Blood Rider

Lee had taken the pills Justina gave her just before dawn, after some intensely enjoyable sex, in a room above the Crimson. She dreamt chaotic confusing dreams. Fragments of which she had no context for. Walking with her mother in the moonlight as she taught her herb lore. Mother telling her the reason she couldn’t go outside was that she was allergic to sunlight. Her mother being her first blood donor until she was twelve and teaching her to hunt, through streets crowded with refugees. The side of the road lined with corpses, partly covered with white sheets, as the army blocked the road.

One dream sequence where her mother and Lucien were arguing about her. They sat in a living room and she was about four. They spoke in hushed but intense voices. Lee could hear the rumbling of thunder outside and then realized it was distant gunfire. She stood by one boarded up window, trying to peer through the cracks.

‘It would be safer to take her to the Clans, to learn as she should. She is special,’ Lucien said.

‘I can keep her safe by myself. She can have a different life. I belong to an activist group trying to stop to atrocities of those who have mutated. We will keep everyone safe. She wouldn’t be safe among the Clans, not as you describe them.’

‘I don’t know if I can stop their interest in her. I agreed to keep her away until I assessed the situation, but the world is falling apart and I know I can keep her safe, my love.’

‘Just meet with my friends and you’ll see. The city is splintering. We need to create some semblance of order. Or we’ll lose everything and the world we know will be destroyed.’

‘All right,’ her father said and for a moment Lee made eye contact, his eyes a clear placid green. She recoiled from the softness in them, even as her dream self-remembered feeling loved and secure. ‘It matters not to me what happens to this culture. It is just the fall out this time is so widespread. Both of you are precious to me. I won’t lose you in this momentary madness.’

Then her mind shied away from anything so familiar but known. Instead, she tortured herself with memories more clear to her until she pulled awake at the rising dawn, glad for the relief. Then she rolled and saw Jak staring at her. Pale violet eyes today.

“Did it work?” he asked, with a smirk. “I guess from all the kicking and grinding of teeth something surfaced in that mind of yours.”

“Gave me dreams for sure. A torment of dreams of a life I don’t remember living, such that, they are more like dreams of someone I never met before. They didn’t feel real to me. Not like true memories.”

Jak pulled her close and looked into her eyes deeply. “These flashes are not more than dreams. When it comes back to you it will hit you hard and with clarity.”

“In one my mother was discussing with Lucien where I should live. He was certain it was time to take into Clan protection. She said her activist friend would help keep her safe.”

“Likely she was with the United Race Coalition. What is now the United Council. Clearly, they both failed in a way. Your father was right to seek the Clan. The offspring of a vampire is frail until he or she matures and our maturity is slower than that of a human.”

He slid a hand up her hip and the daze of sleep lifted, replaced with a lethargic sensuality. She was beginning to think it impossible not to think about, or anticipate, having wild sex with him. Her body hungered for him, but she barely knew anything about him. What she felt deep in her bones was that he was all that a vampire could be and nothing human at all. She could not truly understand the way he thought because she had nothing to compare it to.

-How screwed up is that? Mate bonded to a man you barely know. Kinda like arranged marriages.-

“It is tragic. He must have loved her,” he said. Lee jerked her mind back to the conversation. “In those days, it happened more often simply because we were more spread out and there were fewer of us. We needed to interact with humans, in order to breed.”

-Love is nothing but hormones. Infatuation plus lust.-

Cynic.

-Realist. We have never loved before. Certainly not with a passing fancy like humans.-

A fault in us more likely than not. Trust issues.

Jak nudged her thighs apart and thumbed her nipples pert.

Ah, god, Charlie. Feeling fricken good, even it is all physical.

-Lust trumps common sense. Tragic.-

“His love, which is pure speculation, didn’t save her,” she said.

Jak pressed against her and she was beginning to wonder why they were talking at all. “He couldn’t have turned her. The Clans have strong regulations about that. He would have needed my permission and I wasn’t here then. He was too young anyway, it might not have worked.”

