Blood Hunt (30 page)

“Child … are you all right?” Sasha asked.

The girl did not start, did not even lift her head, just shook it and said, “They killed Jake.”

“Who?” Sasha asked, fearing for a moment that the girl might mean Jakob.

“Jake. Our dog. They killed him. He was barking, and then he made this … this noise. He’s down there somewhere. Don’t step on him.”

“I won’t,” Sasha said. She was struggling to remain calm and not bombard this girl, who was obviously in a state of shock, with countless questions. She settled at first for one that was both easy and obvious.

“What is your name?”

“Molly. Are you going to kill me?”

“No. Why would you think that?”

“Because you’re one of them.”

“One of what?”

Molly looked up at her, and the expression of disgust and exasperation on her face was so extreme as to be almost comical.

“One of the
vampires
… Jesus.”

“Oh. I … I’m not sure what you mean,” Sasha said.

“Cut the shit,” Molly muttered, looking back down at her hands. “Adults are always like this. You think kids are stupid, or blind, or deaf. You think I don’t hear things and see things. Two met some vampires, and then some shit went wrong, and now she’s gone and they came here. You’re one of them. So I’m asking: are you going to kill me, like you killed Jake?”

“No, Molly,” Sasha said, furiously organizing questions in her head. “You are right, and I won’t pretend anymore. I am what you think I am, but I am
not
like the things that did this.”

“OK,” Molly said.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“Someone came to the door. I was supposed to be asleep but I was reading, and I heard them knock. There was some talking for a while, and then this huge crashing noise and all this shouting. That’s when I got out of bed … but I heard my mom screaming, and my dad was shouting too and then … then …” Molly’s voice wavered.

“It’s all right,” Sasha said, trying to sound comforting. It was not a natural tone of voice for her, and she doubted that she had done a particularly convincing job.

“It is
not
all right!” Molly cried. “They
took
them! They took my mom and dad and they’ve only even
been
my mom and dad for like two months and they took them and they
killed my fucking dog!”

The flashlight dropped from her lap as Molly brought her hands up to her face, voicing a series of harsh sobs. It fell clattering down the stairs and spun on the hardwood floor, casting deranged shadows across the living room. Sasha took a moment to look around. She saw signs of a struggle: broken furniture, a large hole in one wall and, behind an overturned easy chair, the corpse of the dog. Its neck was bent in an impossible direction.

Not wanting Molly to see this, Sasha took two quick steps forward, leaned down, and returned the dog’s head to an appropriate position. There was no noise, but Sasha could feel the shattered bones grinding against each other.
Animals,
she thought.

Above her, Molly’s loud sobbing had become something more gentle, but the girl’s face was still buried in her hands. Sasha picked up the flashlight and climbed up to the landing, sitting down next to the girl. She didn’t put her arm around Molly, nor did she think Molly would have wanted her to.

“It only hurt him for a moment,” Sasha said. “The dog, I mean. It didn’t last long.”

Molly took a hitching breath, made another sobbing noise, and spoke into her hands. “Don’t tell me he’s gone to a better place. I don’t w—want to hear it.”

Sasha, having no intention of telling Molly any such thing, said nothing. She was thinking. Jakob was not here, nor were the girl’s parents. She would have to search the rest of the house, of course, but knew she would find nothing. Jakob would not have been killed without a fight, and if there had been a fight, there would have been at least
some
blood spilled. Sasha could smell none. Clearly, he had been abducted along with Molly’s parents.

“I have to go,” Sasha said out loud.

Molly looked up at her, rubbing the back of her arm across her eyes, and said, “I’m coming with you.”

“That’s not possible.”

“I want to help find my mom and dad.”

“I know, Molly, but—”

“But
what?
What am I supposed to do, lady? Two’s gone. My parents are gone. Where do you want me to go?”

That’s not my problem,
Sasha thought to herself, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to abandon the girl here.

“I can take you somewhere safe,” she offered.

“I don’t want to go somewhere safe. I want to go with you and find them.”

“I want to find them, too, and my friend Jakob, but that’s not going to be easy. I don’t know where they’ve been taken. I have to go and talk with my people.”

“So take me with you.”

