There was a subtle tensing at the table.

  Tatiana gave the vampires a genial smile, ignoring the humans lined up before them. “I believe that someone at this table has been remiss during their feedings.”

  The room was so quiet that Laney could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. She should probably keep her gaze on the ground, like the woman next to her, but she couldn’t look away.

  Those large violet eyes skimmed over the vampires. “Would anyone know anything about that?”

  Silence.

  A sound, loud as a gunshot, ricocheted through the room. So quickly Laney hadn’t been able to follow, Tatiana had slammed her fist into the steel table. The metal had buckled under the impact. Three pitchers lay upturned, trickling puddles of water across the table; in one case, onto a vampire’s lap. The dark-skinned man didn’t move, frozen in place as liquid spilled over his legs.

  “Does anyone know anything about this?” Tatiana’s voice rose and fell in pitch, her face almost feral.

  Suddenly, Tatiana was in front of Laney, the woman having moved so fast she was a blur. A finger jabbed the air in front of her face, the digit tipped with a sharp nail. “You!”

  Laney blinked. Her heart started to pound even louder. “Me?”

  “Did you have to patch up another human because of a bite that would not heal?” Tatiana’s expression was almost manic.

  “I—”

  Tatiana tapped Laney on the forehead. Hard.

  Laney bit back the flinch, and took a deep breath.

  “Come on, use your brain. I am assured humans have one. Did you, or did you not, have to patch up a human due to a mangled bite?”

  The guard who had helped her that day wasn’t in the room, but she assumed he’d been the one who tattled. She hadn’t really thought that far ahead.

  “Y-Yes.” She hadn’t meant to stammer, but when you had one of the oldest people in the world staring at you with a crazed glint in her eye …

  Finally, one of the other vampires spoke. She was a short, curvy woman with midnight dark hair and jet black skin. “Please provide more detail as to the description of ‘mangled.’”

  Tatiana’s head whipped around, quick as a snake, but while she glared, she didn’t tell the other woman to shut up. Even while staring at the other vampire, she barked, “Speak.” Laney assumed it was directed at her.

  “I noticed that a bite was not healing on one of the other villagers.” Best to keep the familial relation out of the story, Laney thought. “I inspected the wound and realized it was not two clean puncture marks, but more of a gash. I asked for medical supplies to clean the sore, to prevent infection. The wound was also not healing at the expected rate; there did not appear to have been a liberal enough application of saliva.”

  “What would you know about vampire bites?” This was from a different vampire. The first one to enter the room.

  She felt the attention of all the vampires lock on her. Some of them stared at her throat. “I am – was – a doctor.”

  “Little young, don’t you think?” The man’s voice was taunting.

  “As if you can tell the age of a human; they all look the same.” That quip was from the bleached blonde.

  “I graduated early, top of my class. I then went on to obtain further qualifications in immunology and genetic manipulation.”

  The bleached blonde bared her teeth. “Not much use for either of those fields now, is there?”

  Laney narrowed her eyes at the speaker.

  “We all know how much I love a geneticist,” this was from Tatiana, “but since you are too young to have been involved in my … development … you can live.”

  Laney gulped. She had a feeling that Tatiana had been utterly serious. “Thank you?”

  Tatiana tilted her head in acknowledgment, magnanimous.

  “Would the human have died if you had not helped her?”

  “She was at risk of an infection, which without antibiotics, it could have killed her. Yes.”

  “So not an immediate risk?”

  “No, but people’s mouths contain a lot of bacteria, even vampires. Vampire saliva itself isn’t harmful, but it also contains an antibacterial property that neutralizes the other contaminants. If it is not applied, then it doesn’t clean the wound. There was a high risk of infection.”

  “So, according to this human, someone here foolishly risked the life of one of our blood donors.” Tatiana spun back to face the table and its occupants. “There are some basic facts to our existence. We drink blood. We lick the wound clean. We get the human to heal. We can’t drink from dead humans!” Tatiana was screaming the last sentence, her face contorted with rage.

