BloodlustandMetal (15 page)

“What do you need?”

“Clothes. Toiletries. Hair dye. I don’t need this
eye-catching style anymore. And blood.”

“We’ll get the first three on the way. The last, I don’t
know. Do we need to find a blood bank?”

“No. I’ll be fine. I don’t have to feed every day. And if I
get thirsty, you’re in the forest, right?”

“Yes.”

“Even better. So I’ll hunt. Surely there are animals around.
I’ve been in the city too long. I wouldn’t mind having something different.”

Devon

I tried not to smile thinking of Layla running through the
woods looking for prey. Something which I did in my other form as well. It
would be something to go running in the woods with her. Me in an animal form,
her as—well—her.

“As long as you don’t attack me.”

“I’m not making any promises,” she said, grinning. “Ooh,
hunting is much more fun than drinking from a microwaved pouch.”

I laughed. “Even when someone as sexy as I am is feeding it
to you?”

“Especially then.”

“Interesting. I thought it was hot.”

“That’s because you’re a strange bird, Devon St. Clair.”

“I can be any kind of bird, as a matter of fact. What kind
of bird do you think is the strangest? Ostrich? Flamingo?”

“Don’t make me laugh, you goofball!”

“I like it when you laugh. It’s better than when you’re
yelling at me.”

“How about when I kiss you?”

“I like that best of all. And it’s been too long.”

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you for
helping me, Devon. I don’t understand why, but thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” I didn’t understand why myself and didn’t
want to analyze it with her. Changing the subject back, I said, “Tell me
something, Layla. Have you been drinking human blood all this time?”

She tapped her fingers on her thigh. “Listen, Devon. There’s
much you don’t know about me. I didn’t choose this life, but it is my life now.
I am no longer human. I haven’t been a vampire for too long and maybe I got
involved with the wrong crowd.”

Thinking of the freaks we just left, I had to agree with
that assessment.

“So how did you become a vampire?”

“Why don’t you tell me how you became a shifter first?”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“We’re born, not made. You don’t know much about us, do
you?”

“Probably as much as you know about vampires.”

“I know how to catch vampires. Or kill them if necessary.
That’s all I ever wanted to know. Until—”

“Until what?”

“Until I met you. I’ve despised vampires for as long as I
can remember. But you? I can’t hate you. Every molecule in my body reaches out
for you. Wants to know more about you. Where you’re from. How it happened. How
you feel about it. How you survive.”

Her expression faltered, but then she stuck up her chin,
putting on a brave front. “How do I know you’re not just saying these things to
get to know more about my kind—so you can track us and kills us easier?”

“Because, like I said, the only thing I wanted to know about
vampires before now is how to capture and kill them. I already know how to do
that, sweetheart.” I touched her chin and saw warmth spread into her eyes,
searching mine for answers.

“I can’t tell you about me yet. Not without you telling me
about you. Vampires rely on secrecy, living in the shadows. I’d be a fool to
confide in you.”

“Fine. I’ll tell you about me. And then maybe you can tell
me about you. No, not what it’s like to be a vampire, but what it’s like to be
you.”

“Maybe.”

“As you know, I spend most of my time in London. My family
lives in or near the forest where we’re free to roam as we wish.”

“Are you all shifters?”

“Yes.”

“Do any other families live there with you?”

“Each pack is different. My family and the other shifters in
our community live in houses. Some shifters live strictly in nature, only
having a simple shelter. Some other packs in or near the cities have a large
communal home in the forest. Sort of a vacation home. It allows shifters to
come into nature as they feel the need so they can change at will and roam
freely. Shifters live around the world, in every sort of climate you can
imagine. Rainforests, deserts, colder climates. Just like the people who live
there, we adapt as necessary. Naturally single-species shifters seek out a
place that’s hospitable to the animal form they take. Mountain lions like the
mountains, for instance. But shifters like me, we can become any animal we
choose. And so we have a wide range.”

“Do you usually change into a lion?”

“Wouldn’t you? King of the jungle. Symbol of the English
monarchy. There’s nothing like feeling the magnificent strength of a lion in
you. Seeing the world through the eyes of a predator. But it’s not often I get
a chance to do so in England. The forests provide cover, but you never know
when a human is near.”

“How do you do it?”

“I just visualize what form I want to take and then I do
it.”

She looked at me with amazement. “So you can shift to any
animal you wish? You can fly as a bird? Swim as a dolphin?”

“Fuck like a rabbit,” I added, laughing.

“You have sex with other animals?” Her mouth dropped.

“No. With other shifters in animal form, yes, I have. The
human body is the best for sex. And I like the human female body.”