“I can’t. It’s … you’re not one of us.”

“Shoulda thought about that before you busted up into our house and killed our dog,” Molly spat.

“That was not my people.”

“Don’t care. You owe me! I’m not staying here. You’re not leaving me here. I’ll do whatever you want … help you, or whatever, but you’re not leaving me here.”

Sasha blew air through pursed lips and bit her tongue for a moment, thinking. Then she handed the flashlight to Molly.

“Fine,” she said. “Until we find your parents, you do whatever I tell you to do, whenever I tell you to do it. If you don’t like that, I will happily drop you on a curb somewhere and you can decide your own path from there. I am a woman of very little patience. Is that clear?”

Molly nodded. “OK. What do you want me to do?”

“First? Go upstairs and get dressed. We cannot stay here.”

“All right. What’s your name?”

“Sasha.”

Molly opened her mouth to ask another question, but Sasha interrupted her.

“There will be time in the car. Go get dressed.”

Molly shut her mouth and did as she was told.

* * *

She stopped for a moment to kneel next to Jake’s body, fresh tears squeezing from her puffy red eyes and rolling down her cheeks. They fell on the dog’s muzzle and soaked into his fur.

“Goodbye, Jake,” Molly said. She scratched the spot between his eyes, as he’d always loved, and then kissed him there. After a moment more she stood and, wiping her tears away, nodded to Sasha.

“I’m sorry,” Sasha said, indicating toward the dog’s inert form. “After we leave, I will call some people to take care of him.”

Molly tried a smile, couldn’t manage it, and shrugged instead. “OK.”

“Will you be all right?”

“I’ll live. Been through worse. Could really use a fix, though.”

“A what?”

“Forget it. Let’s just go.”

A thought occurred to Sasha, and she paused. “Do you have school tomorrow?”

Molly made a noise that Sasha supposed held some relation to a laugh and said, “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“No, but—”

“Look, I spent the last couple years fucking people for smack, OK? It doesn’t matter if I make honor roll.”

“If you would let me finish, I was going to say: ‘but it is a good idea to take care of loose ends.’ I can have someone from the police contact your school and take care of the situation.”

“Oh,” Molly said. “Sorry. I—”

“Your past does not matter to me, nor does your academic standing. To use your terminology: I don’t care how many people you’ve fucked, and I don’t care how much smack you’ve taken, as long as you’re not taking it anymore. It’s irrelevant.”

Molly said nothing. Sasha continued.

“I do not like children. I’m going to treat you as an adult. It’s up to you to behave like one. Do so, and I’ll let you stay with me while I search for Jakob and your parents, at least for now. Don’t, and I leave you behind.”

“OK,” Molly said.

Sasha nodded, satisfied. “I know you’re hurting. I am trying to help you.”

“I know. Sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Sasha said, starting for the door. “Now, you’re going to do something that very, very few humans have ever done … though your friend Two is one of them.”

“What is it?” Molly asked, following her.

“You’re going to walk in on a vampire council meeting.”

* * *

“Oh, this is just
brilliant!”

Leonore’s voice was caustic in its disgust. She was standing up, staring at Sasha, who was making her way down the aisle and toward the front of the converted church with Molly in tow.

“Kindly lower your voice,” Malik said, his voice haggard.

“She’s late … Jakob is still
nowhere
to be seen … and she has a
human child
with her!”

“And knowing Sasha, I have little doubt that she has explanations for all of those things,” Malik replied.

“Well, I think—”

“No one cares what you think!” Sasha snapped as she came down the aisle. “Sit down, hold your tongue, and extend some respect to your elders.”

Leonore looked none too pleased by this verbal slap, but she did as she was told. Sasha stepped up in front of the assembled council. Molly was looking around, wide-eyed and curious, but thus far adhering to Sasha’s command that she was to say nothing.

“Something has gone very wrong,” Malik said.

“Oh, yes,” Sasha replied.

“What can you tell us?”

“Not enough. This is Molly Thompson. She is the adopted daughter of the two humans that Jakob saved from the Burilgi last year. The two who were in the
Eresh-Chen
’s apartment.”

“
Former Eresh-Chen
,” Leonore said. Sasha whirled on her.