She squirmed beneath him, adjusting her hips. Such glorious anticipation. “I don’t mean from her mortality. I mean his love, for lack of a better word, and my conception, seemed to lead her to more suffering.”

He stilled for a moment and then said, softly, “Never suffer a witch to live. No one tires of prosecuting witches. Her talent alone in that time made her bait to our kind and a target to hers. So many of the talented died back then.” He brushed her cheek and his eyes caressed her. “It is a miracle you survived.”

-And yet, what we endured in the asylum. The torment, the abuse and the starvation. They think we suffered a greater trauma than that, as to cause us to be insane?-

Stop saying ‘us’, Charlie. It is you and me, until proven otherwise.

She had no more need to talk. Lee suspected he was trying to lure her in, by seeing how much she would reveal to him. Except in her sleep, she did her very best to ignore her past. It had formed who she was. Hardened her for survival, but it was gone and dead and she wasn’t.

Lee reached between them took hold of his shaft and slid it home. He didn’t move once he made entrance; just smiled. “Impatient.”

“Demanding. Stop the talky, talky.”

He thrust in hard and she arched up with a gasp. “You have not completed the bond yet. You want to sink your teeth into me as you peak. I feel the desire in you and yet you hold back.” He thrust deeply again. “I could bring you to such pleasure you cannot resist the desire to do so.”

Then there was no talking. Just feeling his deep hard thrusts and how each one caused arcing shivers of pleasure. They reached a furious peak. He hit his mark, stiffened, and bit her on the side of her breast, which made her hit her mark and her fangs slide out. But she held back. She couldn’t bite him. Couldn’t bind herself to him and his Clan.

Afterwards, they languished in the satisfaction. Only then did he ask for the details of what had happened in Town. To say their passion distracted them both from the matters at hand was an understatement. Or perhaps it was his anger that added a certain spice and vigorousness.

“You will tell me everything,” Jak said. She could tell by the depth of his eyes and the way he was still, but strained, that he was still angry. Enraged she could be harmed. Enraged she had put herself into that position. As if he had any right to worry over her. All his protective and possessive male traits making him think he had that right, but she would live her life as she desired. He could believe what he wished. No one would ever truly own her.

“I’ve known Darwin since he was a little street runner. We have had an unshakable alliance when it comes to mutual goals. I didn’t trust him, but I knew his motives and could make deals with him. Yet he had betrayed me easily, which was to be expected, but more skilfully than he would have the knowledge to do alone.”

Lee shook her head in disgust. A hidden spawn, drugged to lower her defences and enrage her enough to try to kill Darwin, who had the true killer dosage of something. And the ambush when that failed. Very persistent. As though they knew Darwin could lure her in and were specifically targeting her. It was not inconceivable that this wizard knew her and so knew her allies and routines. If it was the Council, then he only needed access to her files. If he was a lone black wizard, she still could know him from the wizard community. Yet targeting her specifically made no sense. She meant nothing. The only sense she could make of it was that her death in Town could have been seen as a message to the Clan or the Council.

“And so, who knew you were in Town?”

“You and your Elite, Tia, Richard and my Handler. I made a report of my intentions and that means paperwork, so Darwin knew far in advance. No one betrayed me, Darwin was in the wizard’s pocket long before that and the wizard knew I was looking for him.”

“He mentioned they took his son. But couldn’t have made him into spawn, as that wouldn’t hold a threat. This wizard must have him. He might have been covering his tracks with Darwin. Using you to kill him and vice versa.”

“Yes. I suspect as much,” she said. It did seem it was less to do with the wizard’s contact with Town and more to do with Darwin’s link to his son. “Not that it does any good now. My Handler ordered everyone’s slate to be cleaned, so Darwin will have no memory of the incident.”

Jak narrowed his eyes. “How very nice of them. I will send some people by and see how well they did their job. Darwin may have memories still of who this wizard is.”

“I have been thinking about what Justina said. About a conduit to the Nevernever. Having a conduit makes possession easier. What if, his son is the conduit? What if he was turned and the spell is using him to pull others through?”

