm. “Nope, sorry. I’d remember if we’d been introduced—you make a unique first impression.”

The vampire blinked at my impertinent denial. Then he raised his wrist to his mouth and licked it clean, giving a small shudder of pleasure as he did. (Okay, ick!)

“I can promise I most
certainly
know you.” He sounded almost playful, an abrupt change from the fang baring chokehold of a few moments ago. I wavered between anxiety and confusion as he continued in an unrecognizable accent.  

“Furthermore, unless I’m mistaken—and I am never mistaken in such matters—you’ve had some adventures recently. You naughty, naughty,
naughty
girl.”

He left no room to misinterpret the way he’d said ‘naughty’, even if he hadn’t tapped his fingertip to my nose for emphasis each time he said it. It made me long for Eggplant, who probably would’ve ripped my throat open and called it a day. But no, instead of dying with dignity, I was stuck with a condescending vampire pervert. Great.

Granted, I was still alive and after a few more annoyed moments over his ‘naughty’ comment, I wondered what the holdup was. He was studying me like there’d be a quiz later—inexplicable behavior unless he truly believed he knew me.

And if a case of mistaken identity could keep me alive…

I hid my trembling hands in my pockets and attempted a regretful expression. “I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten you. Maybe you could refresh my memory as to where we met?” Whatever he said, I’d agree and bluff my way through the best I could.

The vampire assumed a pained expression, like I’d contrived this scenario wholly to inconvenience him. “I didn’t say we’d met, I said I
knew
you.” He reached down and swiped a finger through the blood on my cheek, holding it in front of my nose. I half thought he expected me to lick his finger until I stopped staring at his hand—it’s surprisingly hard to ignore your own blood on someone’s fingers—and studied his face.

I recognized a man who believed he was making sense when I saw one. He didn’t want me to taste my blood—he was offering it as an explanation. And that meant…

“Good lord, wouldn’t it have been easier to identify yourself as my patron?” Talk about cryptic explanations! Still, I wanted to laugh in giddy relief. My odds of staying alive had dramatically increased. If any vampire had a reason to spare my life it was this one. 

Oddly enough, my embarrassment almost eclipsed the relief I felt at this turn of events. I couldn’t believe this creature could detect a difference in my blood after one night fooling around with Nicky. Apparently Nicky hadn’t exaggerated their sensitivity.

Holy shit! Nicky!

Dismissing my patron’s acknowledgment of my recent sexual exploration, I sprang up, shoving the vampire aside and sprinting into the living room. I’d never flatter myself to think I could outrun a vampire, but my actions took him by surprise.  

I skidded to a stop behind the sofa and felt my breath seize in my chest. A pool of blood spread a few yards from the front entrance, along with a single bloody footprint from Eggplant’s pointy-toed, high-heeled boots.

I’d barely stepped toward the door when my patron’s arm locked around my waist and thrust me behind him. He looked at the bloody floor and then back at me, repeating both actions before stating the obvious.

“Your injuries are insignificant. Who else was here?” He’d gone rigid again.

Under other circumstances I might have protested his use of ‘insignificant,’ but I couldn’t stop staring at the blood. I had to swallow before I could speak. “Dominic Carriero, Luigi Carriero’s son and partner. He brought me here. The Eggplant vampire, she had him in her arms and, and—”

He was gone the instant I realized he was moving. 

Stupefied, I stood in the middle of the room for a minute or two until he reappeared as though he’d never left. I was too drained to do more than stare. 

“Whoever she was, she had a motor bike outside. After you screamed, I entered through the secured door behind us.” He pointed. “I saw the sealed bedroom and went directly there. The, ah… eggplant… left with young Mr. Carriero via the front door. The scent of the bike ends at the nearest highway, and I can only speculate she stashed it inside a larger vehicle and drove away.”

My brain spluttered back to life. “What do we do now? Can you track the new vehicle?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, there were multiple scents of recent exhaust present, and without scenting her vehicle I have no way to determine a match. The closer the highway gets to Niagara Falls, the more scents there will be and with a head start she could have taken any number of exits by now.”

Without thought, I whirled toward the front door again, only this time my patron was prepared. I hadn’t completed a full stride before he enfolded me in his arms. He did nothing to harm me, but the only parts of me capable of motion were my hands and my legs below the knees. Realizing the futility, I didn’t waste time struggling.

