Blood Work (45 page)

My teeth
ground, but Erin continued before I could explain.

“Besides, I
already said you needed to survive this. I fully expected her to
kill me when I stabbed her.”

The bitter,
defeated edge in her voice cut my anger away with a single sweep. I
meet her gaze. Her eyes were dull, empty of life.

“Erin,” I
began but couldn’t finish. Whatever it was that pulled her over
this slope was too big to deal with now. “We have to get moving.
That knife won’t stop Veilchen. She’ll be back.”

“First,” Erin
murmured, pulling up the sleeve of her jumper. Quickly she unwound
the bandage, revealing Mercy’s teeth marks. They were closed with a
couple of stitches each.

“What—” I
began but Erin silenced me with a look.

She wrapped
the bandage around my throat, reminding me I was bleeding. When she
was done, I muttered thanks and stood. I was a bit shaky, but
stable enough to help Erin up and half support her as well.

“Good work,
taking the knife from me,” I said. “Of course, you left me pretty
much defenceless.”

“You didn’t
seem to mind too much.”

My erection
had, thankfully, subsided and feeling was rushing back into all the
parts of my body Veilchen had numbed with her chilly touch. Things
were starting to ache, and not pleasantly.

“What did you
put on the blade?” I asked, scanning the dark trees around us.

“Holy water,
from your other pocket.”

“Gotta love
the cargo pants.”

I started us
back toward the path I’d come in by. But even as we took our first
steps, lavender swirled around me and Veilchen appeared, the knife
still protruding from between her shoulder blades. The whole of the
back of her blouse was burned away and hung in tatters, exposing
the charred flesh around the steel blade.

Veilchen was
no longer angry. Back was that cucumber cool calm. She looked at us
with a little smile and as we watched, the knife shifted. She used
no hands to move it, but move it did. It twitched, shivered and
then drew out of the wound and floated in place. Veilchen turned
and plucked it out of mid-air.

“Telekinesis,”
I hissed. Aurum had said the Violets were the most powerful
psychics of the clans.

“How
perceptive.” Veilchen spun the knife like an expert. “And now I
have your only weapon.”

I shrugged.
“Maybe.”

And Mercy
slammed into Veilchen from behind.

However Mercy
had been able to sneak up on the Primal, I had no clue, but I
didn’t waste time wondering. I grabbed Erin and turned to run in
the other direction. I staggered to a stop, Erin’s momentum almost
pulling me off balance. Then she too saw what had stopped me.

Long coats
settling about their legs, the line of Reds faced us. Some sported
smoking craters from where Mercy had hit them with the paintballs,
but most were unscarred and all were very angry. My senses were
overloaded with Veilchen’s flavour. The cab sav of the Reds
couldn’t battle through.

I swallowed
hard. This was what I’d wanted all along. I should have been
pleased. But somehow being a bit angry and a lot scared took
precedent. Scared, for obvious reasons. Angry because where the
fuck was Big Red?

As one, the
Reds took a step forward.

“Get behind
me,” I whispered to Erin. For a wonder, she did. I grabbed stink
bombs from my pockets. After a moment, I felt her hands dipping in
as well.

Then the Reds
charged. I tossed stink bombs. They detonated against the advancing
vampire bodies and garlic paste went everywhere. Between Erin and
me, we didn’t precisely halt the charge, but we scattered it and
they parted around us, keeping wide and sweeping in behind. I moved
to put my back to Erin’s, and saw they weren’t closing in on
us.

Rather, they
converged on the seething riot that was Mercy and Veilchen.

They got a
hold on her and Mercy, pulled them out of their faster than fast
fight and dropped them back into visibility. It was like one of
those all-in-pile-ups, with more Reds throwing themselves
mindlessly at Veilchen. Mercy battled the few that held her. I did
my best to target the vampires around her, without hitting her. It
was hard and I didn’t have much success. Erin, too, continued to
empty my pockets, concentrating on the far side of the melee.

Reds closed
around Mercy and ruined my chances of helping from the outside. I
could sense Mercy’s waning strength. She’d used most of it in
racing up the hill to attack Veilchen in an effort to protect me.
Then her strength gave out and she went down.

