Better Off Red (29 page)

“Mind reading isn’t exactly our specialty,” Kina chimed in.

“It’s thought altering. Humans don’t think linear, clear thoughts unless they’re in the act of forming a sentence or in the middle of making a decision. If Rodrick asks Greg, ‘Does it make you

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uncomfortable when I feed from you?’ Rodrick could get a sense of a feeling from him, no matter what his answer was, but Rodrick can’t make informed decisions based on impressions. On the other hand, Rodrick could convince Greg that he enjoys every part of the feedings, but that’s not what we’re trying to do. We just want to know if you’ve noticed anything or if he’s said anything to you that’s more concrete. Everyone has intense emotions, even homicidal thoughts, but that doesn’t mean we’ll act on them. Greg could be thinking all sorts of things, but they aren’t facts.”

“You guys haven’t talked to Samantha about this? She’s going out with him. She spends way more time with him than I do.”

“We’ve thought of that, but Rodrick says Greg trusts you more,” Natasha said.

Why? Greg and I were barely friends. We weren’t friends, actually. We were lab partners with mutual friends. Why did he have to trust me at all, let alone more than his girlfriend? I regretted giving my word in the first place.

Camila kissed my temple. “Look, Red. Greg seems like a nice boy, but he’s aggressive during feedings. You don’t have to tell us anything, just if you notice anything or if he says anything that suggests he could be a danger to Samantha or himself—”

“Wait, is he getting violent with her?” I asked.

“No. It’s just Rodrick has had a few like him before, ones who were confused about their sexuality. He was able to head the problem off before anything happened, and we’d like to do the same with Greg.”

I felt backed into a corner, but they had a point. All the guys seemed to understand that their relationships with the brother-kings were not a deciding factor in their sexual orientation. Rodrick preferred women, and even though Micah served Rodrick with no problem, he loved Anna-Jade like crazy. Something told me Greg would never be okay with the feedings. But if I could help, I wanted to. I nodded and mumbled my okay before resting my head on Camila’s shoulder.

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After their meeting, Omi let us stay in her lounge while Camila and I met with Rodrick in private. When we were done discussing my genetic abnormalities, the sister-queens planned on coming back to test my powers, the ones I was positive I didn’t have.Rodrick appeared suddenly by the coffee table, with the results of my blood tests and his comforting smile that dulled the intensity of his electric blue eyes and his large fangs. He handed me the folder. I opened it and realized pretty quickly I didn’t understand any of the results inside.

“Though you are not showing any outward signs of vampirism, the blood in you is very potent. Most pressing, Camila cannot feed you. Neither can I. If you are sick or injured, you need to feed from someone further removed from a bourne-demon. I am almost certain a small amount of our blood would jump-start your metamorphosis,”

Rodrick said.

“Oh. Okay.” I hadn’t even considered the effect Camila’s blood would have on me. And then I was curious about Rodrick. “Um, how far removed are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

His grin made his bright white fangs seem even bigger. “I do not mind in the least. I am three times removed from a bourne-demon. All of my makers were very powerful.”

“Okay. So I don’t drink from you two. What else?”

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“Hmm,” Camila mused, reading over the papers in my lap.

“We can track him. The levels aren’t that high, but there is enough of our blood in you to track whoever saved you and your mother.”

“If he’s still alive,” Rodrick said.

A twinge of hope flickered in my chest. “He?” I asked. “You can tell it was a man, for sure?”

Rodrick glanced at Camila before he answered me. “Yes. We may be able to locate him. We do not know him, or we would have recognized your scent, but the world is big. Still you must consider, Ginger—”

“That he might be dead,” I said. That hope quickly burned out.

I looked up as Camila took my hand.

“We could also track your birth father, if you’d like,” she said cautiously. She must have seen the pain spread across my face as I started to understand what she meant. For a moment, I’d been thinking my birth dad and my blood donor were the same person, but they weren’t. My birth dad could have gone through the change after I was conceived, like Samantha’s father. It was possible, but it wasn’t the case.