She closed her mouth and sat back. “Wow. I knew shifters
existed, but I had no idea how amazing it might be. I always thought of you as
dirty animals, beneath us. Beneath humans, really.”

“And I always thought vampires were nothing more than dead
flesh walking. No life in them without the blood of others.”

“We’re not zombies!” she protested.

“Funny how our prejudices about each other have shaped us.”

“And maybe they were wrong from the start.”

“So what do you think? Can two very different species like
us become—friends?”

“You saved my life. If that isn’t a way to start a trusting
relationship, I don’t know what is.”

“Friends?” I held out my hand.

“Friends.” She shook it.

“Now are you going to tell me about you?”

She squinted while she debated.

“If you noticed, I could tell you about my kind without
revealing any way to hurt us. Just stick to that if it makes you feel more
comfortable.”

“Wait. You didn’t tell me anything about yourself, really.
You told me about shifters. What about you?”

“Your turn to talk.”

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Who you really are. You know I researched you and found out
some facts, but I want to hear
your
story. In my experience with
vampires, you’re not born, you’re made. Correct?”

“Correct.”

“So your situation is different from mine. I was born what I
am. I was never human first and then became a shifter. I’ve always been a
shifter.”

“Oh look, there’s a store open up ahead. Let me run in.”

How convenient so she could evade my questions again. I
stayed in the car and she returned around ten minutes later.

“Got everything you need?”

“Yup. For a few days at least.”

“Are you trying to ignore my question?”

“No. I don’t know where to begin. It’s not something I
usually talk about. In fact we kind of keep to ourselves. Or hide what we
really are from humans.”

“Why don’t I ask you questions?”

“I’ll reserve the right to answer only the questions I want
to answer.”

“Fair enough.” I scratched my chin. “Let’s start with the
present. You’re in a band with humans. Do they know what you are?”

“A yes/no answer. I like it. The answer is no.”

“Can you go out in the sun?”

“Another easy one. No.”

“How do you manage if they want to meet during the day?”

“I say I’m busy. I told them right from the beginning I’m
only free nights. It’s only been a month or so and it hasn’t been much of an
issue. Our rehearsals are at night. Our gigs are at night. I don’t think we’ll
be invited to play any children’s birthday parties any time soon.”

She laughed and I found the sound contagious, eliciting a
laugh from me as well.

“That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

“Not really.”

“Let me go backward from the band then. How long had you
been with Stefano?”

“I haven’t
been
with Stefano if you’re implying a
sexual relationship.”

“I wasn’t. But I’m glad to hear it.”

She looked off while considering the question. “A couple of
years.”

“What were you doing with him?”

“I met him at a club in London. I was a young vampire, alone
and living a solitary existence in the underground of London. During tough
times, I slept in the London Underground.” She laughed and I joined in. “I
don’t know why I’m laughing about it now. It definitely wasn’t funny at the time.”

“Situations like that never are. It’s healthy that you can
look back and laugh about it. Much better than letting it get to you.”

She smiled at me in a way that warmed my heart. “Thank you
for saying that. It means a lot. You know, for a big, tough bounty hunter with
a heart of stone, you actually can be quite—decent.”

I chuckled. “Don’t tell anybody. Only certain people get to
see my softer side.”

“So I’m one of the lucky few?”

“It looks like it.” She looked so human when she smiled like
that. Not that she couldn’t pass for human otherwise. But when her face held a
neutral expression, it was as immobile as marble. “I know what you’re doing.
You’re changing the subject back to me. Working your charms to try to avoid
telling me too much. But I’m not as naive as that. So let’s get back to you.
You were in London, young, alone, and I assume, afraid. And then…”

“I met Stefano. He was old and powerful. I didn’t know
anything about being a vampire. I never met any others besides the one who made
me. I had questions. Stefano had answers. I was alone. He lived with other
vampires. He invited to live in their,” she paused as if searching for the
right word, “community.”

“A community of vampires near London, eh. So you haven’t
been a vampire for long?”

“No. Just about a month before I met Stefano. So two to
three years. He called me his Millennium baby because I’m so young.”

“How old was Stefano?”

“I don’t think he even knew. Hundreds of years.”

A ton of questions fought for attention in my brain. I was
pleased to hear her answer, but had so many more I wanted to ask her, while not
making her shut down defensively. The bounty hunter in me wanted to focus on
vampires. You never knew when some tidbit of information would come in handy.
The man in me wanted to ask about Layla.

My interest in her won out. Was I thinking with my dick or
my head?

“How did you become a vampire?”

Her face darkened as if by a shadow.

