Thirst (9 page)

I knew. Carl
wasn’t doing well. An offhand comment from me could bring him a lot
of harm. I had no idea how to mind control someone properly.
Thinking of his bandaged neck, I wondered if some part of me was
telling him to offer himself on a plate.

I fidgeted with
the cross around my neck. If I hadn’t been wearing it, Carl would
be dead, of that I was certain. I owed it. And Eddie, I realised
grimly. I had a strong feeling Eddie didn’t help anyone unless
there was something in it for him. I couldn’t help remembering what
he said about the vampires expecting me.

“What’s a seer?”
I asked.

“Something like a
psychic, I suppose.”

“So, they should
already know all about me, then?”

Peter shook his
head. “Not necessarily. They can’t pick and choose what they see.
But whatever they see is still valuable. Why?”

“Just thinking.”
Eddie had told me they knew I was coming and for the first time, I
realised that might mean they had seen what I am. I had a theory
about myself. I reckoned my making was a fluke, a mistake.
Otherwise there would be lots more like me running
around.

“Why can’t they
make new vampires anymore?”

Peter didn’t
bother trying to antagonise me into admitting what I am. Progress.
“Something to do with genetics, I suppose. Humans evolve to fight
threats to their existence.”

“What, like an
immunity or something?”

“Exactly. A
vampire’s fangs contain poison so it’s an attack on the system.
Maybe enough humans were bitten to start developing a way of
fighting back. We’ve evolved somewhat, and whatever it was that
allowed the change doesn’t seem to exist anymore.” He gave me a
knowing glance in the rear view mirror. “Although maybe that means
something different exists.”

“So, if someone
went around killing all the vampires that exist in the world, that
would be it? No more vampirism?”

“Suppose so,” he
said, but he didn’t sound excited at the prospect.

For one wild
minute I dreamed about paying the world back by wiping out all of
the vampires in existence. Then I snapped back into reality and
realised I couldn’t win a fight with a human, never mind a
vampire.

Peter parked the
car one street away from the bar. “I’m parking out here, on the
main road. If it all goes wrong, run to the car. Tell Carl the
same. Don’t wait for me.”

“Yeah, right,
like I’m going to leave a human alone with vampires,” I said,
rolling my eyes.

He turned around
to face me, his hazel eyes more intense than I’d ever seen them.
“Look, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, what I do is hunt
evil. All kinds. Then I kill it. I’ve been doing it for eight
years, so yes, if it all goes wrong, don’t wait for me.”

His eyes were
like ice—I couldn’t help shivering under his stare. I didn’t doubt
him at all. He even scared me.

“I mean it, Ava.
If anything goes wrong, get that lunk out of there. I can’t trust
either of you to take them on, so leave it to me.”

I was sort of
offended by that remark but knew he had a point. “Alright, already.
So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is you
stay cool, and let me do the talking. We go in, don’t look anyone
in the eye. I’ll speak to Becca and see where we go from there.
Don’t worry. If he isn’t around then we’ll come back
tomorrow.”

“Fair enough.
Listen, Peter, thanks for doing this.” He opened his mouth to
protest, but I cut him off. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re helping
Carl, not me, but I’m benefiting too whether you like it or
not.”

He shook his head
slightly, a bemused look on his face. “Actually, I’m not sure who
I’m helping anymore.”

He gave his
bottom lip an absent-minded lick with the tip of his tongue. I let
loose a little sigh.

“What?” he asked,
his lips curving upward into a huge grin.

“Uh, nothing,” I
said, barely getting out a word. I shook Carl’s shoulder a little
too hard, startling him awake. We both followed Peter to the same
side street again.

The place looked
different at night. The darkness created lurking shadows and a
general creepiness that spooked me. As we followed Peter to the
door, I realised there were people in the shadows. Couples. The
scent of fresh blood reached my nostrils, letting me know exactly
what they were doing. I touched the silver cross but kept it hidden
under my shirt, I didn’t want anyone to know it didn’t affect
me.

I heard a couple
of soft moans and automatically edged toward Peter. He was the
closest thing to normal in my life. He gave me a quick smile,
probably an attempt to reassure me, but my instincts still told me
to run.

Peter pushed open
the door, letting a stale odour engulf us.

“What is that
stench?” I whispered to him.

He frowned at me.
“That’s how vampires smell. It’s more intense when there’s a whole
bunch of them together.”

“Oh my God, do I
smell?” That would be pretty embarrassing.

He gave me a rare
genuine smile. “No, actually. You’re a pretty rubbish vampire, to
be honest.” He laid his palm flat against my chest and the tenor of
his voice changed. “And look at that, you even have a
heartbeat.”

He inched closer
to me, letting the door swing shut. Carl stood behind me,
forgotten. “Seriously, Ava,” Peter said. “What the hell are
you?”

Not thinking
about what I was doing, I touched his cheek and relished the heat
of his skin. “I’m a big, bad, scary vampire. And don’t you forget
it.”

To my surprise, I
heard his heartbeat thunder in his chest. I stepped backward
awkwardly, bumping into Carl, and the moment was lost.

Peter turned his
back to us and strode into the bar like he owned it. Carl and I
scurried after him, but not before I tripped clumsily through the
doorway. In the corner of the room, three steps led up to a higher,
more private section that had a view of the entire bar. We sat
there, and I finally felt comfortable enough to look
around.

The room still
managed to look musty even with all the lighting. There were large
red halogen bars on the ceiling emitting an unpleasant glow, while
the walls flickered with tacky electric candles.