  “Are you all idiots? We’re fighting a war and you’re too busy goring humans to think properly? Is that it?”

  Tatiana strode forward, grabbing the man who had taunted Laney by the back of the neck. She plucked him up, knocking the chair to the ground. His legs kicked the air, and he twisted, trying to break loose.

  With a flick of the wrist, she snapped his neck, paralyzing him. His limbs drooped, like a puppet with its strings cut. The sheer strength it took … no human could have done something like that. Even most vampires couldn’t.

  “If you are going to behave like animals, then you will be treated as such. Is this clear?” Tatiana looked at each vampire before she opened her mouth, her fangs glistening. Then she sank her teeth into the vampire’s throat. She began to drink, long gulps, before she ripped her teeth away, leaving a pulsing wound that spouted into the air. Laney took an instinctive step back toward the wall.

  She hadn’t realized that vampires could drink from one another.

  Blood dripped in a crimson stream down Tatiana’s lips and chin. With her free hand, she punched it through the vampire’s torso, pulling out his heart. Dropping the body on the ground, Tatiana took a bite out of the stuttering organ, chewing slowly.

  “Let this be a lesson,” she said through a mouthful of flesh. “Risk the lives of our only food source and you will become the food. Is this clear?”

  Chapter 8

  Everyone thinks they’re infallible, but they’re wrong. Except for me. I’m awesome.

  ~ Quin Kirkman, Journal

  How had these vampire idiots ever managed to sneak onto were land and steal all those humans from under his nose? He’d been in their clan boundary for well over an hour and he hadn’t heard a single peep from the local leeches. Their security was terrible. Either they didn’t know he was there, or they were watching him to see what he’d do.

  He had a feeling it was the former.

  Wolf hadn’t spotted any security cameras – they were pretty rare now, so he doubted they’d be placed out in the border woodlands – and only a handful of guards. That would have been fine, had the guards not completely missed the fact a werewolf was patrolling their lands.

  He was going to have to have a chat to his soldiers when he returned. If this was how his people patrolled, heads were going to roll. Literally.

  Staying crouched, Wolf gently pushed aside the fronds of a half-dead fern. Peering out past the small shrubs that concealed him, he looked over the large fence that guarded the compound behind it. Shaking his head, he couldn’t believe he’d gotten so close. Scaling the fence and getting in would be a lot harder to do undetected, but that was okay, since he planned on getting caught anyway.

  The oaks either side of him were tall and sturdy, which meant that this compound was probably a hundred years old. The large metal warehouses that ringed three sides of an open expanse had rust stains on their roofs, but they otherwise seemed to be in good condition. The courtyard was just packed dirt and gravel, not even concrete. No humans were visible, but Wolf would bet his eye teeth that the compound had underground levels. Most of these places did, back when bombs were dropped without too much thought to the consequences. The humans would either be there, or in one of the warehouses.

  It was only when the humans had fled to rural areas, or congregated in the last few intact cities, that the vampires – and weres, he grudgingly admitted – had realized what had happened. And then they’d started gathering their food supplies closer to their chests. Destroying those who fought back. Culling the smart ones, leaving only the stupid to breed.

  Tilting his chin up, Wolf sniffed the air. The icy stink of vampires was strong, filtering through the small breeze to reach his hiding place. There was a hint of human there as well, and the cloying sweet stench of death. Someone had died recently. He hoped it wasn’t one of Quin’s sisters. That would make this job a lot more difficult; Wolf doubted he could pass one human off for another. He could picture the interaction now.

  “No, Quin, this girl is your sister.”

  Quin’s look of disbelief, and then a narrowing of dangerous Gray eyes. The compound collapsing because of an internal earthquake.

