vampires of san francisco 07 - suckers lost and found (15 page)

The crowd is babbling and talking over each other. Everyone is fidgeting, texting on their phones or exchanging money. The emcee is lifted out of the pit and two young vampires are thrown in. They have the minimum of clothes on. And their smell is overwhelming. You can tell they have been starved. You can see it in their sunken eyes. This is what they are doing with Manda. I am sure of it. The vampires look like Manda did in that picture. Oh please Goddess, let her be here tonight. Let us find her. Giancarlo whispers in my ear. His fangs are descended and it revolts me.

      “They are told they can eat if they win the fight.”

      “What happens if they lose?” I ask.

      “They die in battle,” he shrugs.

      My stomach rolls. Sebastian has a death grip on my hand now. I can feel the bones rubbing together and I squeeze back slightly so he will relent a bit. He looks down at me and mouths “Sorry.” The two vampires start circling each other. One is blonde, I think. He is so dirty that his hair is greasy and matted. The other is taller and red-haired. They look like two mangy dogs used in pit fighting. The red head snarls at the blonde and their fangs are fully extended. The sight sickens me. I pray to the Goddess that the fight is quick and painless.

      The two vampires’ hands extended into claws and as they slash at each other. The red head leaps for the slightly shorter blonde in a frenzy. He grabs the blonde’s head and claws at it. The blonde vampire backs up as best as he can. They are both barely functioning from not feeding. They stumble and stagger around from their weakness. The attacking red head is winning though. He tears a chunk out of the other vampire’s neck and blood is everywhere. The crowd has their fangs out and are yelling encouragement to either the blonde or the red head depending who they bet on. I see money exchanging hands. Sebastian and I sit very still. 

      It doesn’t take the red head long to finish his wounded opponent off. A few more bites where he sucks as much of the blonde’s blood as he can and then someone throws in a stake. The red head leaps on it and stakes the wounded vamp. It is horrific. The audience cheers. More money passes hands and there is some jeering among the losers. I have seen more than my stomach can handle. 

      The bodies are taken out of the pit and the next are brought in. An older man and a young woman. I can’t take it. I know it’s Manda before I can even see her face. She stands like a majestic model with poise. She is filthy, though, and snarling.

      I stand up. 

      “Stop the fight!”

      Everyone keeps cheering on the fighting vamps. Giancarlo is looking at me like I am mad, as in crazy. He’s right about the mad part. I kick off my heels and stand up on a chair to yell louder. I feel Sebastian steady me.

      “Stop the fucking fight! Now! Let that woman go. I want her, now!”

      “I don’t know how things are done in America, but we do not throw tantrums at formal parties here in Italy.” Giancarlo shakes his head and his lip raises in a sneer. He looks at Sebastian. “Would you get your wife down, now, and escort her from my house. You are no longer welcome.” Several people start booing and hissing. The vamps near the ring have stopped the fight while we have been arguing.

      “I will kill you if you don’t let that woman go now,” I say, gritting my teeth. My hands have balled into fists at my sides. I unclench one and reach into my handbag to retrieve my phone.

      “Who will you call, werewolf whore? The police would just be a snack for us,” Giancarlo growls. He’s met with a menacing growl from Sebastian. Me, hit number two on my phone, Aidan’s preprogrammed number, and text 911.

      I turn to Giancarlo and smile. He shows fang thinking he will scare me. Poor Giancarlo doesn’t know that I’ve battled witches and Demons, walked through Hell and have lived to talk about it. I step down from my chair, put on my heels and then rip the sides of my dress so I can kick freely. Giancarlo is gaping at me. He doesn’t even see it coming when I reach down and twist his head. Just to be sure he doesn’t heal, I put one of my PRADA stilettos on his shoulder for leverage while I rip his head off.

      Everyone is quiet for about ten seconds and then the vampires descend. Sebastian and I are fighting for our lives. We’re taking out as many vamps as we can when I feel Aidan transmanifest in behind me. He starts ashing the vamps around us with his magick as soon as he gets here.

      “Not that I don’t love a good fight, but what on earth have you gotten yourselves into,” he says pointing to Giancarlo’s head. 