“Speak another word,” she snarled. “Go ahead. I dare you to. I
want
you to.”

Leonore chose to ignore this request. After a moment, Sasha turned back to Malik.

“Where is your sire?” he asked.

“The Burilgi took him, along with the girl’s parents.”

“Fuck!” Lewis shouted from somewhere behind her.

“This is … not good,” Malik agreed. “We had hoped that Jakob would arrive in time to protect them from Aros’s forces.”

“Apparently,, they were attacked by numerous Burilgi just after Jakob arrived,” Sasha said. “The girl was upstairs, and they missed her. As far as I can tell, there was a struggle but no one was killed.”

“Except my dog,” Molly exclaimed and then, remembering that she was not supposed to speak, said, “Oh, sorry.”

“Dog?” Malik asked.

Sasha rolled her eyes. “The woman, Sarah Thompson, is blind. She had a guide dog. It must have attacked one of the Burilgi, and they broke its neck.”

“Ah,” Malik was paying only cursory attention, pondering the situation.

“We need Jakob,” Sasha said. “The council needs him, and he’s not safe with Aros.”

“Yes, but we can’t be hasty.”

“Hasty?” Sasha was taken aback. “Malik, they’ve abducted a council member. We need to get him back!”

“If we move too quickly, we risk bringing harm to Jakob or the humans. Aros is not known for patience and tolerance.”

“Of course I am concerned for his safety,” Sasha said, “but I … I believe we must act quickly and decisively to show that the council will not tolerate this sort of action.”

“I understand. Still, it will be difficult for a variety of reasons.”

“Such as?” Sasha prompted.

Lewis spoke up again. “Such as, none of us know where Aros is, let alone where he’s keeping Jakob and the girl’s parents.”

* * *

“Well, that was an
exquisite
waste of time,” Sasha growled. She and Molly were back in the Cadillac, driving toward Sasha’s apartment.

“No kidding,” Molly said, and yawned. She looked exhausted, and Sasha supposed that made sense. The girl was supposed to be asleep right now.

“I’m not going to sit around and wait while the council hems and haws,” Sasha said. “I need to figure out where Aros is hiding. This is a dangerous time for the council, and we need Jakob alive.”

“Didn’t that Lewis guy say he met with Aros?”

“Yes, but apparently not at Aros’s main base of operations.”

“Oh.”

“It’s ridiculous that we have allowed him to do these things without punishment. Ridiculous,” Sasha said. During the meeting, Lewis had given the rest of the council the same information that he had earlier given to Malik and Jakob: Aros was building an army.

Molly didn’t say anything. These issues were beyond her. She just wanted Rhes and Sarah back, wanted to see that they were OK. She wanted to feel their arms around her, hear them tell her everything was going to be fine. It wasn’t fair. Things had just
finally
started to seem normal.

Sasha chewed on her lip, watching the road and also not saying anything. Molly glanced over at her. “You’re worried about your friend.”

“Jakob can take care of himself,” Sasha said.

Molly yawned again. “Doesn’t mean you’re not worried about him.”

“I don’t worry.”

Molly gave her a surprisingly adult smile. “Sure. Where are we going?”

“My apartment.”

“Oh. Is it as nice as your car?”

Sasha smiled. “You’ll have to decide for yourself.”

“Mm. Hey … Sasha?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for, you know … not leaving me.”

Sasha shrugged.

“No, seriously,” Molly continued. “I know you could have. What was I gonna do, right? I mean, I’m like … dinner to you guys. I understand that.”

Sasha gave a small laugh. “No, it’s not like that. Not exactly.”

“But you don’t really like humans, right?”

“I don’t. That’s true.”

“So …” Molly paused, thinking.

“Yes?”

“So why’d you take me with you?”

Sasha considered this for a time and then said, “When I was eighteen, Napoleon’s armies invaded my land. A group of his men murdered my parents and were pursuing me as I ran from our farm. I imagine they would have raped me first and then killed me. Jakob appeared out of nowhere and slaughtered them all. Six of them, and he was finished with them almost before they knew what was happening. I watched in awe and, at the end, when he bowed to me and turned to leave, I begged him to take me with him. I didn’t know what he was, only that he had saved my life.