  There was a reason the Grays were one of the most feared of the Graceds. Sure, a Green could know what you were thinking, unless you were another Green or had a handy natural mental shield like Wolf did. But you could lie to yourself or try to cloak your thoughts, to avoid having a Green listen to your mind. You could do nothing to a person who could break your neck without even having to be in the same room as you. Grays may not have the super speed of a vampire or were, or the strength, but they didn’t need it.

  Now, Wolf thought, it was time to go get caught.

  Sniffing the air, Wolf detected the nearest vampire guard. Moving closer to them, he stood upwind, so his scent would wash down to them. He saw the moment the vampire realized there was a were nearby. The man’s violet eyes widened, and he grabbed the handle of the gun that was belted to his waist.

  Right, because a gun was going to be useful when fighting a were, Wolf thought.

  Wolf made sure he broke a few conspicuous branches as he moved closer to the compound.

  “Omega to Raven, we have a were near the perimeter of the compound.”

  Wolf paused. They still had radios. That was cool. He’d have to try and steal some when he broke out.

  “Raven to Omega. Seize the were. Bring it in alive if possible.”

  Wolf stalked the vampire. He saw the leech swivel around as he finally registered that the were was a lot closer than he thought. Whipping out the gun, the vampire spotted Wolf through the trees and let off a shot.

  Wolf dodged, dropping down low and running through the bush. Automatically, his feet flew over roots and brambles as he headed back toward the boundary line. It’s what he would do if he weren’t trying to get caught, after all. Another few gunshots sounded, and Wolf felt one thud into his side. He would have laughed at the idiocy of shooting a were with nothing more than a toy, but a burning sensation started crawling up through the wound.

  Silver.

  Wolf felt two more thuds, and then his knees locked up, refusing to work. Normally, a silver bullet alone wouldn’t stop him for long, allergy or not. But something was wrong. Panting, lying face-first in the dirt, Wolf tried to prop himself up on his arms, but they were weak, as if he were nothing more than a newborn pup.

  Two sets of booted feet came into his line of sight.

  “Thought you could run away, fleabag?”

  One of the boots moved, and Wolf tried to roll out of the way. He only partially succeeded, and was kicked brutally in the shoulder as a result. At least it hadn’t been his head.

  “They wanted him alive,” a second voice spoke.

  “But they didn’t say conscious.”

  Chapter 9

  Sometimes vampires just gross me out. Did you ever hear about that time Tatiana ate a guy’s face off? No, well you have now.

  ~ Quin Kirkman, Journal

  Tatiana dropped the partially eaten heart on the body of the broken vampire and wiped her hands on her pants, as if dusting off a day’s work in the fields. The vampires all stared at her from their seated positions, but each one nodded when Tatiana’s eyes met theirs.

  Laney could hardly breathe.

  The woman had just ripped a man’s heart from his chest and eaten it. Raw. Right there in front of everyone.

  “Now!” Tatiana clapped her hands together and smiled, her teeth white in her blood-smeared face. “It’s time to eat.” Her voice was almost singsong.

  Laney couldn’t stop the fine tremors that had started all over her body. She didn’t want to end up like the vampire on the floor, but she didn’t think she could tolerate being fed from. She’d been prepared to fake the high that came with vampire saliva, but she wasn’t sure she could, not after everything she’d just witnessed. Sure, Laney was a doctor and had seen hearts before. But she hadn’t watched them being chewed and swallowed.

  Tatiana swung around to stare at the line of humans. Laney wished she could shrink back and become invisible, but she had a feeling she’d already made herself unforgettable, at least for tonight.

  One by one, the vampires stood and stared at the humans. Tatiana waved a languid hand and the guards shuffled the line of humans forward. As Laney approached the table, she couldn’t keep her eyes from drifting to the discarded body, which was being ignored as if it didn’t exist by the other vampires. Maybe things like this happened all the time, who knew?

  Laney certainly hoped that she wouldn’t find out if it was a regular occurrence.

  Tatiana held up a hand as Laney walked by the auburn-haired vampire. “Not you.”