“As you already found out with your snooping, I had been
living in DC. One night I was attacked by a vampire when I was coming home from
a show in town. I had just left my friends at a club and was about to get a
taxi when someone grabbed me and dragged me into the shadows of a park. He
pierced my neck under the cover of trees and fed from me. I wanted to scream, but
I couldn’t. After the initial terror disappeared, a more sensual feeling took
over my body.

“While he fed from me, I didn’t even try to stop him. I
didn’t want to at that point, believe it or not. His seductive hold on me was
so consuming. The more he drank from me, the weaker I became. Eventually I must
have lost consciousness.

“Some time later, I woke up and the park looked different,
sharper. Sort of like going from regular TV to high-definition, but on a much
greater scale. The details in the leaves around me were incredible. Sounds
magnified so I could hear bats fluttering through the trees across the park.

“The vampire was with me. He told me his name was Ramon and
he was immortal, a vampire, and now I was too. I won’t get into the details of
how I freaked out and how I was consumed with a thirst for blood. I was
dependent on Ramon. I don’t know why he chose me, but we were together from
that point. He taught me how to stage my human death so my parents would bury
what they thought were my remains.

“Ramon liked to hunt dirty politicians. He drank from them
and then erased their memories of the event. But he was careless. A human saw
us feeding off a politician in the park one night and attacked Ramon. He must
have seen enough vampire movies to know to use a wooden stake. He had a
sharpened piece of wood, which he must have salvaged from a nearby construction
site, and he plunged it into Ramon’s heart. I fled, far too fast for a human to
catch me.

“DC was no longer an option. I had to get away. I stalked
women in restaurants that evening to find someone who looked like me. When I
found one, I waited for her to use the ladies’ room. Then I took her ID, which
to my luck included a passport as she was a tourist. Ramon had a book of
contacts in his place and I contacted one who was listed with a note for
international travel out of Boston. I paid him to arrange a flight where I’d
avoid sunlight. He’d done this for numerous vampires so he took care of all the
arrangements. I fled to London and started my new life as an immortal there.
One thing I’ve learned how to do is to create a new identity or borrow
another’s.”

She gave me a forced grin.

“Oh my God! That’s insane.” I tried to focus on the winding
road ahead, which had been difficult to do when I’d been so engrossed in
Layla’s story. “So you didn’t choose to become what you are? It was forced upon
you?”

She nodded. “I still had very little idea of how to be a
vampire with Ramon gone. I just knew I had to avoid sunlight and wanted blood.
Stefano and his crew taught me how to hunt. How to get blood from humans. I’d
like to say they were all bad people in some way, but I know deep inside that’s
not true.”

“So you killed the humans?”

“Not intentionally. But yes, I have accidentally killed a
few humans by taking too much blood. I’m still not really sure how I feel about
it.”

“When you drink, do you usually kill?”

“No. I’ve heard there are willing donors you can go to. I
mentioned it to Stefano and he said that would take all the thrill out of being
a vampire.”

“What do you know about that?”

“Apparently they get a thrill from it. There is a component
in our saliva that puts the person in a sensual state, which I know firsthand.
I don’t know where vampires came from or how they evolved, but for whatever
reason, this side effect helps both vampires and humans. We can drink human
blood, they enjoy it, and nobody gets hurt. Usually.”

“So you’ve been away from Stefano for several months now.
What have you been doing to survive?”

“Whatever I can, Devon. I’ve had to be very careful using
the underground blood banks because if Stefano put some tracers out, it might
be a red flag to have a new vampire in town coming in looking for blood.”

“So what have you been doing? Humans?”

“Some, but I’ve done my best to avoid humans. I’ve developed
some of the mind control necessary so they wouldn’t remember what happened, but
I admit I’m not that good at it yet. You saw my attempt on you.”

“Well, I’m a shapeshifter. It wouldn’t work on me.”

“It might not have worked anyway. I’m a young vampire and
still learning how to function in this new skin. Anyway, I didn’t want to leave
any dead bodies either. Let’s say I helped animal control out with the stray
animal problem.”

“Gross.”

“Really?”

“Nah. Just kidding. I’ve had a few in my day as well.”

“So what about you? What do you eat?” she asked.

“Me, I eat like a man. And an animal.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I have an appetite. In every way.” I gave her what
I thought was my most seductive grin.

“I seem to remember. I hope you can keep your ‘appetite’
under control while we try to find a way out of this predicament.”

“It will be tough. But I’ll prioritize. First, hide you from
Gayle and Jon. Second, make sweet love to you.”

“Aren’t you the confident Charlie? The first time we had
sex, I wanted to murder you afterward.”

“Things have changed, haven’t they, sweetheart. Now I hope
you’ll consider me your ally, your friend. I’m no longer your enemy.”