“A logical possibility. A wizard couldn’t do the initial turning, but a vampire might, for the same reason. A tie to Town. A wizard of this skill would have little trouble taking captive a young fledgling and using that as a way to bring forth other demons.”

“So if he had been newly turned, it would explain the differences Darwin is placing on his pleasure houses. Turned before he was kidnapped and perhaps now being used in the spell matrix, to be the conduit to create more. He would be a fledgling, so what he could pull through would be weak. The spell simply takes from there and enforces a possession. Makes sense. She also said the more sensitive or the insane are easier to possess. I will have to see what Tia came up with on that angle. On what she has found out about the spawn so far. Although she will be pissed with the note I sent ‘I’m fine, see you soon‘.”

It gave Lee a lead to follow. It was Darwin’s heir, Will, who had been turned. She could track his movements before, find the Sire and then track him from there. And through him the wizard who held him captive. It was a good lead. Their only solid lead.

Jak slid out of bed and rummaged through his clothing, while she simply appreciated his form. The man was not build to modestly that was for certain which gave her ample time to admire his backside and then when he turned to then pursue the vee of muscles disappearing into his pants and the expanse of muscles disappearing into a shirt. She licked her lips and pondered convincing him to take them all off again… slowly.

“We need to talk about the Council. I understand your need to associate with them right now. But you’re mine. Keep in mind if they seclude you behind those shields I will be mad with the desire to find you. Two centuries of needing to find you and insane with blood rage doesn’t disappear overnight. I will storm in there and even I will not be able to stop myself.”

And he would die, she knew. University City was secure against a small assault by any race. Maybe if all the vampires in the Clan went at once there would be something for the Council to worry about. Not one enraged vampire, even if he was aged. He got to be aged by having common sense. Of course, he went crazy to storm the City the rest of those linked to him might just come stampeding after him. That there is where wars began. How flattering she could be the cause of all that careless slaughtering and death. Just what a girl wanted to make her feel special.

“You cannot track this wizard with their restraints on your movements, Lee. You will go too far and they will take you. I will not allow that. Yet you need to work with them and I understand that.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking frustrated. “I lose patience. I had patience, but that was before two centuries of confinement.”

Lee ignored for the moment the raw desire in his tone. “Did they know, the Council that is? That you had already bonded with me? Or had felt the Calling to bond with me? Is that why they hid me where you could not sense me?”

“It is possible they knew. If your mother was part of their early movement then they knew you were special to us. They knew your father was going to bring you to me for protection. I felt it the moment you were born and he believed you would be my bonded mate. You would have been protected and raised within the Clan with your family until you matured. You would only have met me periodically to get to know me as a friend at first. It is possible the Council realized what they had in you and took advantage of whatever situation that led to your mother’s death and your father’s current state leaving you unprotected.”

“I don’t like you calling him my father. Whatever Lucian was, he ended up a bleeder. He likely killed my mother. But you don’t think that do you? You believe Lucian. You think they had something to do with where I ended up. At the asylum,” she said sitting up.

He turned back to her, his eyes a dark shade of purple. He stepped closer and brushed a hand down her cheek. “I don’t know what happened to you prior to that. But, yes, I believe they took advantage of your trauma to take you to a place that could secure you. The asylum was a front and they used it to subdue you with drugs and likely to break you of will so it would be easier to train you later.”

She looked down at her feet for a long moment. “Well then, that’s something to ask my first Handler, who just happens to be still alive, by unnatural means I’m sure. He seemed to be the best man I’d ever met. A good man.”

He was right about her limitations. The Council did own her and could take her at any time. What sort of freedom was that? Better than the Clans, but still trapped. She needed to loosen the noose a bit. Only then could she get things done.

“You’re right,” she said slowly. She held out her arm, wrist up, to show the tat. “Come here.”

He knelt by the bed and took her wrist, inspecting the logo. He pressed his thumb inward and ran it upward, feeling under the skin. “They had no right.”

