Eternal Shadows (7 page)

“The humans.”

I laughed. “Why would I need to do that?”

“The world won’t be like this forever. Eventually, we’ll fade back into myths and fairytales.”

“I have a feeling this goes back to my earlier question of what happens now.”

“We stabilize the governments and remain in power until then. Once we’re certain the humans can handle things again without killing themselves, we phase our way out.”

“And you just enslave the human race until then?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’d hardly call it enslavement. Don’t be dramatic.”

“Another bad habit of Americans.” He just smiled at me. “You make it sound so easy.”

“We’ve done it before. Though never on this large a scale. We’ve worried that a country or nation would destroy itself before, but never the whole world.”

“You’ve meddled in the affairs of humans before?”

“Many times.”

“World War I?”

“No. Things were under control.”

“World War II?”

“Also under control.”

Jeeze
. “But not now?”

“This war has gone on for twenty years. The Middle East is unrecognizable. Smaller countries have been swallowed up by larger, and the world powers are at each other’s throats. It was time to step in.”

Sadly, it made sense.

He pulled a coin from his pocket. “Take this from me.”

I groaned. “More lessons?” When he flipped the coin into the air without a word, I took that as a yes. As if dealing with standing in the sun wasn’t enough. Using the elastic I had around my wrist, I threw my hair up into a ponytail. The breeze felt good on the back of my neck, and cooled the urgency of the thirst. That, and last time my hair had been down during one of these little sessions, I had ended up flat on my face. I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. “Fine. Let’s go. What is that thing anyway?” It didn’t look like a quarter.

“An Irish sixpence. Are you going to take it from me, or not?”

“Like I actually have a chance.”

“You won’t know until you try.”

I lunged before he finished speaking. Element of surprise and all that. My finger just brushed the silver of the coin when he pulled away the first time. I stumbled to a stop, twisting around to glare at him. He stood less than two feet away, walking the coin over the backs of his fingers. Cool. “How do you do that?”

“Practice. Try again.”

“I’d rather learn the coin trick.”

“Get the coin and I’ll teach you.”

Nothing like a little incentive. I didn’t lunge this time. Instead, I watched the coin flip back and forth, sliding effortlessly over his hand. I took one step, then two, putting myself toe to toe with him. The coin continued its little journey across the back of his hand. I felt Rhys’s gaze on my face and so I met it. For one brief moment I forgot about the coin. Then I struck.

I was positive I had the coin pressed against my palm, but then I was flat on my back, sun glaring into my eyes and reflecting off the surface of the coin where Rhys held it just above my face. His other hand had my wrist pressed firmly into the ground and he was sitting on me.

“If you took that back after I had it, that’s cheating.”

“You touched it, but you never had it.”

“Close doesn’t count, huh?”

“Not in this life.”

“You’re crushing me.” Forget the fact that I liked it. Just a little.

“Hardly.” He stood anyway, and offered me a hand up—the hand without the coin.

I brushed off and pulled a twig from my hair. “Don’t I get any credit at all?”

“You’re doing much better. I have the coin with me at all times. First opening you see, take it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.” The coin disappeared into the pocket of his jeans. If I could get it out of there…

Damned teenage hormones.

Millie got back around dinnertime, not that any of us were eating. And she wasn’t alone. I sat with Rhys, Cade
, and Madge in the parlor, calculating the possibilities of snagging the coin that was now in the back pocket of Rhys’s jeans. He moved it periodically, probably to make sure I was paying attention. Cade had joined us only minutes before and was carrying on one of those practically silent conversations with Rhys. Madge had been reading a fashion magazine, alternating scoffing with sounds of admiration. I made it a point not to draw her attention. When Millie knocked on the open door in an unnecessary gesture to announce her presence, her twin was the first to react. Madge took one look behind Millie and burst into laughter.

“Him?” she choked out in between hysterics. “You picked
him
?” The laughter continued.

I’d never really seen Millie angry, but she was at that moment. Her green eyes seemed like a poisonous fire, directed solely at her twin sister. “It’s not your business, Madge. Get out if you can’t be an adult.”

The magazine Madge had been reading fell to the floor when she stood. With a polite hand over her mouth, she stifled her laughs, but the malice remained in her eyes. “Honestly, Millie, of all the feeders to pick.”

“If you knew the first thing about feeders you would realize he’s perfect.”