She tapped her fingers on her thighs again. “It’s not so
easy to forget, Devon. But thank you for changing your mind and helping me. I
really do appreciate it.”

“I like you so much better when you’re a sweetheart.”

“I like you so much better when you haven’t tied me up.”

“You’ve gotta admit—it was kind of hot back there in my
flat.”

She smiled and tried to hide it. “I’m not admitting to
anything. Now let’s get back to the question. What do you eat?”

“When I’m in human form, I eat what humans eat. When I’m in
animal form, I eat whatever prey that animal prefers.”

“And you eat just about anything they would eat.”

“Yup.”

“Gross right back at you.”

“Easy. At least I don’t suck blood.”

“No, worse. You eat flesh.”

“Here we go again,” I said. “So I’m going to pick up some
food at this convenience store before it closes. Do you eat or drink people
food ever?”

“I can if I have to. When I’m trying to pass myself off as
human. But I don’t really like to. Except—”

“Except what.”

“Except I do like sipping coffee. Or a glass of red wine.
They don’t have any effect on me and just get absorbed by my body. But it’s one
of those old habits from when I was a human that I didn’t want to give up.”

“So do you want me to pick some up at the store?”

“If you don’t mind. Looks like we’ll be stuck together for a
bit longer. Might as well get comfortable.”

Layla

While I told Devon my story, we drove through numerous
roundabouts and the concrete of the city gave to the green fields of the
English countryside. Eventually we left the fields and entered a forest area
with dirt roads. A cute little cottage appeared, almost overshadowed by the
surrounding trees.

“It’s beautiful here,” I said.

“It’s home,” Devon replied. “I travel all over the world for
my clients so I like to come back to a place that’s familiar, where I grew up.
I’ve been to so many interesting, beautiful places in the world, which allows
me the freedom to explore them in various forms. I’ve explored the African
savannah as a lion, the Black Forest as a bear. But for me nothing—no
place—compares to the English countryside.”

“So what forms do you usually change into?”

“A Peregrine falcon. Or a fox. Traditional animals you’d
find in England. But I love to change into a lion.”

“What about your family? Where are they?”

“Some live nearby. The funny thing about shifters is that
while we’re transient and move around, we also crave the security of home. So
even if we travel or live abroad for years, we always have a place we consider
home.”

“I guess you stick together.”

“It depends. Not all shifters mate with other shifters. Some
fall in love with humans.”

“And they can have children together?”

“Yes, our species can mate to create offspring. Some carry
the gene and become shifters, some don’t. It’s kind of like eye color or hair
color. But unlike genetics, shapeshifting isn’t passed on as a dominant or
recessive gene. It’s fairly dominant, but not a given that the offspring will
become shifters.”

“I’m surprised you’re telling me about your kind. Isn’t it
like giving away information to the enemy?”

“It’s nothing your kind doesn’t already know. And after you
told me about your kind, why not? Besides, I thought we decided we were now
friends. Both our kinds have coexisting for centuries. We might not necessarily
like or understand each other, but we’re not at war either.”

Devon parked the car qand opened the door for me and I
entered the cottage. Although it was what you’d call charming. with a worn sofa
and old armchairs covered with throws, I had to focus on more pressing
concerns. What could we do to block out the sun?

The drapes were heavy, but would they be enough? As if
reading my mind, Devon said, “I have trash bags, tarps, whatever we need to
block the sunlight. That should do it, right?”

“Yes.” I felt the drapes. They were insulated so they should
work fine. Even if some sun came through, as long as it didn’t directly shine
on me, I’d be okay.

“Can we hang up some tarps where I’d sleep, just in case?”

“The bedroom,” he said hopefully. “With me?”

My voice came out with more of a hiss than I intended.
“Yesss.”

Then it was Devon’s turn to choke up. “Uh, um, uh—excuse me
one moment,” he said. “I have to make a call.”

“Everything all right?” I asked when he came back into the
room.

“Yes. Just a little business I had to take care of.”

When he didn’t elaborate, I sat down on the overstuffed
sofa. “So now what do we do?”

“I can think of one thing.” The look in his eye was purely
devilish.

“Really, Devon. Is that
all
you can think of?”

He looked up at the ceiling as if considering the question.
“Let’s see. We’ve spent the past several days traveling, fighting, on the run,
trying to track down stolen money and fighting vampires. To the death, I might
add. I hung up the tarps in the bedroom to keep all sunlight out. We haven’t
stopped moving for days. And now we’re in a cozy little cottage and we don’t
have to do
anything
,unless we want to
.
It’s fantastic.”