Night Fever (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 3) (11 page)

Chapter Thirteen

I woke and promptly leaned over the bed clutching my stomach. The pain was so intense, it made my head spin. This was a vampire’s growl of hunger, debilitating and consuming. I couldn’t think straight. Heck, I wasn’t thinking before either to let myself get to this point. Days passed while I searched for Georgia, not doing much else unless it was pulling a ghoul off a human. Bad mistake. I had reached my limit. No, I was past it.

Staggering to my feet, I scrubbed my eyes, but I was pretty sure they glowed red. My fangs filled my mouth and try as I might, I couldn’t get them to retract. The most I could do was concentrate on putting one foot in front the other as I made my way to the closet to get dressed. Twenty more…ten…I could do this.

A knock on the front door of the apartment halted my progress. Then a heartbeat exploded in ears with its enticing rhythm. Nathan’s bedroom door hung on bent hinges after I ripped through it. The front door, locks and all came off the wall as well, the knob crushing in my palm. I jerked the startled man off his feet and sank my teeth into his neck. Sweet nectar!

Sliding my hands up his back and into his hair, he might as well have been a lover. Except I fully concentrated on draining him. Yes, I said drain. My vampire instincts had kicked in, and rationality did not exist in my narrow world. In my ears, his heartbeat went from thundering to a whisper. I kept drinking. In another instant, my eyes might have rolled except strong hands jerked me backward. I lost my prize, and with the detachment, sanity flooded my mind.

I screamed and covered my mouth. This was the most emotion I had exhibited in forever, but it was warranted. At my feet, Cam lay in a crumpled heap. Yeah, that Cam, Violet’s boyfriend—the man she loved no matter how hard she tried not to. I paced, pushing fingers into my hair.

“He’s dying. He’s dying,” I chanted, as if that would help. “I drained him. I’ve never… I would never…”

At a sound, I turned to find it had been Francis who pulled me off Cam. Francis moved to the door and picked it up. He wedged it hard into the opening separating the hall from Nathan’s apartment. I’d have to use muscle again to get it open. The damage was done, but that wasn’t important. Cam took priority.

I dropped to his side and checked his pulse. There scarcely was one. A hand pressed to my mouth kept another cry from escaping. I paced again.

“I can dump the body for you,” Francis offered. The solemnity on his face should have been comical, but it wasn’t.

“No,” I shouted, and he raised his eyebrows. “It’s Cam. He’s a friend of a friend. I want him to live.”

This seemed like a foreign concept to Francis or I just couldn’t figure him out. I sank to the floor again, and started to bite my wrist as I raised Cam’s head toward it. Francis was across the room in seconds to grab my arm.

“Don’t try to stop me.”

“I’ll do it,” he offered.

“You think I’m going to lose it again.” He might be right, but I didn’t want to admit it. When he raised his own wrist and bit into it, I released Cam into his hold. Clutching my hands together, I willed it to work and for Cam to come back. Then a new thought struck me. “Is he going to turn?”

“Only if he dies.”

I walked the carpet. Surely, I wouldn’t have killed him, right? I couldn’t have because of Ian’s order not to harm humans, to always help them. In fact, I wondered if the order had dissolved because without blood Cam would have died.

“How could I do this?” I muttered, puzzling over the matter.

Francis stood and carried Cam to the couch to lay him there. When he was done, he moved back across the room as if he didn’t like standing too close to a human. Maybe he felt weaker after giving so much of his blood.

“The hunger supersedes all else,” Francis said.

I frowned. “Huh?”

His calm gaze met mine. “You said he was a friend.”

A friend of a friend, but I didn’t correct him.

“Friendship, family, any loyalty, even obedience to a master cannot replace the order of the vampire’s hunger.”

Francis assumed when I spoke I was talking about betraying a friend. While it did bother me, I meant the order from Ian. The rest of Francis’s explanation covered it without him knowing. My hunger took priority above Ian’s command. So, the only way
not
to obey Ian was to go hungry. Check. I had no plans to do it again—ever.