Even bereft of
stick and knife, I was about to wade into the fray to rescue Mercy
when the knot around Veilchen exploded outward. Vampires flew up
and out and the Primal sprang clear of the mess in an elegant twist
through the air. She landed behind me and Erin. We spun to face
her, the last of the stink bombs ready.

What had
remained of her clothes were all but gone now. The blouse was
completely destroyed, showing off her white, pert breasts to the
night, and her slacks clung to her waist with nothing but grim
tenacity, turning to flowing tatters around her thighs. There were
rents in her marble skin, but these closed even as we watched. No
blood spilled from her at all. Not even mine.

Erin threw a
stink bomb. It hit her chest and blew open. A slurry of garlic
splattered her upper body. And that was it. No burning, no
screaming in pain. Her mouth curved upwards. Veilchen dragged a
finger through the stinking mess and lifted it to her lips. She
licked the garlic paste off and made a satisfied noise.

Shit.

But Holy water
worked. Sadly, Erin had my only store.

Howling, the
Reds faced Veilchen, preparing for another charge.

She just
laughed and suddenly, the black of the night around her split down
the middle. Layers of darkness peeled back and tore away on a
sudden wind. What was left was Veilchen, and a new mob of
vampires.

I’d thought
the stench of lavender couldn’t get any worse. I’d thought
wrong.

It suffocated
me. My stomach churned with the overpowering sensation. I wanted to
puke, to scour my mouth and nose free of the smell.

But then it
changed. The mustiness soured and deepened, gaining a peppery
hint.

Narsico
Martínez Pérez stepped from the ranks of Reds. He ignored me in
favour of sizing up Veilchen.

“My Lord bids
you greetings,” he said formerly to the Primal.

She sneered at
him. “I am sure he does. What business does the Red Lord have with
my affairs?”

Martínez bowed
his head in submission. “My Lord recognises that he has overstepped
his boundaries by pursuing your stolen daughter. But he wishes you
to know it was done as gesture of good will.”

She eyed him
with weary contempt. “The Lord of the Red is weak. What need have I
of his good will?”

If her insult
about his lord bothered Martínez, he didn’t show it. “My Lord is
aware of his position amongst his brothers and sisters. He knows
that of all the castes, his children are the least. Not as strong,
not as empowered. But they are numerous, more so than any other,
even your own.”

The wall of
Reds that had gathered just behind Erin and me parted. Mercy,
bloodied and limp, was carried out between two vampires. They
stopped beside Martínez and dropped Mercy. She hit the ground hard
and lay still.

My knees gave
out and I sank down. Erin came with me, simply because I think she
didn’t know what else to do. I could only stare at my nasty kitten,
my broken doll. Her touch through the link was barely there, ebbing
even as I desperately reached for it.

“We sought
your stolen daughter,” Martínez said, waving a dismissive hand at
Mercy, “so that we might present her to you as an offering.”

Veilchen gazed
at Mercy as well. Her thoughts were hidden by her blank eyes. How
she felt about seeing her chosen vessel battered and torn was a
mystery. Probably it was just mild annoyance. Not like the gut
wrenching ache in my stomach, the dreadful anguish roaring through
my veins.

“Your Lord
wishes an alliance,” Veilchen said.

“He does. He
believes that between the Violets and the Reds, a dominance will be
created and the other castes will fall before us.”

“And you think
to begin this alliance with the gift of a broken body? A body I had
in my possession not moments before your pathetic creatures
attacked me?”

Martínez
conceded the point. “For that, I am eternally sorry and should you
wish it, you may have my life in payment. The crippled one had
incensed my children to the point at which they did not understand
what they were doing. But alongside this one, we have more to
offer.”

He pointed at
me.

Again,
Veilchen was summarily unimpressed. “Another I had in my possession
until you interrupted.”

“Yet you would
have taken him and turned him without knowing what he
possesses.”

Veilchen
looked between Martínez and me, her expression cool. “Apart from a
pleasing body and intoxicating blood, there is little special about
him. Whatever might set him apart from other humans he has only
gained through the bond with my stolen daughter.”

