Blood Hunt (48 page)

Safeed spoke again. “We understand your desire to return to vampire life, but that chance has passed you by. We are not prepared to allow Naomi, or any other vampire, to give you her blood. You are Theroen’s fledgling, and so you must remain. To allow otherwise would go against policies and laws established thousands of years before you were born.”

Gaius nodded. “We recommend you return to a life of humanity, and put this behind you.”

Two wanted to scream at them, to wail that their recommendation was impossible, that when Theroen’s gift was stolen from her it had damned her to some grey place between humanity and vampire kind for as long as she lived. Instead, she took a hitching breath and, in a croaking voice, said only, “Thank you for hearing my case.”

“Is there anything further to be said?” Marian asked. “Naomi? Stephen?”

Two became aware of her friends for the first time since the judgment had been pronounced. Naomi’s outward calm was betrayed only by the aura of pure despair rolling off her in waves. Surely everyone else at the table could feel it and were simply being too polite to comment on it. Naomi nonetheless gave the group a polite smile.

“No, thank you, I have no further business with the council.”

Stephen was rigid with what Two guessed was fury. His hands were balled into fists, sitting atop his chair’s armrests, and with a visible effort he uncurled them and tented his fingers, resting his palms on the table in front of him.

“I have nothing at all to say,” he told them, his voice quiet but shaking with suppressed anger.

“Somehow we doubt that,” Eadwyn said. “But see how he contains himself? Truly, the younger generation has been raised well.”

“Can I please go?” Two asked him. She felt a bit like she was going to throw up.

“Absolutely not,” Eadwyn told her. “You promised us a moment of your time, and we shall have it. Instead, we think it is time that our fellow council members took their leave.”

There was a general murmur of assent, and the vampires stood to go. Gaius and Safeed moved immediately toward the door. Marian and N’Debe spoke together in low voices for a moment, and then the latter approached Two. She leaned in briefly and spoke quietly, next to Two’s ear.

“Marian and I are sorry for your pain. You must listen to Eadwyn. For all his nonsense, he does not do anything, including what he did today, without purpose.”

Two nodded. She tried to thank the vampire, but no words would come from her aching throat. N’Debe smiled and nodded as if she understood. She turned and left, and Marian followed her out.

“You may take a moment to cry now, ladies, if you need to,” said Eadwyn. “If he’d like, your warrior can even rage. Perhaps break a few things … threaten our life … we won’t take offense.”

Naomi was shaking and had closed her eyes, but she remained stone faced. Two was proud of her. She fought her way through her own despair, found her voice, and said, “You’re underestimating Stephen. He’s probably going to break a
lot
of things.”

Eadwyn, not expecting this, leaned back in his chair and laughed. Stephen gave Two a look of incredulity, but some of his tension seemed to fade, and Two was glad for it. Her eyes still shut, Naomi gave a small smile and murmured something.

“What, Naomi?” Two asked.

The vampire girl opened her eyes, wiped tears away from them, and smiled again. “That’s why everyone loves you.”

“Not enough to vote for me, I guess.”

Eadwyn sat forward again in his chair and said, “My dear, we’ve only just
met
you. You have, we surmise, determined who provided tonight’s swing vote?”

“Why did you do it?” Two asked. “Don’t tell me you care about the letter of the law. You’re older and wiser and stronger than me, but I’m not an idiot.”

“We care about the law more than you might think,” Eadwyn told her, “but we are not … unmoved by your plight. We must admit, my dear, that our decision was motivated by entirely selfish ambitions. Quite simply, we want something from you, and we are willing to make a trade. Do what we ask of you, and we will happily change our vote.”

It took a moment for this to sink in, and when it did, Two looked up at him in shock and anger.

“You complete bastard!” she exclaimed before she could help herself. She realized not a second later just who, exactly, it was that she was addressing, and opened her mouth to apologize, but Eadwyn waved it away, laughing again.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “To be sure. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“You voted against me just so you could control me.”

“We are all pawns sometimes, my dear, kings and queens others. Right now, you are a pawn, and we are a king. We can send you on a journey at our whim, though perhaps by the time you reach the end, you will be royalty yourself. Or is that checkers?”

“If I do what you want me to do, you’ll swing your vote?” Two asked.