I craned my neck, but whoever they were talking about—my feeder—kept out of sight in the hall.

“I know feeders are a silly indulgence,” Madge said, running her hand over her hair to make sure it was as perfect as always. “I’m going out.”

The way she said those last words left me no doubt as to what she meant. Hunting. My skin turned cold as I watched her brush by her sister. I had friends out there. Human friends who Madge would see as nothing more than fast food. My hands started to shake, and I stumbled out of my chair. Rhys caught me by the shoulders before I got more than two steps.

“We have our secrecy to protect,” he said. “She won’t kill.”

I studied his face, making sure he wasn’t lying. He didn’t seem to be. I nodded dumbly and worked to get myself under control. I’d never thought about the danger the people I’d been living with posed to my friends and family on the outside before. “Can—can I make a list?” I whispered the question so if the answer was no I could pretend I had never asked it in the first place. “A list of people to keep safe?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Many of us do it, in the beginning, while family still lives.”

The panic which had sounded like waves rushing past my ears receded. Not only could I protect my friends, but I didn’t have to feel stupid for asking, either. Was it right, though? To pick some to save, while others were left to fate? I had to tell myself yes. I had to do something.

“Kassandra?” Millie’s soft voice broke through my anxiety. She still stood in the doorway, patient as ever. “Would you like to meet him?”

Cade got up and left the room without a word. I didn’t care why. Glancing up at Rhys one more time, I checked my resolve. Time to meet the human who would serve as my main source of food. I still couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. Seeing that Rhys appeared ready to grab me if I tried to bolt, I nodded. No time like the present.

Millie’s smile grew and she looked out into the hall. “Come on in. She’s ready.”

Something about the way she said that made me think my feeder had been warned about me. Great.

I’m not sure why I was surprised by what walked through the door, but I was. Even after meeting Brody, who was normal in every way aside from being impossibly handsome, I must have still expected feeders to be helpless, perhaps malnourished, looking things. Why, I had no idea. Really, it didn’t make any sense. But my thoughts were my thoughts, and they didn’t always make perfect sense, even when I was human. My feeder—God, I was already thinking like that—was no older than me, and far from malnourished. Not fat, but not thin, either, he was probably perfectly positioned in the weight range for his height. He was pale, but he had more color than I did at the moment, so I couldn’t really judge him on that. Glasses assisted dark eyes which matched his hair, and he was dressed exactly as the guys I went to school with would have been.

It was like someone bringing you a live chicken to eat for dinner, but you take one look at its little face and suddenly you’re ordering pizza and you have a new pet.
Crap
.

Millie went on with the introductions, unaware of the meltdown that threatened my brain. “Kassandra, this is Warren. Warren, Kassandra.”
Jeeze
. Millie looked like a proud mother setting her daughter up with the son of a wealthy friend.

Warren stepped forward and offered me his hand. “I’m pleased to meet you. Millie’s told me a lot about you.”

Oh God, I could
smell
him. The thirst I had been ignoring all day suddenly flared up. I struggled to hold it at bay as I shook his hand, though I supposed my spontaneous blood-sucking wouldn’t be frowned upon by anyone in the room except me. Rhys kept one hand on my back and I tried to focus on that.

“Nice to meet you.” Good. My voice didn’t sound too strained. “I hope Millie didn’t tell you I’m crazy.”

Warren cracked a small shy smile. “No. But she did explain your reluctance.”

“That was nice of her.” I dropped his hand like a hot poker. The thirst was burning, and I had a terrible feeling I would be giving in soon. “So how does this work?” Dammit, I sounded like a rude junkie who just wanted her fix. I guess I was, only I didn’t really want the fix.

Warren let the hand I had shaken fall to his side and lifted his left towards me, wrist up.

I stared at it as though it were a scorpion or something as equally unappealing. His veins seemed so clear to me, blue and pulsing. He smelled like books, old books; the kind you had to go to ancient libraries to find. Books and something else. I had no idea what it was, but I liked it. “Shouldn’t we get to know each other first?”

“Millie said it’s been a while since you ate. We can talk afterwards if you want.”

Crap times two.

Rhys gave me a tiny push forward, closer to that tempting wrist. “Go ahead.”

I tried to reach out and take hold of Warren’s wrist, I really did. But I couldn’t. One flare of imagination and I saw myself biting him, breaking his skin with the fangs that had already drawn down into my mouth.

