Blood Rules (42 page)

“Mariah.”

I could tell he wanted to chat. Before we'd come to the cave tonight, I'd overheard him talking with some monsters about more solid plans to spread rebellion to other hubs—including the worst of them in old D.C.—and how they'd found some preters who had flying capabilities that could eventually post themselves round GBVille to bat down Dactyl planes and surveillance robots, if they should come. They also spoke of other monsters who could post themselves outside the hub and emanate radiation enough to block satellite activity.

It was as if the oldster wanted to tell me every little detail, like it was important that I sign off on them. I could tell by the way the other Red monsters—even the Civils—greeted me when I entered the asylum that they felt the same way. The gremlins followed me with their gazes when I walked by, too.

Very weird. Me, commander in chief, just because I'd barged into the asylum first on the power blast night and, now, because I was . . .

Whatever I was.

I sighed, watching Gabriel disappearing up those stairs. The oldster—Michael—caught up to me. So did Hiram the gallant were-puma.

He talked before the oldster did. “We've got an interesting visitor.” Hiram jerked his head toward the direction of the cell block. “A human, and she's claiming that she worked with a vampire to bring down the hub.”

I hoped he wasn't talking about Jo, our contact via Taraline who'd designed our power blaster. How could she remember working with us when Gabriel had swayed her . . . ?

The oldster went with me and Hiram to the cell block, where they'd stored this visitor because she was a human. Unfortunately, I passed Stamp and his partner, Mags, first.

He was sitting, propped against the bars, the stump of his leg capped off by a manual medical doodad they called a coagulator. After some shadow people had dragged Stamp out of harm's way and into a lab that night, a mummy man who'd once been a doctor had saved his life with that device. Stamp and Mags were alive only because some vampires believed they were just real good at blocking and they actually did carry information of value to us. I didn't think so, but I was sure the vamps considered them entertainment besides.

Anyway, you'd think a Shredder would've gained some humility from his inferior position, but he still had a dark fire in his eyes. I recognized vengefulness.

“You know they
will
be coming from the outside, right, Mariah?” he said, trying to scare me with his bottomless gaze. “Mags and I might've been the first to get to you, but we won't be the last.”

I would've laughed at him, except he was pitiful, sitting there with a nub for one leg. I even felt a little sorry for him and this Mags girl because they'd gotten desperate enough to launch a half-baked attack on us; I'd been desperate like that at one point, too.

Logically, though, we monsters
were
still concerned about those sentinels who were out there somewhere. And then we had to worry about the unstable state of our charade, which could fall down all round us any day now.

Mags was standing at her cell bars, but when I glanced at her, she was looking at me funny with those dark almond eyes of hers. Almost as if she had a million questions she wanted to ask me.

I refused to glance at Stamp again and, instead, moved on quickly, to where Hiram was waiting in front of a cell at the end of the corridor. Keesie, who'd recovered from 562's attack but bore the gouges of missing rock in her body, was standing guard, too.

Ironically, they were in front of 562's original cell. But, inside, Jo faced us straight on, unlike 562 had when I'd first come to her/him.

Jo's long mahogany hair was slicked back, and she was still wearing that disease mask, plus the generic clothing. I acted as if I didn't know her, and that she hadn't been the force behind our asylum takedown. But, without preamble, she said, “A word in private?”

Hiram, Keesie, and a reluctant oldster left us. The latter hung round not too far away down the corridor.

“There are a lot of people like me out there,” Jo said when we were alone, “and we don't plan to offer up resistance, ma'am.”

Ma'am?

It occurred to me that if Gabriel's sway hadn't worked on her, she'd probably recall my name. It was just that the monsters had thought to bring Jo to
me
.

The more I looked, the more I saw that there wasn't even a speck of recognition in her eyes. She really didn't know who I was.

“You sound as if you're flying a white flag,” I said, still gauging her, anyway. “Why would you surrender to me?”

This was a good time for her to subtly say if she did know me.

“There are those of us who've stayed in our homes, too wary to come out, especially now,” she said instead. “We've been as tired of the world as you seem to be, and I don't know how much longer we can stand to hang back.”

“Are you saying you want to . . . join us?” I asked.

Jo nodded, her gaze intense. She looked at me as if I were someone who'd already made a difference, and it didn't matter to her that monsters had been the ones to start bringing it about.

My skin tingled. It hadn't stopped doing that since the full moon's leaving, when I'd turned back to my normal form. Thing was, I didn't hurt as much as I used to after a regular were-change.

I motioned over the oldster, asking him to bring a seasoned vampire who could go into Jo's mind to ascertain her level of loyalty. I didn't trust humans who weren't under sway.

As I walked through the cell block, I thought,
Well, I'll be. Human backups . . . and they're coming to me.

The monsters I passed seemed to see the strength that a little faith in me brought out. As they watched me, a smile threatened my mouth, but I fought it down. I went to my room, with its comfy bed and skylight, which showed the waning moon. I leaned back against the door, finally giving in to that smile, even though it felt a little wrong, as if something nasty and way too powerful had infused me, and it was only waiting until a perfect time to really come out.

Maybe another full moon.

But I could control myself. I'd faced down my biggest challenge yet, and I could do it again.

I heard a sound to my left, and Gabriel eased into sight. He'd slunk out of the darkness, just like one of the shadow people. Or maybe more like the pariah I used to be.

I hadn't known he was even present, but I think he saw that smile I'd been wearing.

At his stricken expression, I sobered.

He shook his head, as if my moment of indulgence were his fault, just like so many of my bad behaviors.

