Blood Rider

“Ah, fuck me,” Tia said, backing away from the thin magical barrier that separated them. Lee bared her teeth and ran her hand down the glowing wall, feeling the sharp pain from the electrical energy.

She tried to relax. She looked over to Justina, who was watching her with such calm liquid brown eyes.

“Stop moving like that,” she hissed to Tia. She couldn’t help see Tia shift away from her. Couldn’t help hear the hitch in her breathing. That fight or flight impulse kicking in. Never run from a predator. “If you would just…keep…still a moment.”

“Eventually you’re going to be driven into a feeding frenzy,” Justina stated.

Lee snarled, turned on her heels and faced away from them both. Her skin felt tighter already and flush. Her stomach was cramping with need. “Shut up.”

“This is why the Clans kill the clanless, Lee. If any of them were to become aged they could start their own line, or be forced to do so.”

“That is great to know,” Tia said. “Just great.”

“Not so astonishing, Tia,” Lee snarled. “It’s what the Council wanted to do with me. Create a line and enslave me and my fledglings. They cannot force me to turn anyone. I don’t even know if I can turn anyone. We will just have to wait. Jak will know something is wrong soon enough. They underestimate him. The guy is ancient beyond my comprehension.”

“And track you here? Not likely,” Tia said.

“Seriously. We’re mated. That has to mean something, right? No matter what buffering wards are on this place and even if my spirit is broken in two he ought to be able to feel me or whatever. And even if he can’t he knew I was coming here. As soon as he knows I’m missing he won’t believe the Queen when she says I never made it across the river. He’ll be out of his mind about it. Trust me. He’ll rip through here looking for me and he’ll find us.”

“Not if Richard tells him Wilhelm took you to the City. That will direct his rage on them and distract him for quite some time because it’s a lot harder to break into there. It’ll be weeks,” Tia said.

“Still he’ll rip this city apart brick by brick and under the rubble eventually he’ll find us,” Lee said stubbornly. “He’ll cause open war, but he won’t care. Trust me. The man has issues when it comes to me.”

“Yeah, I believe you. He’s been confined for a long time and he’s your mate and you’re a stubborn ass vampire who has an aversion to her own instincts. I bet he is extremely frustrated to have you as a mate. But by the time he finds us, he will find you and two drained corpses.”

“I’m not going to feed on you guys! You’re my friends for Saint's Sakes!”

“The vampire prince will know exactly where she is, if she aligns her spirit in the Nevernever,” Justina said. “They are both born vampires and their presence there will be strong.”

Lee slowly turned back to study the witch. “Speaking of which, why have you not gone into the Nevernever to get out of here?” Justina didn’t say anything, but Lee could read a lot into her uncomfortable silence. Justina was a strong witch and therefore she could travel that realm with ease unlike weaker ones who could just feel it or tap it. No way a wizard, who knew not a damn thing about that realm, would be able to block it. “Oh my fucking gods. You are in love with the bastard. That mad scientist bastard. I thought he was in love with you. I got that. How could he not be? But for you to be in love with him? No way. He isn‘t good enough for you.”

“It’s never a simple thing. Not for witches. Sometimes we have no choice on who we love. In this life and in the next. Sometimes we are just balancing our karma.”

“That god damned fucking psychic vampire, soul sucking, bastard,” Lee cursed.

“It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t know I could leave. If I did, they would think he freed me. And then they will make sure he’s the next one turned. And there is no guarantee I could slip into the Nevernever. Not with the heavy shields on this place. I might only be able to peek into it not actually cross over.”

“There is no fucking guarantee I can either.”

“Yeah, but all you need to do is touch it and unite yourself. Just touch it and he will know where you are. That contact will ripple through the Nevernever and he will know exactly where you are.”

Lee paced her cell trying not to think about how blood thirsty she was. Somewhat thankful Charlie wasn’t able to increase that thirst. Having a split vampire essence meant in this case, she could control herself better. Justina had said when a vampire traced they touched the Nevernever; hopping in and out, in order to gain speed. Even their telepathy was based in the Nevernever. That didn’t help Lee in the least, since she was crippled from breaking Threshold. She could no more trace than she could walk through the shield around her. Tracing was instinctual. Touching the Nevernever intentionally wasn’t instinctual, especially since only born vampires were claimed to ever fully walk through it. If she hadn’t been so afraid of the process and done it sooner Justina could have instructed her herself and she would know exactly how to do it.

Justina was talking in the background to Tia. Mostly about what the Nevernever was and how an uber witch could go into it. None of which would help a born vampire. A crippled born vampire.

Lee was sitting crossed legged and leaning against the wall, trying not to think on how thirsty she was, when Richard and Drake came into the workshop dragging a man along by the arms. They lifted him up and heaved him onto the table, enough for Lee to glimpse the man’s greyish skin tone and a face of a man starving to death. Gaunt features and tight skin. All that energy passing through him and just barely enough to keep him alive. In fact, he didn’t much look alive. He was though, well in the sense he was a vampire anyway. She could feel the faint pulse of his aura and smell his demon blood.