I stepped back, crashing into Rhys’s solid form in the process. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I can’t just bite him.”

“You’ve done it before,” Rhys reminded me.

“Temporary insanity.”

I knew the exasperated sigh would come even before I actually heard it.

“It’s okay, Kassandra.” Millie stepped up so she was at Warren’s side. “I thought this might happen. We’re prepared.”

“We are?”

She nodded and produced a small fang-shaped blade from God-knows-where. I knew exactly what it was for.

“Oh no.” I tried to back away further, but Rhys was still in my way. “No way. That’s just—it’s worse.”

Warren shook his head. “I’ve done it before. It’s no big deal, and this way you don’t have to bite me.”

I whined. No one said anything. No one even moved. They made me feel like a ridiculous child. Because it was so ridiculous to not want to bite a human being and drink his blood. Right. “Do I really have to?”

“Yes.” Leave it to Rhys to be the bringer of simple ultimatums.

It was my turn to let out an exasperated sigh, loud and obnoxious. My mother had always scolded me for it, calling it dragon breath. “Don’t you dragon breath me,” she would say. Really, it made the action more fun. But not at that particular moment. I shook it off. Literally. “Fine. But do you both really have to watch?”

“For this first time, at least,” Rhys said. “Once he starts to bleed you may lose control of the bloodlust. If that happens, you’ll need us to pull you away before you drain Warren dry.”

“Oh.” Just what I needed. One more thing to worry about.

“Don’t worry.” Millie reached out and took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “We’ve been doing this for a long time. We won’t let anything bad happen.”

Meaning I only had to trust them. I did. Strange how things changed so quickly. I took a deep breath, mentally prepared myself, then looked at Millie. “Okay, go ahead.”

Chapter Five: Warren

“Warren, how can this not bother you? You’re practically a walking juice bar!”

“No one’s ever put it quite like that before.” He finished wrapping the gauze around his wrist and taped it off with one hand, like an expert. I supposed he was.

“Well, it’s true,” I said, curled up in my father’s favorite chair, a good ten feet from where Warren sat. Things were a bit blurry for me on what had happened after Millie had punctured Warren’s wrist with the strange little blade. I remembered the taste of his blood, warm and strangely delicious. He tasted almost like fresh berries. Not that his blood was fruity, not at all, he just had that same sort of natural, fresh from the ground taste. A good taste. I hadn’t decided if that was a good thing or not yet.

But aside from the taste, all I really remembered was Rhys coaxing me away and sitting me in this chair. I hadn’t moved since. I’d drawn my knees up to my chin and refused to budge until I was certain everything was back under control. At least I wasn’t thirsty anymore. Warren’s lovely scent didn’t even bother me at the moment. Which was a good thing, because Rhys and Millie had decided to leave us alone so we could get to know one another. I’d agreed only after Rhys promised he would be within running distance should I spontaneously lose my mind.

“It bothered me in the beginning,” Warren said, answering my previously uncouthly formed question. “But I’m used to it now.”

“I think Rhys saved your life back there. I’m sorry I lost control.”

“Nah.” He tossed aside the leftover supplies. “You were fine. I’ve seen worse.”

“Oh. That makes me feel loads better.”

“The more often you feed, the easier it will get.”

“I guess you know a lot about this stuff, huh?”

He chuckled. “You have to when in my position.”

“I guess.” I picked at the stitching on the old broken-in leather chair. “So, how did you end up in this position? You can tell me to shut up and mind my own business if you don’t want to say.”

“That’s okay. I don’t mind. You’re actually the first consumer I’ve had who’s even asked.”

“Really?” I forgot about the stitching and focused solely on him. “No one ever wanted to know?”

“Well, not no one.” He stood up and walked across the room to where my father’s collection of old portraits lined the wall. “Millie and Rhys and the rest of their family know, but none of them have ever been my consumer.”

“Oh.” I watched his back for signs of discomfort, but he seemed totally relaxed. I could hear his heartbeat, even at this distance, and it was calm and even. As long as he stayed that way, I’d let him tell his story.

“I’ve been a feeder since I was fifteen, so for three years now. The war didn’t really affect
my family and town in a direct way so for all intents and purposes I had a normal life. But then the vampires showed up though, of course, no one knew that’s what they were. They were associated with a group who call themselves the Freedom Organization. Vampires who believe they should stop hiding. They got bored or hungry or both and you can probably imagine what happened from there on. My entire family was killed. All but me.”