Human musicians
huddled together in a corner. They had the same blankness in their
eyes that Carl now possessed, thanks to me. The singer, on the
other hand, had to be a vampire. She looked repulsive, but her
voice was amazing. Sultry, deep and sexy, she was the focus of the
room. Even Carl stared over at her, despite having the attention
span of a gnat. Seeing his fascination, I wondered if a real
vampire would have the power to take Carl from me. Although that
would solve my problems, it wouldn’t help Carl much.

The clientele
were a mix of human and vampire. Some of the humans were
enthralled, sitting or standing obediently beside their masters,
while others were there willingly, the stench of their sweat tinged
with fear. Maybe they were adrenalin junkies, or maybe getting
bitten felt really good.

I spotted Becca
at the bar. Her scarf was gone, and she stroked the puncture wounds
on her neck at every opportunity, her eyes wide with anticipation.
All the vampires at the bar looked her over, but none were obvious
in their need. They controlled themselves a lot better than I ever
could, even with the cross around my neck. I wrinkled my nose in
self-disgust.

The vampire odour
was becoming more noticeable; I couldn’t understand how Becca put
up with it night after night.

“It’s the smell
of death, you know,” Peter said, startling me.

“What?”

“That smell. It’s
because they’re dead. They rot unless they feed. They can’t
function without a regular supply of blood. They
degenerate.”

“Why do these
people come here? Knowing they could die?” I asked, baffled at the
idea of humans willingly giving themselves to vampires. I couldn’t
see anything attractive about the concept.

Peter shrugged.
“There’s something for everyone in this world. Maybe they want to
die. Maybe they want something else.”

“Is it a sexual
thing?” I whispered. My weakest moment had come in an intimate
setting.

Peter grinned.
“You really are clueless. Vampires can’t do it unless they just
fed.”

“Why?” I leaned
closer to him, extremely curious.

“Because...
there’s no blood supply, nothing to stimulate them unless they’ve
taken warm blood from a living person, and even then it doesn’t
last long. It’s the only time they really feel. They’re dead,
remember?”

“So, why do all
the myths make it seem like a seduction?”

The smile dropped
from his face. He gestured toward the other tables. “To make it
more attractive. To cover how repulsive it all really
is.”

“How come you
know all of this?” I asked, fascinated.

“How come you
don’t?”

I wanted to tell
him, but I couldn’t take the chance. He didn’t trust me, but if his
job was hunting evil things then I wasn’t surprised. Becca
interrupted us before I could speak.

“Nobody’s in
tonight, Petey.”

“You
sure?”

She batted her
eyelashes. “’Course I’m sure. You want a drink?”

“No, we’ll be on
our way.”

“Come back soon,”
she said, ruffling his hair. I couldn’t help feeling angry as she
stared me down, but the red tint in her eyes bothered me so much, I
dropped mine first. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to
be a monster.

“Why are we going
already?” I hissed at Peter when she walked away.

He jostled Carl,
who was trying to doze off. “Because people have noticed us, and
there’s more than one vampire in here getting interested in you, so
move, we’re out of here.”

I took one last
look around the room and saw he was right. A number of vampires
stared right at me, more quizzical than angry, but the hairs on the
back of my neck stood up nonetheless. I hurried after Peter,
feeling safer when he was within touching distance. He knew what he
was doing. I didn’t. I had to pull Carl after me; he was too busy
staring around the room to hurry.

As we approached
the door some of the vampires stood up as if to follow
us.

“Oh, shit,” I
muttered, then held my breath. The bar went silent, and I had the
suffocating feeling that there was a target on my chest. To my
surprise, Peter stopped and pushed me ahead of him, glaring right
at the vampires. Carl gripped my arm and pushed me closer to the
door. My stomach lurched, but they all sat down, and we hurried out
the door. We made it out of a vampire bar alive. But we still
didn’t have what we were looking for.

Once we were
safely outside, I took a deep breath. “That was a waste of
time.”

“Don’t worry,
we’ll come back,” Peter said and led the way again.

“Hey, how come
those vampires left us alone back there?” I asked him as I beckoned
Carl to follow.

Peter shushed me
and darted his head around. I was about to ask him what was wrong
but suddenly realised how quiet it was. No heartbeats. No couples.
Just the three of us and a feeling that someone else was there.
Someone with no heartbeat.

A figure in black
jumped noiselessly from somewhere above down to the alleyway a few
metres ahead of us. I screamed and grabbed Peter’s hand. His palm
was large and warm; I expected him to shrug me away, but he kept
his eyes on the figure before us. After a second, Peter squeezed my
hand and slowly let go, taking a half step in front of me and
Carl.

“I hear you’ve
been asking about me,” said the figure. I squinted until my eyes
adjusted to the dark and realised it was the vampire who had
originally attacked Carl.

“It’s him,” I
whispered.

“You Arthur?”
Peter asked loudly, his voice steady.

The vampire
nodded, his lank hair falling over his eyes. “I remember you,” he
said to me.

“Yeah, um, hi,” I
said, unable to think of anything less lame.

“You’re an
interesting one,” he said. His voice was dry and raspy, even though
I smelled blood and could tell he had just drank from someone. He
took a step toward me.

“Stay back,”
Peter ordered. Arthur looked surprised but obeyed.

“As honoured as I
am you’ve bestowed a visit on little old me, I’ve things to do. Get
on with it, what do you want?”

“You witnessed
something between these two,” Peter said. “She claimed him and now
wants to undo it. She needs you to reject the claim.”

“Really,” said
Arthur, the corners of his mouth curving into a mocking smile. “And
I benefit how?”

Peter hesitated.
“I don’t know; if you’re lucky maybe I won’t end you.”

I gasped, but
Arthur threw back his head and laughed. “It’s true what they say
about you,” he said. “All brawn and no brain. But forget you. It’s
her I’m interested in.”