“Will?” Tia asked of no one.

“Yes,” Justina replied. “The boy isn’t strong enough to bear the weight of so many fledglings. And he is still human enough for his genetic code to be similar to what it once was, thus his fledglings sharing his human deformity.”

While Drake was strapping him in Richard came to inspect Lee. Her expression froze and she locked onto his every movement. “The beast wakes,” he said mockingly. “You’re letting that human façade slip.”

She jerked her eyes away from him.

“I don’t fault you. For most vampires, mimicking humans is a ploy to blend in. To seem harmless. For you, it was all you knew. You mimicked the behavior around you. And you are always around humans. As a result, one damned good façade.”

“Fuck. You. And you’re an idiot. I don’t blend at all. I mimic barely because, as you say, I was around humans. But because I’ve never been human they can tell. You must have poor observational skills.”

“But you’re a born vampire. There is nothing human in you. No human emotions or behaviors. So many people make the mistake to think vampires, once human, still think like a human thinks. They do not. Nor do they think like an animal. They think in a completely alien way. That is why integration is impossible. You think I betrayed the Council and you wonder whose side I’m on.” He crouched down. “I’m on the human side. Understood? I support human interests. What the Council wants is impossible to attain. Unless they reconcile their need to control their monsters properly with their idiotic ideals of eventually making them equal citizens. What Queen Linora wants, is to make humanity strong again. To make us a force to be reckoned with. Not just prey.”

Lee laughed, her voice sounded harsh to her and her fangs fully extended. Saliva pooled into her mouth, pumping out toxins. “Tricky prey. Sweet, sweet food. Come say that in here.”

He sighed. “If you were in your right mind, you would agree with me. This is not a bad thing. With you as the focus, we will have our own line of vampires, to protect us from the wrath of the Clan.”

“I’m going to fucking break your neck and bleed you dry.”

Richard stood back up and brushed his pant legs off casually. “Actually, you’re going to bleed poor Will there dry. The queen will be arriving soon, to watch the show. When the ritual is complete, I don’t believe you will handle the weight of it better than Will. If you do, then I will speak to you more. If not, then we will not speak again.”

Lee snarled and clawed the shimmering wall.

He turned back to Drake. “We can prepare the spell circle around Will. Then segment the room so her majesty can watch the transfer.”

“I’ve never fucking turned anyone before, Richard!” Lee yelled. “I don’t know how to do it. I’ll kill him.”

He turned back to her for a moment. “I’m sure it is instinctive. Figure it out. If you kill Will, I’m sure Drake has explained what will happen. And we will have to try again and again, till you get it right. And trust me, if that happens the queen will be displeased. She will keep you confined until you drain your friends.”

Lee began to pace again. There were no options she could see. The hunger was burning through her. She watched Drake prepare his ritual circle, but not with a critical eye, but with the steady gaze of a predator.

When the pain knotted in her she fell to her knees and dry heaved. She coughed and spat out blood. When Drake was finished he approached the cage. “Won’t be long now, Lee.”

She leapt to her feet and right to the barrier, it repelled her back and with a snarl she crashed into it again and again.

“Drake, step away from her. You’re driving her crazy,” Justina said.

He immediately stepped away, closer to Justina. Justina came close to the wall and said, “If Lee can touch the Nevernever she will become complete. The spell of control will fail. Do not be close to her then, she will kill you.”

“You mean it will not work?”

“It depends on what you mean. If she turns Will within that spell she will turn them all and she will be the Sire of them all. And you will be able to feed of that, off her, and siphon that to the rings. But you won’t be able to control her or her fledglings with those rings. Just as Richard said, she’s not human, and any spell designed to control a human mind is flawed in design for such as her. She‘s not even a vampire like any other, born vampires are a totally different thing altogether. Too strong from that control spell you designed to reign in a vampire.”

“Ah.”

“Ironically, you could in the fractured state she is in now. But in the state she is in now, she cannot turn anyone. In order to turn she will have to touch the Nevernever and when she does she will be the born vampire she is. As Richard said, not human at all. And pissed. I don’t know what she will react. She could just slaughter everyone without even realizing who she’s attacking. Because when she‘s unified for the first time she might not think like the Lee we know right away. She might just act on instinct alone.”

“I don’t know, Justina. She’s broken more than you think. I’m not sure she can even do this. Not sure her mind could survive it. Or even if she touches the Nevernever she may deny her true self, as before, and truly break her mind this time.”

“Things are different now. She seeks herself more. She’s bonded to a mate. She can no longer repress all her desires. I know she will do it. She has to if we have any chance.”