As if sensing my surrender, the vampire relaxed his hold. “If I release you, do you promise not to run outside?”

I didn’t hesitate. “I do and I apologize. I don’t know what happened. My feet temporarily detached from my brain.”

He turned me to face him, the distrust easily read on his face. “Be that as it may…” He backed slowly out the front door and disappeared from view for a moment. I heard a lengthy series of beeps before he returned.

“In case your feet go rogue again, I have disabled the front door with its master code. To conserve your time and energy, you should know that the keypad digits range from zero to nine and the code is fifteen digits long. Your chance of guessing correctly is basically non-existent.”

Though I didn’t blame him for taking precautions, his behavior had begun to annoy me. “The odds are one in approximately one quadrillion, assuming your keypad has no restrictions on the repetitions of any particular digit. I won’t waste my time playing lottery with your door. There are more important things to do.”

His disbelieving expression was one I usually enjoyed seeing, and at any other time I might’ve reveled in it. At the moment, I was more concerned about a plan of action for Nicky, and I rudely pressed on.

“We ought to be looking for Nicky, not locked in here! We have no proof of the extent of his injuries, and for all we know the blood on the carpet isn’t even his!”

My outburst snapped my patron out of his daze and he grimly knelt and touched the tip of a finger to the blood before lifting it to his lips. Despite an involuntary shudder, his expression turned to sorrow and my rising fury deflated. He’d tasted the blood to identify it as Nicky’s.

With one small hope dashed, I moved on to the next. “How much blood can a human lose and still survive?”

He appeared to struggle with my question before answering. “The human body can lose significant blood and recover, but in this instance it’s a question of timing. If I had to guess, I’d say I broke down the bedroom door within, what, fifteen seconds of your scream? Twenty at most?”

I didn’t recall screaming. “I’m sure you’ll understand why I wasn’t watching the clock. It’s better to rely on your assessment than mine.”

The vampire looked shocked and I mentally kicked myself. Being rude was a self-indulgence I couldn’t afford. I needed to keep him talking, not piss him off. 

“I’m sorry,” I hastily threw out, “but how does the timing affect Dominic’s chances of survival?”

He inclined his head in acknowledgment of my question as his mouth twitched with either irritation or humor at my apology. “For your safety, Luigi never told me your name. What shall I call you?”

I could have told him anything, but the thought of lying never crossed my mind. “My name is Aurora, but most people call me Rory.” It could only help to have him see me as an individual instead of a snack, right?

Right?

“Miss Aurora, my reason for inquiring as to the time of my arrival was to better ascertain the rate of blood loss. I would guess you screamed the moment of your friend’s attack—perhaps immediately afterward?”

“Close enough.” Nicky had been uninjured when I entered the living room—his white shirt would have shown blood—and I definitely hadn’t screamed until after Eggplant had dropped him. I’d been babbling about pie before then, if memory served.

Logically, Eggplant must have turned back to Nicky when I’d turned to run.  

My patron expressed dismay at my confirmation. “Since the, ah, Eggplant left before my arrival it means the amount of blood on the floor left his body in under a minute.”

I felt my own blood flee my head. Remaining upright was out of the question and I sat. Nicky’s blood crept dangerously close to my bare toes, but it wasn’t important. I understood what the vampire hadn’t said. He was implying that to have bled so much, so quickly…

“You’re suggesting he severed an artery.” I lowered my head between my knees.

If my patron was correct, Nicky was already dead. He would have bled out and even if Eggplant had left him there would have been nothing to do but watch it happen.               

“It’s possible. Most likely the carotid artery in his neck. If that was the case, I can tell you he wouldn’t have suffered. After the initial strike he would have felt nothing.” His voice was gentle, which I appreciated, but I felt too shaken to acknowledge him.

I lost track of time as I attempted to process everything. However long I sat, the vampire remained motionless until I extended my hand for assistance.

It was a toss-up as to who was more surprised, but he did reach down to help me. He made an effort to be gentle, but I all but flew off the floor anyway. My feet left the ground and a strangled giggle escaped.

“Thanks. I’m guessing humans don’t often ask for your help.”

He looked even more baffled than before and my broken brain found that hilarious. I began laughing harder and harder, realizing I’d reached the point of inappropriate,
hysterical laughter—the kind that occurs when you’re too overwrought for anything else even when nothing is funny.

Perhaps particularly
when
nothing is funny.