      “I ripped his head off.” I grunt as I kick a female vampire in the stomach as she was trying to sneak up on Bast. “Aidan.” I struggle to get out of a vamp’s arms. “Manda, in the pit. Get us out of here.” I duck as Sebastian spins and punches a muscle-bound blonde vampire as he strikes out at Aidan. Aidan’s mouth hangs open and then the fire enters his eyes. He turns to the pit. He sees Manda and he grows to twice his size. He’s huge and snorting fire. I see clawed hands reach for whoever is close to him and slam the vamps together, instantly killing them. Then he grabs our hands and pops us into the rink. He goes to grab Manda but she screams, kicking and biting at him. He immediately shifts back to his normal self and approaches her carefully. She screams at all of us. 

“Aidan, she doesn’t recognize us. She’s almost feral. We need to get her to Julian and Helena as soon as possible,” I say tenderly to my friend. His face is awash in misery. He nods to me unable to talk. I take that as I am supposed to subdue Manda. She doesn’t see me move as I use my werevamp hyper speed to capture her.

She’s too exhausted and starved to use her vampire skills of speed and agility. She is still tremendously strong and lethal. I reappear behind her and wrap my arms around her, containing her.

“I can’t hold her for long. She’s very strong. Aidan, the vamps are starting to circle. Get us the Hell out of here.”

“Aidan, mon ami, we’ve got her back. We won’t let anything happen to her. Let’s go,” Sebastian shakes Aidan a little to get his attention. Aidan grabs our hands and takes us out to the lawn. Then he leaves us and we hear the screaming inside as he takes out his revenge on the vampires who delighted in this unconscionable sport. Manda keeps trying to escape and I whisper in her ear, letting her know that everything will be okay and Aidan is here now, that we love her and are going to take care of her. She hisses and bites the air hoping to get me or Sebastian. I don’t think she knows what is going on around her because she is so hungry.

Aidan appears in front of us, bloodied and smoking around the edges, then there is a big boom and the building collapses. I turn so Manda and I don’t get the debris in our faces. Aidan slips an arm around me and holds his hand out to Sebastian who quickly takes it. Before I can even blink we are flying the winds.

“What on earth is going on?” Helena exclaims. Her green eyes flash as she meets us. “Who’s done this? I’ll kill them!”

      “Too late. We killed some and then Aidan killed the rest. About fifty very important vampires. Most importantly, we need to feed Manda right away. They’ve been starving her,” Sebastian says. Helena explains to Julian as he comes rushing into the hallway. 

      “Aidan, Lily, we must get to the atrium in the lab to feed her. Hurry.” Julian says.

      I quickly explain the ‘entertainment’ the King had arranged for us to see.

      “He was giving us the means to end our search without getting his hands dirty or his power challenged,” Bast says, raising his upper lip in a snarl. 

      “Oh my Goddess, they have starved her, she looks so weak. Julian, get a drip ready and some of that bagged blood. We’ll get her started on the blood and then we will get her washed up,” Helena says.

      “Aidan, can you put her under like we did Liam?” Julian asks. “It is the safest and gentlest way to feed her.”

      “Why can’t I take her to feed, she’s starving,” Aidan says, his voice full of so much pain.

      “She may kill someone in this state and she also needs the blood to slowly enter her system. When she is healthier we will show her how to feed,” Julian says.

      Aidan waves his hand over Manda. She is redressed in a tank top and yoga pants. She’s clean now and her wounds are even more apparent. She won’t heal until she gets some blood. She doesn’t even acknowledge what just happened to her. She’s still fighting me to get free. Aidan walks up to her and tells her he loves her before touching her forehead, which puts her into a peaceful slumber. Julian is all ready with the equipment. 

      “I’ll be right back,” Aidan says a second before he disappears. He pops back with a very angry Basilio.

      “What on earth are you doing? Besides kidnapping me, I heard tonight that Giancarlo’s house blew up but that the vamps were dead before the estate collapsed. Care to share?” Basilio asks while looking at me. His adoration for once squelched under his fury.

      “They were starving them, Basilio. The only way they could eat would be to win a fight,” I say as I gesture to Manda. His mouth hangs and his eyes open wide. Leaving his narrowed vision behind as he realizes what’s happened.

      “Mio Dio! This is Manda?” Basilio asks, his sincerity shows through his expression of horror. I don’t think he knew what was going on. Aidan must have thought that too, since he didn’t ash him.

