Devi: Matefinder Book 2 (12 page)

                “How do we get in?” I asked Kai.

                Kai stood in front of me protectively. “He will have smelled us by now.”

                Sure enough, a figure zoomed into our vision from behind the gate. He wasn’t hiding his vampire powers. It was dark out. I couldn’t make out all of his features, but it looked like the guy from my vision.

                “Private property. Please leave. I want no trouble with the wolves.”

                Kai looked at me with surprise. This was not the typical vampire we were used to dealing with. His voice didn’t hiss, his eyes were calm. He seemed … nice?

                “I did a Native American vision quest and I had a vision of you kissing your human lover. You were kind to her and different from the vampires we know. We want to talk,” I blurted out. Kai grabbed his forehead.

                ‘What?’
I prodded.

                ‘You sound crazy.’

                ‘I am a little crazy, Kai.’

                The vampire looked surprised.

                “Who are you?” he asked.

                Kai looked at me and shook his head no.

                “I’m Aurora, the Matefinder. The one Layla wants.”

               
‘Jesus, Aurora! Why not give him our address?’
Kai roared.

                The second Layla’s name left my mouth Alek jumped up and over the gate and was in my face.

                “Shhh, don’t speak of her here,” he told me firmly. Kai’s arm came out quickly blocking him from coming closer to me.

                Alek looked at Kai’s arm. “I told you, I don’t have beef with your kind.  Come inside. Mariam, my wife, is at work.”

                ‘His wife?’
Kai sounded interested.
‘What vampire takes a human wife? Not a lover, not a blood slave, a wife?’

                I shrugged. It was a short walk to the entrance of his home. It was a cute cottage style home with a lush rose garden, just like from my vision. He opened the door and asked us to be seated in the living room.

                “Are you two mates?” Alek asked.

                “Yes,” Kai told him.

                He smiled. His skin was pale and his hair was a dirty blonde cropped cut that extenuated his strong jaw. He was expertly dressed and had a tall, lean frame.

                “I have always been taken with the idea of werewolves’ mates. It sounds so romantic.”

                Kai and I shared a look. A hopeless romantic vampire? There was a first for everything.

                “You will have to excuse us, but we are not used to vampires talking about romance.” Kai stated bluntly.

                Alek spread his hands out. “Ah yes, well, we aren’t all blood junkies like the queen you spoke of earlier.”

                I frowned. “Blood junkie?”

                Alek took a moment to think before he spoke. “Well, yes you wouldn’t know, would you?”

                Kai put a protective arm around me.

                “Know what?” Kai urged him.

                “The queen and her vampires are all blood junkies. They inject their humans with heroin and then drink their blood. It’s the only way to get high because drugs don’t work on vampires directly. So they filter it through human blood.”

                Kai’s hand squeezed my shoulder hard. I felt dizzy with shock at this new information.

                “So that’s why they are draining them? Killing them?”

                Alek shrugged. “I don’t know what they do anymore, but that’s what they were up to when I was around them. They also get high off of human fear. All of these things make the blood sweeter, like dessert. They don’t drink for sustenance, they drink to get high. They don’t care about stopping. One vampire can drain five humans a night to get their fix.”

                I felt sick.

                “Who knew we were dealing with heroin junkies?” I said aloud.

                Kai looked livid. His eyes were yellow and his fingers had transformed into claws.

                “That VIP bouncer at the club. He must have been no more than twenty-two years old. His entire future is gone. They’ve made him a drug addict and will drain him when they please. Why didn’t I know about this?” Kai stood up. The skin on his arms was growing patches of fur.

                Alek looked on calmly. “Well, your kind have been so preoccupied with finding mates and procreating that they don’t really care what we do.”

                I placed a reassuring hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I think we should focus on the fact that not all vampires are junkies.” I gestured to Alek.

                Alek nodded. “When you are turned into a vampire, you are bled dry by your master and then filled with their blood. Most times the vampires are too high and greedy to fill their victims back up with blood and so they just perish, but my master wasn’t. I was born of the queen herself, and I was born an addict.”