“Indeed, but are you entirely sure you wish to rejoin our world?” Eadwyn asked. “We are a terrible group … conniving, manipulative, uncaring.”

“Not all of you,” Two said. “Not me, either.”

Eadwyn raised his eyebrows and grinned. “We shall see. But yes, Miss Majors, we will swing our vote in your favor if you perform this service we require.”

“Fine. Tell me what I need to do, and I’ll go do it. I don’t care. Send me to China. Ask me to kill another two-thousand-year-old vampire. Tell me to find the Ark of the fucking Covenant. Whatever you need, Eddie.”

 “Two …” Naomi began, but Eadwyn shushed her.

“Don’t coddle her, Naomi. We’re not going to kill her over a little sarcasm. We enjoy the spirit, though we suspect Two has absolutely no future in politics. Would you agree, Stephen?”

“I must admit, it seems an ill-fitting match,” Stephen said. He was clearly less than enthusiastic about Eadwyn’s manipulation, but the raw fury that Two had felt in him before was gone.

“An ill-fitting match indeed. Well put.”

“Eadwyn, sir … please, what is it that you need me to do?” Two asked.

“Anxious to get underway? Very well, little
Eresh-Chen
. We do indeed require travel, but not all the way to China. Rather, we are sending you to Turkey.”

“Turkey?”

“Yes – the country, not the bird.”

Two chose to ignore the humor. “What’s in Turkey?”

“An associate of ours resides there. We have something that she has been seeking for some time now, and we wish you to deliver it to her.”

“That’s it?”

“That is indeed it.”

Two glanced at her friends, confused, and looked back at Eadwyn. “You ever hear of FedEx?”

Eadwyn laughed. “The object in question is priceless. In the wrong hands, it could easily be sold for enough money to purchase a small European country.”

“Ohhh—kay? And you’re giving it to me?”

“Can we not trust you? Would you, dear
human
, run off with it and live a life of wealth rather than become a vampire again?”

Two shook her head.

“Precisely. We trust you much more than we would trust any other mortal, or even most vampires. You are one of the few for whom that sort of money holds no real interest. You know what you want, and it can’t be bought. All you have to do is bring this package to the one who requested it.”

“You’ll tell us where she lives?” Two asked.

“In order to do that, we would have to know where she lives, which we do not. We will, instead, tell you where to find her.”

“Good enough,” Two said. She stood up, glanced around. “Let’s do it.”

Eadwyn stood as well, as did Naomi and Stephen. Eadwyn held up his finger, indicating for them to wait, and disappeared into an adjacent room. He returned with a small wooden box.

“What is it?” Two asked. “Or … should I not ask? If I’m about to unleash the plague or something on Turkey, I’d just as soon not know it.”

Eadwyn held the box in his delicate hands for a moment, inspecting the intricate carvings on the wood, before shaking his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. If you choose to open the box, and we won’t stop you from doing so, all you will find is a rather nondescript metal cylinder with a tiny opening at one end. That tiny opening is a keyhole fit to a key that we do not possess.”

“So you don’t even know what I’m delivering?” Two asked.

“We didn’t say that,” Eadwyn replied. “We know
exactly
what it is, and how precious it is. You, however, would find little use for it.”

“So what is it?” Two asked.

Eadwyn smiled, handed the box to her, regarded her for a moment before speaking.

“It’s blood, of course,” he said. “Delicious, nutritious, and incredibly rare blood. What else would it be?”

* * *

“So we’re on a mission to bring some vampire a gourmet snack,” Two said. “Fucking great.”

She and her vampire friends were walking home, discussing the meeting they had just been a part of. It was past two in the morning. The London streets were covered in a heavy mist, and there was little activity. Somewhere, a bell was ringing; Two thought it might be a buoy in the Thames. The tiny vial of blood in its padded wooden box was in Naomi’s purse.

“I doubt very much that it’s a snack,” Naomi said. She sounded tired, and Two couldn’t blame her. It was still hours from dawn, but all she wanted was to go home and sleep.

“Then what is it?” Two asked.

“A relic, most likely. A keepsake. The blood of some powerful vampire, perhaps? Who knows, Two?”

“So it’s basically a collector’s-edition Star Trek plate. Even better.”