A moan to my right caught my attention, and I moved to the couch. Cam raised a hand to his head and then to his neck. His eyes popped open and widened in fear when he saw me. He jerked up to a sitting position and scooted back along the couch. By training or instinct, he snatched his gun from the holster and aimed it at me.

“Back up,” he ordered.

I glanced at Francis, who had repositioned himself in front of me and to Cam’s right. My senses told me Francis cloaked himself but not enough that I didn’t see him. Cam had no idea he was there. The other vampire’s expression said, “What does he expect to do with a gun?” I had to agree. Well, sort of. Bullets hurt.

“What are you?” Cam demanded.

“Let’s calm down, Cam,” I encouraged him. “You don’t want the paperwork of having to explain why you shot a tiny unarmed woman.”

“You’re small, but your strength is unbelievable. It’s not human, that’s for sure.” He glanced over at the door where in spots around it, the wood was shattered. Yeah, bad evidence. “There’s no way you could handle those creatures like you did if you were just an ordinary woman. I know it, and so do you.”

“Adrenaline is a funny thing.”

He waved the gun. “Try again.”

“You can just make him forget and get this over with,”
Francis said in my head.
“If you prefer, I will do it.”

I ignored Francis for the moment. “Cam, there are things in the night you know nothing about, a side of New Orleans and the world a human will never see.”

“A human,” he repeated and shuttered. Panic rolled in his gaze, and his finger twitched on the trigger.

“Calm down,” I ordered in a firmer tone, but he wasn’t looking at me. I spoke his name again, and the tone was like the crack of a whip. Cam’s head popped up. He looked at me, and I spoke the third time. “Calm down. Put away the gun.”

He did so, and I relaxed a little. When he finished tucking his weapon back in its holster, he surged to his feet. “You forced me to do that! You’re…what are you?”

“I’m a vampire.”

“No.” He shook his head so hard, he must have addled his brains. “That’s impossible.”

I flashed fang, and he almost had a heart attack. Another round of calming. I had to give Cam credit. At least he didn’t run out the door. I mean, if he could since it was wedged closed and all.

Now that I knew Cam would live, I could think more about Violet’s situation. “Cam, what do you think of me?”

He wobbled on shaky legs and held onto the edge of the couch. “Why do you care what I think? Wait, does Violet know about you?”

I said nothing. He reached the halfway point between the couch and the door and stopped. The slow rotation looked like it would result in him in a heap, but he managed it.

“She does,” he whispered, obviously pained.

“I made a mistake,” I said. “I’m sorry. We are not monsters, but I can sense by your overwhelming fear, you don’t believe me. Don’t worry. I’ll glamour you, and you won’t have to suffer with the knowledge anymore.”

He threw out his arm as I started toward him. “Wait. Glamour? You mean you’re going to make me forget.”

Cam shook his head, backing up. Then he froze, and horror struck his expression, freezing it in place. “Violet… My Violet isn’t…”

I thought fast. “Why would you come to that conclusion? This conversation is about me and what I am. So, let’s just get this over with. Rue will make it all better.”

My soothing tone sounded false to my own ears, and it did nothing for Cam’s state of mind. I never got to reach him because the door almost flattened him. Francis, still hidden, moved the human aside in a rush. Cam staggered glancing around to see what had pushed him. Still weak under the effects of my attack, it took him a heartbeat to realize Violet stood in the opening, chest heaving with her rage.

“Why do I smell Cam’s blood?” she growled. Her attention slipped from me to Cam, and I imagine she noticed the trembling and the paleness. Crap, I was caught before I could fix everything. I looked to Francis, but he had gone deeper into his cloak. Since I could no longer sense him, I wasn’t sure if he was still around. He left me on my own in the face of dealing with Violet, and I imagined it had to do with her being a cop as much as being a werewolf.

Violet started for me, but Cam’s voice cut her off. “Why didn’t you tell me, Violet?”

She stopped cold, and the blood drained from her face. “Tell you what?”

He seemed to struggle with voicing what he now accepted as the truth. “Are you a vampire, too?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

He refused to accept her indignation as an explanation. She took a step toward him, but he staggered again away from her. I sensed her pain when she must have known it was on purpose and not that he was just fighting to remain standing.