“Perhaps to you. All other races are tagged so. More so to monitor movements within the Human Quarters, who pay for that service.”

“And how is this equal to all races as they claim to be, if they subjugate those they fear? Control them if they can. Cage them if they cannot. Or exterminate them?”

Lee smirked bitterly. “Apparently there are kinks in the system. The idea is under the perfect system humans would feel comfortable around all us monster races because there would be controls in place, laws and punishments. In this early stage, given things are hardly stable the more control the better apparently and they will put down any supernatural who doesn’t play by the rules because he will make them look bad; make them look like they are unable to reign us in. So it’s follow the rules or risk being locked up or killed.”

“They will always fear us. Give them ways to subdue us and they will utilize them ‘for the good of the many’,” he said mockingly.

He kept a hold of her wrist and looked into her eyes. His eyes were a steady pale lilac. Never had she seen eyes so beautiful and easily changed. “What would you have me do?”

Lee knew she was going to regret her choice, but she needed freedom of movement. Wilhelm couldn’t pull her in easily if he couldn’t track her. If it was damaged she would be expected to report within forty-eight hours for a replacement. It wasn’t inconceivable for it to be damaged in a fight. If she were on an assigned mission, then a team would be sent to investigate, for back up, but Wilhelm hadn’t assigned her to anything. The risk was Wilhelm might take it as a sign of rebellion, which in a way it was. Lee was betting on him not being able to do anything about it until the designation time period had passed. For all the Council restrictions may grate on her, they had to follow their own rules. “Take it out. Bite deep.”

His eyes swirled into a darker shade, his grip tightening slightly. As though only needing her permission he slowly lowered his hand to her wrist, licking lightly around the tattoo, causing a tingling numbness and an unexpected flush of desire. The first bite was more of a tearing of the flesh, as the wrist was never a good place for a deep bite. It would have hurt and she would not have minded the brief pain, but he supplied enough numbing for the tingle to have reached her elbow. Before the gaping wound could seal his teeth punctured deeper, with long canines, to dig in and then rip out again. He tore a chunk out and spit it to the side, splattering blood onto the floor. Then he sucked and licked as the blood pooled out until the wound began to seal.

He lightly kissed the raw scar and then released her to dig out the spider-like tracer from the chunk of flesh. Before he could crush it she said, “I would prefer you leave it undamaged. It will register some anomalies but still show active, which will give me more time.”

He held it like he would a bug and looked like he was very intently thinking of crushing it. “This wizard will make a mistake soon enough. We hunt his horde and he cannot replenish them quickly without people noticing. There is no need to hunt them if it will cause trouble with your Council.”

“This would be something to mention prior to ripping out the tracer, Jak,” she said dryly. “I choose to do this and it isn’t as though this wizard is not aware of me.”

Council bred or not, this was her city the wizard was messing with. While she had no territory to own like a vampire liked to do, she did feel as though she owned the city and all its inhabitants.

-This wizard was playing in the wrong playground. He wanted to cause a war. To rile the vampires and the humans up. We will give him a war.-

For once Lee totally agreed with her imaginary friend. Charlie was more heated up about it. Angrier this wizard was in their city, indiscriminately killing its citizen in their city.

“It would be easier for you to remain at my side. You could spend time hunting lost memories instead.”

Lee grimaced. Simply because they were both trueborn vampires and had a physical connection didn’t mean she belonged with him. It just meant apparently she couldn‘t argue about it with him. Stubborn, stubborn male. Still, she was fully willing to indulge in his company to see where it went, as long as he didn‘t push it. “Those memories have been lost a long time with little harm. Besides one thing I’ve learned about history is not to rile the humans up. You’d think you would know that lesson more. This horde is disrupting the status quo.”

“The humans protect their own and we are more than capable of killing these pseudo vampires.”