I knew exactly how that felt. “I’m sorry, Warren.”

He turned to face me, still calm. How, I had no idea. “Thanks. But don’t be. You had nothing to do with it. When the Alliance came by to clean up, Millie found me. Since I had seen everything, knew what they really were, I only had two choices. Serve or die.”

“That’s it? They couldn’t just let you go?”

He shrugged. “Couldn’t risk the exposure.”

I shrank down further into the chair. It explained a lot. Like where the household staff had gotten to. I tried not to wonder how many had taken the same route as Warren and how many had refused. As for which was the better option, I had no idea. “So why did you choose this?”

“I figured I could accomplish a lot more if I was still alive.”

And here I had spent days wishing for death. But Warren wasn’t a vampire. “Why not ask to be turned?” I didn’t want to be a vampire, but there were clearly plenty of people who did.

He shook his head. “You don’t ask to be turned. The general chooses you.”

“The general?”

Warren looked at me like I was green. “You don’t know about the general?”

“Uh…no? Should I?”

Warren broke eye contact and suddenly found the plain carpet very interesting. “I think I’ll leave that to Rhys.”

My feet slid off the leather of the chair and thumped against the floor. “Why does everyone always say that? Is Rhys the only one capable of telling me anything? Come on, Warren, who’s the general?”

“Kassandra, I—”

“Don’t chicken out. God, you’ll let vampires bite you but you can’t answer a simple question?”

“You’re a very forceful person, do you know that?”

“Raised by forceful people. Please, Warren? If it will get you in trouble, then I understand, but if not then just tell me.”

He glanced at the door, probably hoping Rhys would come in and stop him. No such luck. I knew I had won. I had no doubt Rhys could hear every word we said. After all, he had promised not to go far.

“The general is the head of this family,” Warren said, facing me once again and looking none too happy about having to explain. “This is
his
family.”

“Then how come I’ve never heard of him?”

“No idea.”

I’d drill Rhys later. It would be fun. “Okay. Thanks for telling me. What’s he like?”

“The general?”

“Yeah.” Who else could I have possibly been talking about?

Warren picked at the newly placed gauze on his wrist for a moment, then looked at me, completely straight-faced. “He was a Roman general.”

Holy Crap
. “Really? Roman? So he’s like, a thousand years old?”

Warren wrinkled his nose. “More like two. Where do you go to school?”

Dammit. I knew that. “Oops. Guess it was the shock.” I stood and cracked my back. I felt surprisingly good, despite my little lapse in intelligence. Physically, I felt fit as a fiddle. All thanks to Warren’s blood, I was sure. “So that’s all you’ve got for me? He was a Roman general?”

“I would think that was enough.”

“I’ve never met an ancient Roman.”

“Then just wait. You’ll meet him soon enough.”

“Fine, fine. So what happens now? I’ve never had a feeder before. I’m not sure what the proper protocol is.”

“If you could show me the way to the kitchen, that would be great.”

Kitchen. Right. I felt like an idiot. Hadn’t the Red Cross come to school enough times? After giving blood, juice and cookies were a must. I hoped we had some. “Sure, this way.” I bravely stepped up so we were standing side by side and opened the door. I didn’t eat him. Score one for me. “Sorry. I should have thought of that.” I snaked through the halls, keeping an eye out for Rhys the whole time. Not a sign of him. Unless he could turn invisible, it looked like he hadn’t kept his promise. I considered yelling for him just to see what would happen.

Food for Warren first.

The kitchen was still devoid of people, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the refrigerator fully stocked. Warren and Brody were lucky boys. I remembered quite well what turkey and orange juice and apple pie and cheese and muffins tasted like. They were all here. And not for me. I got blood. Bad trade, if you asked me. The price of immortality—no more chocolate cake. I would have taken the cake.

Warren grabbed the cold cuts and other essentials for making a sandwich. I plunked myself on a stool at the center island and prepared to watch him longingly.

“Can I ask you a question?” Warren said as he spread mayo on wholegrain bread.

“Sure.” I couldn’t take my eyes off his food.

“How did you end up here? Millie wouldn’t give me the whole story.”

