My hands rose automatically to break down the door she’d just slammed in my face. But before they made contact with the wood, I caught myself. Tonight had been enough of a shit circus. I didn’t need to add breaking and entering to my growing list of regrets. Instead, I waited by her door for a moment, listening–for what I wasn’t sure. Inside I heard the slow, even cadence of her breath. Her heartbeat, which was fainter, remained slightly elevated. She’d gotten a rush of adrenaline from kicking me out. After a minute, it returned to normal and I stalked away, forcing myself to leave. She had made it clear I was unwelcome, and I wasn’t sure what I would do if she let me back in now.
When I was younger I’d had a few doors slammed on me by humans fleeing their inevitable deaths. I’d never had a human do it after insulting me. Thea now held that dubious honor.
Old man.
By vampire standards, I was in my prime. I suspected Miss Melbourne had never met a real man before. Most human men didn’t live long enough to outgrow their own stupidity. It wasn’t my fault she was remarkably naive and unnervingly fragile.
And a virgin.
Virgins and vampires didn’t mix for so many reasons. Not anymore. The risks were too great for each party. Even well-bred familiars aiming to marry up no longer saved themselves for their vampire spouses. The Council had issued several official warnings on the matter in the late nineteenth century. It was part of a plan to sever our world from theirs. At the time, it had been a natural evolution, and since humans were finally starting to catch up with reforming their own society, we needed to be one step ahead.
But I hadn’t expected to meet a virgin in the twenty-first century. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind when I’d given in to my desire to claim Thea. Who was a virgin these days?
Apparently, the beautiful cellist had an attitude that matched the coppery highlights in her hair. Part of me hoped she wouldn’t call or text, whatever that was.
As I stepped onto the dark walk in front of her building, I made up my mind. The cool night brushed across my skin as I surveyed the street. Tomorrow I would have a cello delivered. I didn’t care what she had to say about that. I might not want to spend more time with Thea, but I wouldn’t deprive her of her music. She was far too gifted to quit now. In the meantime, I would get her out of my system. I only needed an opportunity to present itself.
Circling to the driver’s side of the BMW, I pressed the handle and heard the doors unlock. I might hate some of the modern world’s new conveniences, but I had to admit that was cool. Before I could open it, a dark figure ambled toward me. For a human, he was moving quickly. Something glinted in his hand. A knife.
“Give me your keys, man,” he said, his face hidden by the hood of his jacket.
I glared at Thea’s building. Part of me wished she was here to witness this, because it would prove I was right. This wasn’t a safe place for her to live, even with her bloody male roommate. But if she had been here, I wouldn’t have been able to handle the situation accordingly.
Turning, I studied him for a moment. He edged a little closer.
“Don’t make me fucking hurt you. Give me your keys,” he demanded.
“No.” He paused for a second, surprised by my response, and I chuckled. “Do you even know how to use that?”
“You want to find out?” he shouted, lunging toward me.
Honestly, I was almost impressed. He was clearly prepared to back up his threats. But he had no idea who he was fucking with and I was already low on patience. My hands closed over his wrist before the knife came anywhere near me. With one swift twist, his bones cracked and he screamed, dropping the knife.
“Quiet,” I said, and his cry died in his throat. The hood covering his face fell back, revealing his face in the street lamps. His mouth remained open, and his face contorted with pain and fear. Of course, I could compel him, too. Only Thea was immune to my charms. That only placed her in more danger from my kind, and she had enough to worry about with scum like this guy hanging around where she lived.
The least I could do was take care of this guy.
“You shouldn’t steal cars,” I told him, increasing my grip on his wrist. His knees buckled and he crashed to the street. “But if you do, you should do it right. Stay there.”
He didn’t have a choice. I’d taken his away. He couldn’t call for help–not that anyone was likely to come in this neighborhood–or run away. Tonight, he’d chosen his prey poorly and he would pay the price. I leaned down and picked up his knife. I held it close to his panic-stricken face. “With a knife, you have to be intentional,” I explained. “You can’t just jab and hope it’s enough to hurt a man. You need to get it up under the ribs–if you want to kill him, at least.”
I whipped the knife into the air and demonstrated for him. His eyes widened, telling me what I already knew. He was a petty criminal, at best. He had no intention of killing me. If I’d been human, and he’d managed to mortally wound me, it would have been due to luck, not skill or design. Desperation drove him. I pitied him, but that didn’t mean I could give him a pass. He might be a thief, but he was dangerous. At least, he would be useful.
Grabbing his jacket, I yanked him to his feet and tore into his throat. His blood tasted bitter on my tongue, lacking the sweetness Thea’s had promised, but it was hot and plentiful. That was enough. He struggled weakly against me before my venom overwhelmed him and he stilled. Blood coursed through me and the darkness shifted. Neon glowed on the edges of the dark night, stars twinkled through the fog hanging in the sky, and a chaotic symphony of city noises crashed into me. After a few swallows, I dropped him to the ground. He crumpled into a bag of bones and stared up at me with dazed eyes. The edge of my hunger had dulled, but it still lingered. I suspected that even if I’d drained every drop from him, I would still want more. Because it wasn’t his blood that I craved.
“Now, what do I do with you?” I asked him. He couldn’t respond since he was still under my compulsion, but he blinked rapidly, one hand pressed to his wounded throat. “I can’t have you on these streets, but I’d really prefer not to kill you. I don’t want to lose the bet I made with my brother.”
He cringed against the wet street. Now he was afraid. That I could work with.
“You’re not going to remember what happened,” I told him, taking out my wallet and drawing out a few bills and a business card. “You’re going to find the nearest hotel, clean yourself up, and sleep. In the morning, you will check into the Fremont Free Clinic and give them the name Rousseaux. You’ll stay there until you are clean. Then, you will call this number and take the job the man offers you. No questions asked. You will never take another drug recreationally in your life as repayment for my mercy.”
Not that he had any choice. I tossed the money into his lap along with the card.
“Go,” I commanded. “You can speak but you may never raise your voice to me.”
He scrambled onto his feet with a frightened look. “Th-th-anks.”
But I was already climbing into the BMW. I was getting soft. There was a time when I would have been content to drain him and rid the world of another lost soul. Maybe Thea was right. Maybe I was old.
Inside the BMW, I smelled Thea everywhere. Venom pooled in my mouth, my fangs still lengthened from my quick feed, and I felt a magnetic pull tugging at me. Every inch of me wanted to get back out of the car, run back inside her building and knock down her door. So much for taking the edge off. Instead, I seemed to have made it worse. I hadn’t felt blood-lust this strong since I was a teen.
I punched the ignition switch so hard that the plastic cracked. A second later, I swerved onto the rain-slick street. The back end of the car kicked out behind me as I sped onto the streets of San Francisco. The city rushed past in a spectacular rainbow of color. I crested a hill, the BMW lifting off the pavement for a moment, and drove, wanting to put as much distance as I could between myself and the woman I’d left behind. I was halfway across the city when a call came over the car’s speakers. A name flashed on the navigation screen, and I groaned. There was no escape for me. Not tonight. Not with the Rites enacted. Not with Thea’s scent lingering in the air around me.
“What?” I answered.
“I need to talk to you now.”
“Not even a please?” I bit out, but she’d already hung up.