My adoptive dad had more than made up for the years of my life I’d spent without a father. Still, it hurt so badly to know there were two men in the world who had given me life and walked away just as easily.

I let Camila’s arm slip back around my waist as she leaned against me. I leaned back.

“Can I think about that?” I asked.

“Of course you can,” Rodrick replied. “I understand that the true concept of what we are seems dangerous and frightening, but we do love you, all of you. Any request you have of us, we will grant you.”

“Track my maker. Not my father,” I said. I had a father, an amazing dad who’d taught me all I could know about sports and still high-fived me when I’d finally picked out a prom dress. He was all the father I would ever need.

“Rodrick, please.” Camila asked him politely to give us a moment. I didn’t hear or see him vanish, but I sensed the moment he’d left the room.

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“I don’t want to know him. I can’t not blame him. No matter what. Even if he didn’t know she was pregnant. I’m not ready. I’ll blame him,” I said.

Her hand slid up the back of my neck and she gently massaged the base of my scalp. My eyes closed. I felt the tears threatening to spill over.

“Baby, it’s your choice.”

“I know. I just, I don’t know what happened between my birth parents. And I don’t think I want him to explain. I just—”

I let out a huge breath. I couldn’t deal with this, not now, not in Omi’s apartment. I sniffled and wiped my eyes, shaking my head on another deep breath. “Rodrick can come back. Let’s finish this and then I’ll have a meltdown. I’m sure Omi wants her living room back.”“Omi is fine. If you change your mind, just let me know. We can find them both.” I said okay and let it go.

Rodrick returned once I’d pulled it together and we talked some more about the precautions I should take. Camila told him about the incident that had followed her feeding with Amy. They both agreed that human blood shouldn’t have any negative effects on me, but Camila still promised to be careful with me after her feedings.

When there were no more warnings, the sister-queens came back and they grilled me about my powers. And I told them again I didn’t have any. Camila had explained that I had seen through her cloak for humans, and unlike the other girls, I could sense her mental influence, but wasn’t capable of stopping it. They already knew about the Amy incident. There were a few cracks about the kind of mind control fun they could have with me, but those went silent when Camila growled.

“Nothing bizarre happened to you as a kid, nothing recently?”

Faeth asked.

“Recently?” I mocked her.

“Other than all this joining our little club. Crikey, you are a smart ass.” I chuckled at the way the words sounded with her accent.

“I have a pretty sensitive sense of taste and smell, but that’s it,” I said.

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“Well, maybe we can teach her,” Kina said. “Walk her through some things and then we’ll know if there’s anything lying dormant.”

Camila looked at me, gently stroking my hair. “Is that okay?”

“Sure. I guess, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“Before we start, there’s one more thing you should understand.

Our powers reflect the functional needs of our master. A pure, powerful demon needs to be able to deceive, to appear in different forms, and to disappear on a whim. Some demons, not any of us, have the power of possession. All of these tricks are meant to do evil, I won’t lie to you, but we use them for our own survival and for the good of our feeders. The downside to being born human is that the powers we don’t use begin to fade over time. I’m excellent at shifting. Tokyo is better with the mind tricks. My mental skills are still sharp, but they would be better if I was mind tampering for the Feds every day. We can also communicate with each other through telepathy. You’ve seen Camila vanish and reappear?”

“Yeah.” After Kina’s explanation, the ability seemed even creepier.

“And she was able to read your mind?”

“Yeah. I sort of forced her into my thoughts involuntarily.”

“Well, we can start there.”

For two hours, they worked with me, and by the end, I was exhausted. Camila was afraid to overpower me and she didn’t trust Faeth and Tokyo in my head, so Omi, Natasha, and Kina patiently walked me through several trials. Rodrick was in a similar situation as Camila. His influence would have been too strong. He sat back and did his best not to openly mock the ridiculousness that followed.

First, Omi opened her mind to me. I tried over and over to get in there and snoop around, hoping I could find some silly juicy bit to tease her with. But no. Nothing. We just ended up staring at each other until my eyes watered.