                I tried to contain my shock. Kai and I shared a look. He clearly didn’t like using her first name.

                “I opened my eyes to my new immortal life and there was only one thing I craved more than blood,” Alek said with a sinister look in his eye.

                “Heroin,” Kai finished.

                Alek nodded.

                “So every vampire that is from Lay–the queen’s clan, is a heroin addict? And every vampire that they turn becomes one too?”

                Alek nodded. “And every human that is a user, was led to be so by a vampire with compulsion. They run the entire North American drug trade.”

                Oh my God. Holy hell. I just sat there with my mouth open. Kai recovered before me.

                “How did you escape that life?” Kai asked him sincerely.

                Alek smiled and went over to the desk, returning with a picture frame. He handed it to us.

                “Mariam.”

                In the picture, he was sitting on a park bench with her head in his lap. She smiled at the camera while he stroked her hair.

                “I was trying to escape that lifestyle and leave the queen’s clan. I didn’t like constantly being strung out and giving drugs to helpless humans at clubs in order to get high. But I was addicted. So I ran. I found myself here, in Forest Grove. I saw Mariam coming out of a class that she teaches at the college here. I imagined a life with her. A human life, like the one that was robbed from me.”

                I smiled. “So she helped you get clean?”

                He chuckled. “Well, sort of.” He paused. “After I attacked her.”

                “Oh.” I didn’t know what to say.

                “It’s a long story, we’re past that now. I take little bits of blood from her to tide me over until I can get down to my friend’s blood bank in Eugene.”

                “Your vampire friend? Are there more like you? How many?” Kai pressed him.

                Alek looked uncomfortable. “I have answered a lot of your questions. Now I have some questions of my own, if you please?”

                Kai nodded. “Fair enough.” I could tell Kai respected Alek. He was wary of him, but they had a mutual trust building.

                Alek looked at me. “How did you find my home?”

                I looked at Kai and sighed.

                “I have a Shaman friend. He took me into the mountains and gave me some hallucinogenic tea and I saw you kissing your wife and arguing about going to the movies or staying in. She likes the movies, but you wanted to stay home.”

                His hand flew to his mouth in shock. “That’s true. Incredible.” He inhaled. “You’re a witch? Or a werewolf?” He looked confused.

                I returned his smile. “I’m both. Long story. ”

                His face took on a serious look. “Why are you here? What do you want from me?”

                It was Kai’s turn to talk. “The queen wants my mate captured. I will not allow that to happen. If I have to kill every last vampire in her coven to get to her, I will. The witches have sided with us. I guess we’re here to find out whose side you are on and how many of you there are.”

                Alek stood and paced the carpet. “The last time I checked, the werewolves didn’t exactly have enough numbers to take on the vampires, even with some witches’ help.”

                Kai nodded. “I have a plan.” He stood and indicated I do so as well. “How many are there like you?”

                I stood.

                Alek turned to us. “Not enough. We make up maybe five percent of all vampires.”

                Kai chewed his lip. “Do you want to help us or stay out of it?”

                Alek bowed deeply. “If you are taking on the queen, I personally will help you in any way I can, if only to make sure that no human has to suffer the fate I did. But I cannot speak for the rest of my kind. We live in rural places. We stay out of the limelight.”

                Kai nodded. “Well, if my plan goes well, your people might be a little uncomfortable in the near future. It would be nice if we could tell good from bad. If you can get them on board, let me know.”

                Alek nodded. “All of my people use the same blood bank. It has locations all across America. I can spread the word through there and let you know.”

                Kai pulled a card out of his pocket. After taking it, Alek shook his hand.

                “Times are changing, aren’t they?” Alek asked him.

                Kai nodded. “Yes, they are.”

                I looked at my mate. Why did I have the feeling his plan involved total chaos and destruction?

                The drive back home was a silent one. I reached over and held Kai’s hand.