“I can glamour him,” I offered, low but not so low he couldn’t hear me.

Cam snarled. “Is that what you all do, make everyone forget what’s really going on? What do you have to do with the creatures attacking humans? Is it your people?”

“Now, you’re just being mean. Ghouls are not related to vampires.”

He didn’t appear to believe me.

“We don’t have anything to do with the ghoul problem,” Violet said. “We’re doing all we can to stop them.”

This was the first time she had aligned herself with me, sort of. I wished it were in better circumstances. Her gaze on the floor, she heaved a sigh and walked back to the door. I called after her.

“The glamour, Vie?”

“No, he and I need to talk. Come on, Cam.”

I thought he would deny the both of us, but he looked after Violet. The poor man couldn’t hide what he felt for her. Knowing she wasn’t human, he had to hear her out. His love would either die after learning the truth or hold because it was that strong. Then there was the baby to consider.

After they were gone, once again, I raised the door but leaned it in the opening rather than force it in a hole that no longer fit.

Chapter Fourteen

After Violet and Cam left, Francis reappeared. I frowned at him. “I don’t like when you do that. I can’t tell where you are. You could be in my apartment at any time, and I wouldn’t know it.”

“I advise you not to repeat that to anyone.”

Great, he told me after I had admitted it, and I realized it was true. How many vampires or other creatures with the cloaking ability could hide in my presence? Of course I expected most of the older ones in New Orleans were aware they could keep themselves out of my senses. After all, I had passed by them on the streets often in the early days. I knew this because they were creatures of habit. After I began to develop my senses and abilities, I noticed them more. Various ones frequented certain routes, and I had moseyed by all ignorant and happy on a number of nights.

The difference I hoped for was that often we are more sensitive to the vibes in our own homes. I liked to think no one would come to Nathan’s apartment without me knowing because they would assume I could tell. Of course the real protection would be if we got a human roommate, but that was just asking for trouble. You don’t keep snacks in the house to ruin your diet. In case, you’re wondering, yes, I was being obtuse in my own head to alleviate some of my earlier stress. In other words, my usual.

“Rue.” Francis stood before me, and I wondered why he lingered.

“Was there something you stopped by to tell me, Francis? I just realized you caught me when I wasn’t at my best.” As if he had come for tea. Then again, I could offer him wine. Francis didn’t appear to be the wine type. Vampires drinking wine had come across to me as us still trying to look human. Francis probably didn’t care about displaying anything other than his normal sharp movements. I kind of liked him for that, too. Everyone was different.

“I wanted to inform you,” he said. “There’s a way you can save your friend.”

“Who? Which friend?” I suddenly recalled, and all the worry returned. “Georgia?”

He nodded, and I knew Francis had remained nearby when I spoke with Silvano. I wondered if Silvano could always detect his presence.

“How can I save Georgia? If you mean by making her a vampire, I already asked Silvano about that, and he said no. Another friend of mine confirmed it.”

“Not a vampire. A ghoul.”

I blinked at him.

“Your friend is already a ghoul from the first bite. She just needs the transformation. You don’t have to kill her. She can live.”

“And feed off people to make new ghouls? I love her, but that’s just wrong.”

I wasn’t sure, but Francis seemed to start at my casual use of the word
love
. He didn’t comment on it though. “When she rises as a full ghoul, you can give her your blood. She will become your vassal.”

“I haven’t been undead so long I need a slave, Francis. I appreciate the offer, but really. In the end, my problems wouldn’t be resolved.”

“Even if you can order her not to feed from living humans?”

I froze. “What?”

“You can order her as her master not to feed from living humans.”

I considered his words. My first reaction was revulsion. Me a master of another person? The idea was wicked on too many levels. My second thought was ghouls truly were like us, having a hierarchy system built in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the same species. At least, I assumed no ghoul could master another. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Still, vampires could master them? Then there was the matter of giving an order contrary to their instinct. I wanted to dismiss the notion altogether, but curiosity got the better of me.

“Okay, so you said earlier our hunger supersedes even our sire’s orders. Is it different for ghouls? Can a ghoul be ordered not to eat?”