Natasha suggested that I try to vanish and reappear across the room. She gave up when I gave up and just walked over to the TV.

I couldn’t do it.

Other than Camila and Rodrick, Kina was the most skilled in changing form. I watched her become a German shepherd, a fluffy

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white cat, a bear (she knocked over Omi’s coffee table with that one), a raven, and then as a final showpiece, she turned into Faeth.

One moment I was looking at this Native American beauty, with her high cheekbones, full lips, and her long, ink-black hair, and the next moment I was staring at an exact copy of the vampire sitting on the floor beside me. Now that was a useful power to have. Just as quickly, she was back in her own body.

“The best shifters can alter parts of their body separately.” Kina put her hands on her hips and looked around. “Let’s try Camila’s rack, Omi’s arms, and Rodrick’s package.” She winked at Natasha.

“And your hair.” I blinked twice and Kina’s arms were identical to Omi’s—finely toned and a chocolate brown. The perfect breasts I’d come to love on Camila’s body were too big above Kina’s smaller waist, but they were Camila’s breasts all the same. It was strange to see Kina with my red hair and just short of traumatizing to see how well hung Rodrick was.

“My tits look better than that,” Camila said.

“And I think you’re missing an inch, maybe,” Rodrick added.

“Oh whatever,” Kina said, but this time her voice sounded like Natasha’s. I blinked once more, trying to pick my jaw up, and she had taken Faeth’s full form.

“Do werewolves even exist or are you guys just messing with humans during full moons?” I asked, suddenly short of breath.

“Guilty,” Tokyo said with a devious laugh.

“You want to give it a go, mate?” Kina said, copying Faeth’s accent exactly. I stared at her standing there naked then over to the real Faeth who was playfully flipping Kina off.

“I know I can’t do that,” I said in defeat.

“Why don’t we start small then?” Kina turned back into herself and slipped back into her jeans and T-shirt. I agreed and let her walk me through the small steps of shifting. We got as far as making my eyes appear brown and my hair look black. That’s where it stopped.

It was a neat parlor trick, but not really that useful to me. Camila hated it and threw a mini fit, insisting I always belonged a redhead.

After that, we gave up. The sister-queens had lives to get back to. I was tired and hungry and horny. Camila wanted to order

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Chinese for us, and she had no problem thinking of ways to put me to sleep. I thanked the ladies and Rodrick for their help and their patience, then followed Camila back to her room.

“What’s your strongest power?” I asked her.

“Dalhem taught me balance. None of my powers are stronger than the other.”

“Oh. Is Kina the only one who can switch to someone else like that?” I asked as we walked down the hall.

“No. There are others.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling foolish for what I was going to say next.

“What if someone turns into you?”

“They won’t have my scent, baby. No one but me smells the way I do. You’d be able to tell.”

“That makes sense.” I hadn’t set about sniffing the other sister-queens, but no one on earth smelled as mouthwatering, as delicious and sweet as Camila.

She smiled and pulled me closer. “And no one will want you more than I do,” she said. That, I was willing to believe.

❖

I’d spent the following afternoon lying against a mountain of pillows on Camila’s bed in my letterman’s sweater and my underwear, reviewing my notes for a quiz I had in my dance and culture class. Just some dates and names to memorize, but I wanted to get it done before our chapter meeting at nine. Camila was busy having a conversation with Tokyo. I thought it had something to do with Moreland, but there was so much to their world I was clueless about, I couldn’t be sure.

She was only gone for an hour or so. Still, I beamed like an idiot when she came through the bedroom door.

“Hi.” I shuffled to the edge of the bed on my knees. My arms went around her shoulders and her hands slid down the back of my underwear. I swallowed when she palmed my ass, then I exhaled a tight breath as I pressed myself harder against her belly. Now was a great time for her to join me on the bed, naked. Instead of mauling

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me, she stood there. I tried to smooth the creases of concentration on her forehead, but she just blinked then focused on my ruby necklace.