whimpered, a slow, pain-filled rattle that made me think she did not have very long.
Neither did we.
Ryder gave me a sideways glance and nodded wordlessly.
I just stared back.
He rolled his eyes up and then sighed.
“You’re no fun,” he whispered.
I ignored that. “Open the door. Or I will.”
“Aw, for fuck’s sake…”
He jerked the door wider, made it easier to see, made it easier to see the splotches of crimson, as though someone had tossed a can of paint onto the walls and furniture.
But it was not paint.
Next to me, Ryder drew in a quick breath, as though someone had punched him in the gut.
If he said anything, I could not hear.
If he moved anything, I could not see.
Could only see the auburn-haired beautiful woman, with the perfect features contorted in pain, hand out to us, entreating, pleading, begging…
Could only see the dark-haired beautiful man, with the perfect features contorted in pleasure, lips on her throat, licking, sucking, drinking…
In my years of fighting the unnameable creatures of the dark, in my years of training with my harsh mother, in my years of watching my father subject my mother to brutality and shame, I had never stopped thinking, had never stopped knowing what to do next.
But this…
Nothing could have prepared me for this.
Jason was gone, completely gone. Replaced by a monster that would stop at nothing to quench its thirst.
I’m going to kill the motherfucker who took Shannon.
I think I am glad you are to be my Ailward.
Perhaps I stepped towards him, mind completely blank, white as newly fallen snow, but I was not aware of it.
Jason’s eyes opened and rolled up, focusing on me. No. The vampire.
He was a vampire.
Why was it so easy to forget?
The vampire reared back, his mouth ringed with red. “Ran. This…it’s not.”
Drip, drip with blood.
"Fucking hell!" Ryder shouted. “Vincent’s going to kill me. Holy fuck, he’s going to put my head on a goddamn stake!”
So much blood.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat seized up. I watched the redhead crawl towards us on her knees, one hand on her ravaged throat, one scrabbling on the sleek marble floors.
She was not human. A human wouldn’t have been able to survive such an injury.
Ryder reached out for her and she screamed again, a high keening sound that made my knees weak, as his hands wrapped about on her upper arms, bringing her to her feet.
My master staggered to his feet, swaying slightly, one hand on the wall to keep him upright. He left a near perfect hand print on the gilded gold wallpaper. “Ran, I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t think —”
That I could protect such a monster made me feel slightly ill and I cast a glance at Ryder. “Take her with you. Leave us.”
He opened his mouth, as if to refuse, but perhaps he had seen the expression on my face. Merely opting to mutter under his breath, he carefully hefted the weeping woman into his arms and left the room, his footsteps clipped and quick.
I waited until I couldn’t hear his footsteps or her crying anymore.
Jason sat down heavily on the floor, dangerously close to the rapidly cooling pool of dark, viscous blood. Vampire blood looked no different from human blood although I hadn’t known vampires fed on another vampires. Of course, there was the initial Turning, but Reiko had told me vampires preferred not feeding off other vampires, due to the taste…or something to that effect.
“Why did you do it?”
It seemed a silly, yet a question I could not afford to not ask.
He stared down at his hands, the blood already beginning to dry and flake. “I don’t…I don’t know. She was dancing and she kissed me. She brought me down here…I thought —”
“Didn’t you know she’s a vampire?”
He cast his eyes down, almost as though he were ashamed. I didn’t think so. “I knew. I tried to tell her, I tried to tell her I was thirsty…that I just wanted a meal. She laughed and said she would teach me…”
It was hard to keep my face still, to keep the emotions from running across my face. This was just a job, nothing but a job. Once Noir was dead, I would return to my everyday routine that suddenly seemed very palatable. “I was under the impression vampires will not feed on other vampires unless they are driven to it, unless there is no other alternative. Like vermin. Livestock.”
He shook, almost uncontrollably and I heard his teeth chatter. “That would be correct.”
“You’ve tasted human