longer in the ground meant greater sanity. The vamps I was hunting had managed to raise a vamp that was sane right away. With no need for curing, no insanity. No curse. No devoveo.
All the other young-rogue risings had been failed experiments. But this time it had finally worked.
But why the crosses in the trees? Maybe the spell that kept the vamps in the ground longer was also intended to make them immune to the power of the cross. Vamps who didn't suffer from the curse, and didn't suffer from the cross. "Crap," I whispered as the implications flashed through my mind. The experimenter had wanted to make sure his creations weren't flawed.
The value of a spell to raise sane young was enough to start a war over. Rousseau, St.
Martin, and Mearkanis - were all three involved? No. Just Rousseau. No other clan scent was on this.
"Hungry," he said again, the word whispered and rough.
"I know you're hungry." His throat worked with need at my words. I held up the vamp-killer, letting the moonlight through the trees catch on the silver. "But if you can wait, if you can hold off, I'll get someone here to help. Understand?"
He nodded again and closed his eyes. "Hurry. Don't know how long . . ."
My mind raced. The first young vamp I'd taken down in this city had been restored to his sanity enough to make it into a club, into the ladies' room, and attack a woman.
He'd made a mate for himself. He'd claimed territory. Not normal. Not for a new rogue.
They got their name from their lack of sanity. Why hadn't I thought of that until now?
Because I was settled into the rut of my own expectations.
I sheathed the stakes and pulled my cell, praying for bars. There were three, and though I really didn't want to call any of Leo's people, not after the big boss tried to eat me for dinner, I didn't have a choice. I speed-dialed Bruiser. When he answered, I said, "I have a newly risen vamp in control of his faculties, behind the chapel at the vamp cemetery.
He says he can wait for a blood meal if you hurry."
"Talking? Not possible," Bruiser said.
"Fine. I'll stake him and we can argue over it later." The vamp across the clearing tensed and blinked slowly. I shrugged to show I wasn't serious.
Bruiser cursed once, succinctly. "Leo is . . . not available. I'll bring one of his scions.
Try to keep him alive." The connection ended and I folded the phone back into its pocket.
"You got a name?" I asked the newly risen guy.
He seemed to think, and as he did, the sclera of his eyes bled back white, as if the act of answering a question brought him back to his humanity. "LeShawn. LeShawn . . . B . . .
Brandt."
They didn't remember their names. Not for five years or more. "LeShawn, you think you can make it through the trees about two hundred yards?"
"T . . . try," he said. His fangs retracted and his human teeth were chattering in the heat as if he was cold. Which I imagined he was. They were always cold when they hadn't fed.
I controlled my fear and my breathing, making sure my reactions didn't push him over the edge. When I was calm, I pointed with the stakes again. "That way. You go in front."
He moved slowly, his feet shuffling in the underbrush. He shouldn't even be able to walk yet, or at least not without that zombielike lack of coordination. It took the newly risen a lot longer than this. Alot longer. Yet the girl who had risen in the park had been a typical young-rogue vamp and she had been under this same spell. Why not this guy?
Because of Ada and all the ambient energy she had brought ashore. The lightning had disrupted the stasis spell.
Near me, LeShawn paused and raised his head, that weirdly snakelike move they all had, and sniffed. "You smell good. Like meat and . . . sex."
"Move along or you'll smell like dead meat."
He laughed.Crap . Helaughed . That totally human laughter that took most of them a decade to relearn. He looked back at me, the grin still on his face. His eyes were human, brown irises with night-wide pupils. On my chest, the crosses decreased their glow. His eyes lit on my neck just below my jaw, the sliver of unprotected skin, and he breathed deeply, closing his eyes. "You smell