Naomi sighed. “Must you be so consistently cynical?”

“Been a rough year,” Two muttered. “Lots of bullshit, nothing to show for it.”

“I would hope you could think of a
few
things to show for it,” Naomi said, her voice tinged with annoyance. Two didn’t respond.

Eadwyn hadn’t kept them long. He had given them the wooden box and the name of a city in Turkey where his associate was located. While he knew no specific street address, he had suggested that they visit a ruined Islamic mosque on the outskirts of the city.

“She will find you,” Eadwyn had assured them, and he had sent them on their way. “If you complete this task and return, then, as we have discussed, we shall give you what you want.”

“I’ll come back,” Two had told him, and Eadwyn had only smirked again.

Stephen was speaking from behind her. “If we could avoid the lover’s quarrel until after we’ve reached the house, it would make my night.”

“Consider it done,” Two said. “I’m too tired for it anyway.”

“No desire to hit the heavy bag for a while when we get home?” Stephen asked her. “I’m not going to any fights tonight.”

“You know … maybe I’m not
that
tired,” Two said. The idea of working out some of her frustration sounded very appealing.

“Oh, yes, by all
means,
let’s spend the rest of the night
punching
something,” Naomi growled. She was walking slightly ahead of them now, and her voice drifted back through the fog, unlovely in its acidity.

“I can’t spend every night curled up on the couch with a bottle of wine,” Two snapped back.

Naomi whirled, now walking backwards. “What exactly are you implying? I’ve been working constantly to get this whole thing set up, so don’t you …”

“Lover’s quarrel laayyyy-ter!” Stephen cried, sing-songing the word.

“Shut up!” both women shouted in unison, and all three stopped moving for a moment. Stephen laughed.

“United, at least, in your annoyance at me,” he said.

“That’s because you’re an ass,” Two said. “It’s been a shitty night. Just let us have our stupid fight.”

“In what way has it been a shitty night?” Stephen asked. “You’re closer by miles to getting what you want than you were twenty-four hours ago. You have a task – just a single task – to perform, and you’ve a guarantee that when you complete it, you’ll get your reward. Eadwyn’s a manipulating bastard, but he’s not a liar.”

Two considered this in silence. Naomi opened her mouth to retort, stopped herself, closed it. Stephen continued.

“If you’re tense and need release, either go hit something or go have sex. I’ve offered one option. Perhaps Naomi can offer the other. I don’t truly care, but standing in the middle of the London streets and shouting at each other after what has been, in my estimation, a victory … that’s an idiotic waste of time.”

Two glanced at Naomi, who shrugged and, with a grudging smile, said, “I could probably wait until after you work out to go to bed.”

“Yeah,” Two said. “And I don’t actually mind curling up on the couch with a bottle of wine. Still … I hate it when he’s right.”

“I’m always right,” Stephen said, and at this, both women could do little more than laugh.

* * *

Neither Two nor her vampire companions had ever been to Turkey, nor had they any particular knowledge of the country. For this reason, when they arrived at their townhouse, Two did not immediately pursue either the punching bag or her bed with Naomi. She instead sat down at the computer to look up information on the town to which Eadwyn was sending them.

She found it on the southern coast of Turkey, near its border with Syria. The town, called Silifke, was a small city of about sixty thousand people, nearly all of them Muslim. It was not a major Turkish city, which surprised Two. Vampires typically found it easier to live and feed in highly populated areas.

“It seems like a small place for a vampire to live,” Two said to Naomi, who was sitting in a high-backed leather chair just to her left. Stephen had excused himself and gone to the living room to watch sports highlights.

Naomi nodded, holding her hands up in a ‘who knows’ gesture. “Whoever this person is – and God forbid Eadwyn tell us her name – she is likely an elder. Sometimes older vampires seek solace in low-population areas, away from the crowds of the big cities.”

“I’ve never lived outside of a big city. I think I’d get bored and lonely,” Two said. She was scanning through galleries of pictures, but had not yet located any from Silifke.

“I moved from Paris to London, back to Paris, and then to New York,” Naomi said. “I travel sometimes to quiet places, but I’ve found that staying away from the cities allows one a bit
too
much time with one’s thoughts.”