He patiently explained. “You wouldn’t order her not to eat, but not to eat from living humans.”

My stomach roiled. “I have a feeling, Francis, you’re going somewhere with this I don’t want to go. The ghouls’ feeding habits are already putting me off my meals.”

His expression said he noticed, but he apparently didn’t condemn me for it. “Humans are what they need to survive. The person doesn’t have to be alive.”

That did it. I zipped over to a window and opened it. While I didn’t need to breathe, I did so anyway, drawing in the night air. I’m sure my actions confused Francis, who remained behind me, silent and waiting. The things I had to endure and accept in this life were insurmountable.

After a few moments of pulling myself together, I shut the window again and faced him. “This is crazy, Francis. What you’re proposing is selfish. Everyone dies. It’s a fact of life, and I have to accept that Georgia will go. I don’t want to lose her, and I would have fought my enemies harder if I knew the threat would turn in her direction. It’s too late now.”

“Very well.”

“Besides…” Somehow, I couldn’t let it go. “If she ends up like me, denying her need…she could ignore my orders and feed on a living human. I can’t let that happen.”

I sensed his offense. All vampires appeared to have been formed with superiority issues. No other being was on their level. While I say this, I’m not insinuating that I’m different. One must pretend to be humble, even in one’s own mind. It’s a sad world.

“You’re assuming they are like us.”

“What you’re describing is almost exactly like us.”

He shook his head. “Ghouls are simple-minded when it comes to food. They must eat, yes. They prefer living humans. However, their hunger responds exactly the same to a living human and a dead one. In addition, they cannot ever disobey their master’s order.”

“Does that mean if for some odd reason there were no dead humans…”

“The ghoul would starve.”

“How horrible.”

“Humans die every day. It’s the one constant.”

He was right, of course, but the prospect of the entire plan seemed too bizarre to consider. I wish I could say I told him no, I refused to do it or even think about it. Instead, I remained silent on the matter and let the subject drop.

“That’s all I came to share with you,” he said and took a step back as if he intended to fade from view.

“Attention. Humans from the Meris Corporation have sent representatives to deal with the ghouls. Silvano would prefer if everyone steered clear of them.”

I waited for more from the voice in my head, but there was nothing. From the way Francis went still the moment the person began to speak, I assumed he heard the broadcast as well as every other member of Silvano’s coven. For some reason, I had the feeling while everyone heard it, the message was aimed at me. What surprised me was that I was still on the line so to speak. Here I had thought my “what’s the use of your coven” quip was as good as a resignation.

I left the apartment, and Francis disappeared to wherever he was going. Just as the announcement claimed, I scented the newly arrived humans in New Orleans. Not that I had such a keen a sense of smell that I knew when people came and went. The distinction was that one of the group members was Inna, and they weren’t far from where I happened to be.

I decided to pay the reps a little visit and slowed to a visible pace at the border of Jackson Square. Inna stood with three other young people, all late teens early twenties from the look of them, except one man who appeared a bit older and more experienced.

“Inna,” I called as I casually approached. All eyes swiveled in my direction, and Inna grinned.

“Rue, what’s up?”

I shrugged. “Nothing much. You’re looking well. I suppose the corporation isn’t treating you badly.”

She snorted.

“How did you all get past the lockdown?”

Inna winked. “Meris has its ways.”

“Meaning you won’t tell me?”

“Meaning Arianna has connections us lower orders don’t know anything about. Anyway, forget them. I heard you were causing trouble.”

“Never.”

When Inna said this, the others gazed from her to me and back again. I didn’t doubt they had heard the news about how I had broken into their school. Maybe they didn’t know who this Rue character was, and they were just now realizing I was one and the same, the crazy vampire they had heard about.

“Arianna has it in for you,” Inna warned. “I’d watch my back.”

“Why don’t we do lunch when you get the chance? That is if you can squeeze me in between cleaning up New Orleans.”

She burst out laughing. “You’re funny. Okay, I’ll see if I can find some time.”