Martínez dared
to shake his head at her. “You forget one other thing. Knowledge.
This human has the knowledge to increase a vampire’s strength and
cognition without having to wait centuries. At its full strength,
this one,” he indicated Mercy, “is the equal of any of our kind
more than a hundred years old.”

That caught
Veilchen’s attention. She came forward and crouched by Mercy. She
pushed Mercy onto her back and laid her hand between my vampire’s
breasts. I could feel the tug of Veilchen’s questing probe down the
link. She was seeking to find if what Martínez said was true. It
didn’t take her long.

Slowly,
Veilchen turned to me. Her lips curled in that fond smile
again.

“Tell your
Lord,” she said to Martínez, “that we may discuss the terms of the
alliance.”

You know, I
was new to all this vampire politics stuff, but that didn’t sound
very good to me. Not at all.

“Hey, hey, hey.”

I was on my
feet before my ears registered the words as my own. Martínez and
Veilchen regarded me as if I was an unruly child jumping around for
attention. And now that I was the centre of attention, I had no
idea what to do next. So I let my mouth loose.

“Look, I’m all
for the freedom of information act. But somehow I don’t think you
guys are totally clued in on the fine points regarding the concept
of freedom. I’m not about to go quietly as a bargaining piece in
this little deal you have going here.”

I wasn’t
feeling too steady, between blood loss and aching, defrosting
delicate parts of my anatomy. Still, I attempted to walk between
the two head honchos of the vampire armies facing each other. They
watched me with non-existent wariness. Let’s face it, I was less
than a threat to either of them.

“If either of
you try to force me to talk, I’m going to resist,” I told them
patiently. “And resist rather insistently. Now, I’m only human. I
have this flimsy little mortal body, very easy to break. I could
very well resist myself into an assisted suicide. Capiche?”

So far, the
only impression I had seemed to make was one of mild amusement, in
Veilchen at least. Martínez just looked at me as if he’d never seen
a talking ape before. Nothing new there.

“Now, don’t
jump to any hasty conclusions, my friends. I am well inclined to
cooperate.”

I stood
between them, waving them together like I had some secret to tell.
Martínez made a tiny movement, as if he might actually come closer.
He didn’t though, when Veilchen remained as she was. Beyond them,
their vampires waited in mindless stasis. Both of them had complete
control of their armies. Made me think the Reds attacking Veilchen
had been a deliberate move on Martínez’s part. When they failed,
he’d fallen back on plan B. Which meant that if I suspected that,
so did Veilchen.

My stomach
dropped out. If she knew that and still came to the bargaining
table over a pithy thing like me, then perhaps she saw a great
advantage in siding with the Reds. Scary, scary thought.

“My
cooperation, however,” I continued, “comes at a price. Now, Big Red
here, who I know isn’t the Biggest Red, but he seems to have
permission from Great-granddad to bargain for him, has already
given me a starting price. He offered me my life.” I looked at
Veilchen. “Top that.”

Veilchen’s
smile came close to being a snarl. “You would play us against each
other?”

“Hey, seems
like the best way of me coming out of this with my life and sanity
and maybe something a little extra. I’m a greedy bastard, I admit
that, but it’s a vice and vice can be exploited. Now, what else you
gonna give me?”

She blinked
slowly. “Your life and… when I claim the body stolen from me –”
Veilchen pressed against me in a deliberately sensual manner. “–
I’ll give you myself. I know you want that body.”

No form of
control this time, no hint of brutality. I managed to hold onto my
dignity and added some scorn.

“Lady, after
what you did to me before, I’ll be lucky if I want
any
body
ever again. I think something might have frozen and dropped off.” I
stepped back. “Think of something else.”

She had some
awesome self-esteem, I’ll grant her that. Probably came from a
millennia of being rejected and just having to deal, cause I don’t
think she could have topped herself.

Those white
eyes narrowed and regarded me with deceptive mellowness.

“Money,”
Martínez offered.

I turned to
him. “How much?”

“As much as
you wish.”