      “That’s barbaric. What she must have gone through. She’s only three months old? Thank the Goddess that you found her. It’s going to be tricky politics to negotiate this. Some very important vampires were killed tonight. Every one of them deserved it. I don’t condone pit fighting, never have allowed it. It’s illegal under my rule. You have to believe me,” he says looking at me.

“I do believe you. What are we going to do now?” I ask him. “It’s going to take a while to get her back. She’s suffered horrific physical and emotional damage, if we can heal her.”

      Sebastian snarls. “The place had been used for this sort of thing many times before tonight. Where else in your country is this going on? Where else in the world? We need to root them out. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to call the rental company and tell them where they can pick up our car. I believe for an extra fee they’ll do it tonight, before it becomes too busy with investigators.”

      He leaves the room. Manda is so dehydrated that Julian is having a hard time finding a healthy vein to start the IV.

“Rest assured, bella, that you will come to no harm. I may have to use some of my own magick to smooth this over but I will. Most of those vamps were supporters of Giancarlo attempting a coup. Parasites,” Basilio spits out.

      I look at the room around me and everyone has looks of concern on their faces. I feel my body relax but not my mind. This is going to take time. Aidan must be going crazy. His eyes are locked on Manda who he is holding in his arms as she slumbers. Julian finally gets a line started and the slow process of feeding her begins.

      I hug Aidan.

      “Thank you,” he whispers. My energy feeds him. His essence is nearly as depleted as Manda’s body is by his enraged response and his heart break over his lover’s condition. 

This isn’t over.

TWELVE / AIDAN

“Julian, we’ve given her three bags. That’s three pints, right? How much does she need?” I ask. He shakes his head and shrugs.

“Everyone is different and we don’t know how starved or dehydrated she is. I’m guessing two more bags based on her color at the moment and her heart rate. Her body is accepting the blood and that’s what we needed to worry about.”

“We need to discuss how to take care of her after she wakes up,” Helena says.

“She will be like a feral vampire. She will not reason, just react,” Julian says. 

“I’m glad Basilio saw how bad she was. He has to do something about this,” Lilith says. “I think Aidan and Manda should move in with us next door. We’ll have more room than here and Julian and Helena can be there in seconds.” Lilith my friend.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Helena says. “The Blevdics are gone and the cleaning and painting are all done. Really, you’ll just need a couple of beds.”

“I would be in your debt, my friends. I would like to stay with you. I just have no idea of what to expect or what to do.” I fight the urge to break things. Big, heavy, explosive things.

“You’ll need to make sure you don’t make any sudden moves around her – she will attack if she feels threatened. She needs to feed often so she never gets hungry for the first few days. She’ll need lots of support and time to heal,” Julian explains.

“You would not be indebted to us, Aidan. Please, let’s go over to the other house and see what we need to do to get it ready in time for Manda and Lily to sleep,” Sebastian says. He helps Lilith take Manda’s sleeping body and pats me on the shoulder. 

Lilith is the only one I would leave Manda with at the moment. It’s not that I don’t trust and love the others it’s just that I can count on Lilith to know how I feel for her and to honor that love. Lilith gives me a reassuring smile and promises she will send someone over if Manda wakes.

We leave the house and go towards next door in a thick fog. The fog horns are muffled in the heavy moisture. Sebastian pulls a key out of his tuxedo pants, a reminder of where the night started, and opens the Art Deco green door. The stained glass in the door depicts a naked woman pouring water into a lily-strewn pond. It makes me smile thinking of Lilith living here. It was a perfect choice.

“I haven’t been in here before so we’ll have to pick out rooms and scout around to make sure everything is in working order,” Sebastian says as he switches on the lights.

“It’s pretty bleak right now but don’t worry, Lilith will get me busy decorating. Maybe Manda will be able to participate. I just don’t know what she will be like and I’m scared, Sebastian. What if she doesn’t love me anymore?”

“Stop. Right now. Her feelings for you are still in there. For a while she’ll be in a bloodlust all the time until she learns that when she is hungry she can have food. At first she’ll feel hungry all the time. We’ll be busy getting her food, teaching her how to eat without killing and making sure she doesn’t escape. But she does still love you, Aidan. Manda is still in there.”