Then she gave me a look that only Inna could give. She raised her eyebrows and smirked in the most disrespectful way possible.

“We’ll straighten up the mess in your city you couldn’t handle on your own. Then we’ll be on our way.”

I affected a shiver. “Icier than I could ever be, Inna.”

“They teach you a lot at Meris.”

“Uh-huh. I seem to remember you went in with the same attitude as now.”

We teased each other back and forth until the older man in her party cleared his throat. “Inna, we can’t spend all our time with vampires,” he reminded her. “We have our orders.”

“We can’t spend
any
time with them,” a younger girl said. “Who would want to anyway?”

She widened her eyes at me as she spoke as if she hoped I would be offended and try to attack her. Something told me this young girl had learned she was very strong and skilled in combat, and she wanted to test how far she had come. She would need to make the first trial a ghoul because I refused to take the bait.

I opened my mouth to inform the little scamp of my intentions when a whiff of Georgia’s scent caught my attention. I spun in the direction I thought it came from. Behind me, the humans in Inna’s group spoke. I was half aware of the man leading the conversation.

“There’s a report of a ghoul attack south of here,” he said. “We need to move now.”

The others agreed, but Georgia’s scent had come to me from the opposite direction. I took a step that way, and Inna called to me.

“Where are you going, Rue? There’s an attack. I know you’ve been killing them.”

I looked back at her for a moment. Confusion and anger mixed in her expression. She jumped to the conclusion I was running away, leaving them to fight alone.

I faced her. “This is your first mission out? I’m sure you’ve trained hard for it, and you’ll do great. There’s something I have to take care of.”

“What could be more important than saving humans?”

“Spoken like a true soldier of Meris.”

The others glared at me.

“Good luck, Inna,” I said. “I’ll come when I can.”

I didn’t give her a chance to answer but zipped away as fast as I could move. I was sure the members of her party told her she couldn’t depend on a vampire or any nonhuman. None of that mattered to me. What was important was getting to Georgia before she disappeared again.

Georgia’s scent led me to the restaurant where she worked before she went into the hospital. The place appeared abandoned, but then the time had gone past normal operating hours. A faint light shone beneath the front door, and when I tried the knob, I found it unlocked. I walked inside and caught the clank of pots knocking together and Georgia humming from the direction of the kitchen.

“Rue,” she exclaimed when I pushed the door open to the back. “Come in. You can help me cook.”

I squinted at her. Moisture gathered on her upper lip and at her temples, but it wasn’t from the heat of the stove. Her eyes were glassy, and straw yellow hair was plastered to her head. I knew without touching her she was feverish.

“Sweetheart, why did you leave the hospital? You’re not feeling well, right?” I approached her as one would a wounded animal, nonthreatening. “Come on. Let’s get you back.”

“No! I have to cook.”

I stopped moving. Georgia swung a pan about, using it for emphasis as she spoke.

“One last meal before I die.”

“You’re not—”

“Don’t say it, Rue! You know it’s not true. I’m going to di—” She choked, and tears ran down her face. My heart broke. She sniffed and scrubbed the back of a hand over her face. “One last meal to make. The trouble is I don’t know how to cook. I just followed orders.”

Her choice of words reminded me of what Francis suggested, but I dismissed the thought. Standing beside her, I wrapped an arm about her shoulders and stroked her arm. Just as I thought, her body burned hot, probably far hotter than a human could stand and not go into convulsions or remain conscious. This was no doubt why the humans felt this fever was beyond anything they had seen. The ghoul infection kept Georgia moving and thinking.

I gazed around the kitchen. Georgia had made a royal mess. Pots and pans littered the counter, broken eggs on the floor and on the stove, shells half-baked into an odd greenish-brown substance. Okay when I said she was still thinking, let’s say she was still
moving
and leave it there.

Personally, I couldn’t care less if the owners of the restaurant found out about this little incident, because Georgia wouldn’t be around to be affected. So, I rolled up my sleeves to help. “I know a few recipes that would never pass restaurant level inspection but are still delicious. Let’s make my mama’s chicken fried steak, Georgia. I’ll tell you what to do, and it’ll be scrumptious.”