“I can't tell you how often I've thought about leaving since the other night,” he said, “but every time I try, I can't.”

He couldn't bear to watch me change, just as much as I couldn't stand it with him. Still, neither of us made a move to go anywhere, although I could feel that an urge for him to run was pulling at him.

We both realized it and, in spite of the danger, he took my face in the palms of his hands, leaning his forehead against mine, closing his eyes. Our link encompassed us, pressing against our skins, and then . . .

I sucked in a breath as Gabriel flinched.

The link had done . . . something. Attached to him, sucked some of him in. He'd felt it, too.

It was almost as if I were the stronger one. As if I was taking him over.

There was no way I could know what my new form was going to do to Gabriel, as well as everyone else round me, and I should've run, but Gabriel still had his hands under my jaw, and the next thing I knew, he was kissing me, hard and desperately.

I couldn't move as the kiss melted into a slow draw of lips and pressure, causing our link to settle further into him as my mind swam with Gabriel, my body wanting to own everything about him.

But wasn't that what should happen between two beings who were meant to be together? Surely there was no bad about us. We'd put 562 to peaceful sleep, where she/he couldn't harm the Civil monsters while she/he kept us functioning. We could provide an example for our new community as different types of monsters who could get along.

There had to be a million things we could do together.

As he rested his mouth against mine, still holding me, he felt the same momentary optimism—our link told me so.

We were two monsters who might actually be able to save the world if we tried hard enough.

One hub at a time.

 

I
woke up that night, my arms and legs tangled in the sheets of the bed that I'd been assigned to in our liberated asylum.

Even during the fog of post-sleep, I felt him right away, on my bare skin. Or maybe I should say
through
my skin—on top, under, in.

Gabriel.

As he lay behind me, still in the throes of vampire rest, he didn't make a sound. That was because none of the vampires I'd met so far needed to breathe to survive. Animation kept them “alive” or “undead” or whatever they chose to call it. But those of us in the monster community who lived under the title of
were-creature
were pretty much the opposite of a vampire, what with our strong ties to the humanity that ruled us whenever we weren't in creature form.

But just listen to me, claiming myself as a were. Hell, ever since I'd messed up and taken part in a brief exchange with the mysterious monster we'd rescued in this asylum a couple of weeks ago—a cipher named Subject 562 who turned out to be the mother and father of our blood monster line—I couldn't really call myself a normal were-creature anymore.

I, the stupid and impulsive Mariah Lyander, was now a curiosity for my community. I was even more of a pariah than ever, although the others—the Red blood-drinking monsters and the Civil non–blood drinkers—seemed to respect me for kicking 562's ass in the end with Gabriel's help.

We had psychically joined together and broken 562's sanity, using Gabriel's newfound ability to freeze minds. That full-moon night, when I'd first changed into a form that I could access only once a month, seemed so damned long ago.

I didn't like to think of what everyone had described to me: long teeth, a split tongue, flowing hair, four arms, and cravings that went beyond even a normal monster's.

Yeah, I'd really done it by allowing 562 to exchange with me. Hell, I wasn't even your garden-variety werewolf anymore when the moon
wasn't
full. I'd been testing myself over these last couple of weeks and, thanks to my origin, I could call up my new nonlunar form at any time, like when I got pissed off. Or when I got too excited.

This one featured big teeth in a huge mouth. Claws. Fast and mean.

No, in any case, I wasn't quite a werewolf anymore at all.

Now, as I lay here next to Gabriel in bed, I didn't move a muscle. I hardly breathed, wondering when he would sense that dusk had fully fallen. I pressed my face into my pillow while his mere presence sent my blood rushing, heating, as if it were waiting for him to put his fingers on my back, where the blood would gather at his touch. His imprint.

Our strange link.

My instincts told me that I should probably slide off the mattress before he did wake up. But when was the last time I'd listened to my conscience? It sure hadn't been present when I'd been off-guard enough for 562 to bite me in a rapid, willing exchange that I had barely even registered.

My heartbeat twisted as I heard Gabriel stir.

Awake.

I felt his fingertips skim over my spine, and I shivered as the blood rushed there, mocking the shape of his touch.

“I can hear your pulse,” he said.

He'd told me once that my body's rhythms sounded like musical chaos to him, that it was like no other's. He couldn't resist the volatility in me; it was what drew Gabriel, but there were times I wondered if that could ever be enough in the long run for us. Or if it was
too
much, and it'd already led us to places we never should've gone together.

As I pressed my face into my pillow, he slipped his fingers over my back, to my waist, going even farther, inserting his hand between the mattress and my belly. My stomach muscles jerked. My blood did, too, as it tumbled from one part of my body forward, rolling over itself to get to him.

An ache pierced me low, stabbing and swollen. It was almost as if my blood were doing two things at once: trying to get out of me and go to him, as if it couldn't stand to be inside me anymore. Yet it seemed like it was also attempting to bring
him
into
me
.

When Gabriel traveled his hand a little lower, my blood jammed to a sharp point between my legs, and I groaned, burying my face in my pillow even more.

His thoughts mingled with mine through our link, which had always grown stronger when we did sex.

No blood,
I thought back.
Don't even ask for a taste.

His vampire sway should've been enough to get me to surrender, but I was resolute these days. 562's blood had made me stronger than anyone or anything I'd ever known. Even so, I was already damp for him.

I resisted Gabriel, not wanting to lose control of my body, becoming that new nonlunar creature.

Even though the full moon and my more dangerous shape was twelve nights away, I knew that if my passions got the better of me tonight, I'd still regret it.