  Laney froze, eyes locked on the hand. It was covered in gore. Look down, an inner voice whispered. You don’t want her to notice your contact lens. Most humans only saw it if they stared long enough, but someone with Tatiana’s vision would detect it in seconds if Laney wasn’t careful.

  “Not me?” Laney felt her eyebrows rise.

  “You have done me a service already these last few days. I hear you have been assisting the other cattle in the warehouse. And you potentially saved the life of an individual feeder. I value all contributions to my clan. Plus,” she motioned at the body on the floor, “there is one less mouth to feed.”

  “T-Thank you.”

  Tatiana nodded and Laney backed away to stand back at the wall. She could feel the eyes of the other humans in the room, some angry, some jealous, some just blank. Somehow though, it was worse watching all the others become dinner for the vampires; seeing the vampires extend their fangs, watching the moment of panic skitter across the humans’ faces, then witnessing the euphoria dance across their features as the vampire saliva hit their bloodstream.

  Laney felt rather like a voyeur, observing something she shouldn’t be witness to. Three of the vampires dropped back from their ‘cattle,’ lips glistening red in the dim light. They reminded her of sated ticks.

  A vampire guard ran into the room then, his black uniform in contrast to the pure white of his skin. He almost looked like an albino, which made Laney narrow her eyes. As far as she was aware, albinos had an instant death sentence nowadays. Apparently something malfunctioned in their genetic makeup, making them unstable and dangerous. She didn’t know how truthful that was, considering she’d never met one, or been able to study them. But when she caught the vampire’s gaze, it was a purple so pale as to be almost gray.

  “Lady Tatiana,” the guard said. From Laney’s position, she could unfortunately see and hear everything with clarity. She didn’t think she’d forget those slurping sounds anytime soon.

  The vampire raised an irritated face from her food’s neck. With an internal wince, Laney realized it was Melanie. The poor girl was terrified of her own shadow, let alone vampires or weres. Laney couldn’t see her face, but she hoped the drug-laced saliva was doing its thing.

  “There had better be a good reason for this interruption. I have already had a trying evening.”

  Laney noted with amazement that the guard’s attention did not stray from Tatiana. Surely he could smell the dead body in the room?

  “Our guards just captured a were.”

  Chapter 10

  Sometimes – heck, most of the time – pretending that you’re less than you are is the only way to stay alive.

  ~ Quin Kirkman, Journal

  Wolf was being dragged down a corridor. They could have put him on a stretcher, but that would make taking the stairs far less entertaining for them. Each time they hauled him down a flight, he couldn’t stop his face or body from contorting in agony. It felt as if someone had poured acid into the three gunshot wounds; acid which was slowly spreading through his veins. When had these bloody leeches developed such a weapon? It had to be soluble silver or something.

  Either way, it hurt like nothing he’d ever experienced before. And he thought he’d been familiar with pain.

  Wolf tried to pay attention to his surroundings, but he could barely keep his eyes open. Finally, his captors dumped him in a cold concrete room. He figured he was probably a hundred yards underground. When he could finally open his eyes and think, he’d be able to confirm his suspicions.

  Someone kicked him savagely in the side, and he didn’t bother to choke back the growl that rose from his chest.

  “Looks like we bagged some sort of dog,” one of the vampires said. He didn’t recognize the voice as the one who captured him. The leech had a different stench about him as well. Great, he’d been so out of it he hadn’t even realized they’d swapped guards.

  “Shame, I rather wished he was a cat or something. Be more fun to play with.” That came from a female.

  Maybe he should open his eyes and check his surroundings, but now his ribs hurt as well as all the other wounds. At least the ribs should heal on their own, quickly, provided that the silver in the ammunition didn’t interfere.

  He heard the air move as someone squatted down next to him. The sweet, cloying aroma of icy blood reached his nostrils. At least his sense of smell was still working. “I sure hope you enjoy a good wrestling match, ’cause I’m keen to taste some doggy blood.” The voice was husky and feminine.

 

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