“Yeah, she has this thing about telling other people’s stories.” Note to self, I still needed to give Rhys the third degree. Warren laid turkey with salami. It looked delicious. “I’m here because my father was in charge and after raiding our home Rhys got stuck with the honor of turning me. I guess it’s more or less the same deal as you got. Only you get to eat sandwiches.”

He laughed, topping his meal off with salt and pepper before putting on the second piece of bread and cutting it into two triangles. Good choice. “You can have a bite, if you like.”

“Thanks, but Millie says it won’t taste the same. I’d rather have a good memory of my last sandwich.”

“Suit yourself.” He took a bite. “But,” he said after swallowing. “You know your situation isn’t really that similar to mine.” Another bite. I hated him a little for it.

“Why not? I knew too much, just like you.”

He shook his head. “Vampires don’t turn just anyone. And the general thinks long and hard about who he lets into his family. I was a matter of knowledge control. You’ve been fully let into the fold.”

I had no idea what to think about that. I had thought my being turned was my punishment, their way of controlling me. But if what Warren said was true, Rhys and I needed to have a very long talk.

I leaned over and grabbed a bag of chips from the basket at the end of the island, tossing them at Warren. “Eat these, too.” I didn’t want to talk about the meaning of my new life, non-life, whatever. Watching Warren eat my favorite chips would distract me.

“You’re a little strange.” He opened the bag and started eating anyway.

“I figure if you eat them, then I get to eat them through association later.”

“You’re very strange. But accurate.”

I dropped my head to the counter with a groan. How many years did it take to get used to this? If vampires were going to exist, could I have a time machine while I was at it? That way I could skip this whole part. Or maybe just go backwards and never have to go through it at all.

I needed to stop thinking. I would go full-on crazy in a matter of days. Annoying Rhys later would make me feel better.

I had never set foot in the room Rhys had claimed as his, not since he had come along, but that didn’t stop me from barging in as if I had been invited. After all, this was my father’s house, my house, and this library was my favorite place.

Nothing had been changed. Nothing. The same books my parents and I had collected still lined each and every shelf built into the walls and the same antique side tables sat beside each plush armchair. A plain white carpet mirrored the white ceiling, allowing the vibrant and ancient colors of the books, both new and old, to flavor the room. A single pale light glowed in the far corner, the amber shade casting a golden hue over the white leather chair nearest it.

It was in that chair where Rhys sat, staring at me, bathed in enough golden light to make him look like a god, with an expression on his face that told me that while he had sensed me coming, he hadn’t expected me to barge in without invitation.

“Where the hell do you sleep?” He couldn’t possibly spend every night in one of these chairs. They were comfortable, but not so much that I would pass up a bed.

“None of your business.”

“Oh, testy tonight.”

“What do you want, Kassandra?”

“How come I’m the last one to know about the general?”

“Because you were the most recent to be turned.” He said it like it should have been obvious. His tone perturbed me.

“That’s a stupid answer.”

“It was a stupid question.”

“No such thing.”

Rhys shifted in his seat, and I heard that telltale sigh of annoyance. “How much did Warren tell you?”

“You were supposed to be within hearing distance to know that. What if I had killed him?”

“I would have heard that. I didn’t need to hear everything little thing you discussed together.”

“Whatever. I managed not to kill him all by myself.”

“Good for you.”

“So start talking about this general.” I moved across the room and sat myself in the chair nearest him, facing him with my chin supported on my hand and my elbow on the arm of the chair, like a child at story time. I put a fake smile on my face to top it all off.

Amazingly, he started talking. “He’s the one we all report to, one of the oldest vampires left and not nearly as tolerant as I am.”

“Wow, he sounds like a blast. Warren said he was a Roman general. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Did he know Julius Caesar?”

“No. He was born a few generations after Caesar.”

“It was a shot in the dark. He’s pretty much the only Roman I know anything about.”

“Don’t pester the general like you do me.”

“Would he actually answer me? Because you still haven’t told me anything about yourself, other than you’re Irish and five hundred years old.”

“That should be enough for you do to a web search.”

“Oh, ha. You’re funny.” I had already done plenty of web-searches. I wanted real answers. “Come on,”
I gave his knee a little whack. “Tell me something. Did you have brothers and sisters? A girlfriend? Exactly how old are you, anyway? You could have had a wife, you were probably old enough. Did you have a wife?”