She thought the overconfidence was likely born and bred into him. He was after all a born vampire. While the horde was no threat in the way he was thinking, they still were. They could day walk for one thing. Hide in the flesh that contained them for another. Hiding amongst humanity easily and therefore very difficult to eliminate, unless the wizard was taken out of the picture. He was thinking it would be done, sooner or later, once the wizard showed his hand. Maybe he wouldn’t do so until he had whittled away at the Clans numbers. Either way by then a lot of humans would be killed in order to feed the endless hunger of the horde. She couldn’t trust the Council was handling it as well as they might, seemingly more concerned over her closeness with the Clan than anything.

“Be that as it may, I’m doing it. And since it benefits you and my relations with the Clan, I wouldn’t argue.” Lee bit her lip and added, “I think this whole born vampire breeding thing, is like a werewolves heat.”

“Oh?”

She stood up and went to the water basin by the window. Lee smiled slightly as she washed off in water tinted with some sort of oils, likely fresh flowers in the summer, such it was the Clan held to some old habits. She washed the remainder of blood off her arm and then washed her face as well. She turned around and faced him. “It’s all pheromones. Or maybe even more. Our saliva has a numbing narcotic in it that seriously affects humans. I believe born vampires may have something else when it comes to other born vampires. In order to promote breeding.”

It sounded oddly rational to her. A good story to explain their intense passion and magnetic pull. She could explain it as she wished, but it wasn’t something she could deny. Not when she was anywhere near him anyway. When he walked into the room her eyes were riveted to him. Her aura even reached out to his. The surge of desire when she would make eye contact was always intense as it was sudden.

“Ah, so these pheromones drove me crazy when you reached maturity and I had sensed you. Drove me crazy for two centuries when you were kept from me. Even though you were nowhere near me and I was isolated within the Quarter?”

She shrugged. “It’s a theory. I’ve no doubt you sensed me. Your aura is about as expansive as my Handlers. But what you sensed was another born vampire, which you might have noticed is limited to you and me. Then when we met… all pheromones.”

It had to be something like that. It made it impersonal. It wasn’t as though he had any selection.

He came towards her slowly, his eyes tracing her naked body. “Interesting theory. Of course, you’re too young to breed. We are a bonded pair, or half bonded, but you will not be fertile for a few more centuries.”

She wasn’t sure about the whole fertility thing. Or him remarking about it. She had long ago accepted the fact that longevity meant no children. A sort of universal balance to the system. She didn’t want to contemplate the possibility. Nor the fact he wanted her for that purpose. A gal liked to be a little more than an incubator.

“Even so, our bodies are designed to find someone compatible with and then amp it up so we have such all consuming passion. That is about all I allow you. Not the bond, not anything else. So you should be pleased I choose to be around you, given I could walk away right now.”

He leaned in, his hands smoothing down her sides, and then gripping her hips to pull her closer. “Could you?” He had to be aware of how his touch affected her. How it ignited the nerve endings in a wave of excitement from even the lightest of caresses. “I heard the Call and so do you. You try to deny it, but the pull will get worse, until we finish it.”

Not so with her. Since she was fragmented her instincts were dull. She felt the passion and need, but not Call that demanded a true bonding.

“Charlie doesn’t want us to finish it. Nor do I. By not being tied to you, I’m not rejecting the Council. I remain as neutral as I can.”

Neutral and safe.

He laughed scornfully. She heard him mutter ‘neutral’ under his breath in amusement.

“What do you plan today?” he asked, lifting her onto the countertop.

“I need to get a ward to hide me from Wilhelm as best I can, for the next few nights anyway. I’ll check the registry for a wizard who does contracts on the side lines. Meet Tia in the sub-quarter to see what she knows, and chat with Eric. Busy night.”

“Eric is here, so easy enough. I don’t want to have you disappear from my senses again. The mark we share will enable us to speak distances, so use it. For my own peace of mind. But it does mean you have a few minutes before you go in order to demonstrate you pheromone theory, we can even discount the saliva theory, as I will not even kiss you.”

He proved she didn’t have the willpower to resist him. But what vampire did have any willpower to speak of? It was fine as long as she didn’t finish this bond of his, so he couldn’t claim her into the Clan and get a whole lot of trouble with the Council over it.