Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1) (17 page)

The vampires all regarded her, looking like they were waiting for more. She crossed her arms and stared back at them.

Lorenzo looked at his watch. "We have an airplane nearby, but I'm afraid Neville will have concluded his work within the hour. There's no way we could be there in time."

"Wait-" Heather said, then swallowed as her foot stopped tapping. "Was there a plan for my daughter?"

Lorenzo shrugged. "We only know what we know because Neville wanted to taunt us with our imminent failure to protect you. We did not swear an oath to protect Julie."

"You know my daughter's name... wait. What? What oath? You swore an oath to protect me?"

Melina, the svelte Italian-looking woman, traced a finger up Lorenzo's arm and cast a sultry look at Heather. "Dear, our reason for being here has less to do with how you sent some of us here, and more to do with the will of the rest of the vampires. We're outcasts. Exiled by the vampires to this town, because the oath we swore to protect you would have meant they needed to fight us. We have defended you a dozen times in the past few years."

Melina pointed at the largest of the thugs, the one Sabine had sliced through the heart. His body was quickly decomposing on the pavement. "Gregory there was tasked with making sure we stayed in this town. The man who ran away at the conclusion of our battle was Bill Sweeney, the owner of that gas station. He was turned here, along with the staff of a local bordello, and we know he doesn't feel any loyalty to San Francisco. Otherwise we would have pursued him."

"What does this have to do with me?" Heather asked.

"Neville wanted to assassinate you. We're you're only advocates in the vampire community. So we're here, exiled to the place you sent vampires, as Neville's way of making a poetic statement. We'd be out of the way when his assassins came for you," Lorenzo said. "The joke is on him, since fate has spirited you away. His plot is foiled."

Sabine looked around at the carnage. "Do you think Neville will be upset about all these dead vampires?"

"Probably," Lorenzo replied. A smile curved the corner of his mouth.

A set of headlights appeared on the horizon, and the group looked around.

Lorenzo gestured to his people. "Let's clear the mess out of the road and retire to our home for the evening. We'll pack our things and travel to California first thing tomorrow night."

Sabine stared at the dark wood ceiling over her bed. The exposed wooden beams gave the room a rustic charm that would have been perfect for a romantic getaway, but she occupied the bed alone. She understood why Trent had wanted to stay in a separate room with the witches, and hadn't wanted Sabine in their room. In his mind, she must be back to being one of the undead. Almost no pulse, fangs, thirst. She must have reminded him of those women vamps that had bitten him. She'd fallen asleep at dawn to the sound of his werewolf claws clacking on the floor in the next room, pacing while guarding Heather and Esmerelda.

She no longer heard their heartbeats or the clacking claws.

When her stomach grumbled and her fangs descended, she sat up and looked around. The bare wood walls of her room provided a fascinating background for an antique dressing table complete with Tiffany lamp, an ornately carved oak wardrobe, and an exquisite oil painting of a colonial-era landscape.

The room had two doors: one leading into a bathroom, and the other leading to the hallway. The window on the wall next to the bed was shuttered with heavy curtains draped on the sides. She pulled open a shutter. Darkness had fallen on the desert landscape outside.

She walked over to the bathroom, and checked her reflection in the mirror. She groaned at the sight of her untangled hair, which meant that she hadn't tossed and turned in her sleep. Great, death sleep again. So apparently the energy boost from drinking werewolf blood hadn't lasted this time.

She opened the wardrobe and checked her outfit. She decided to skip a bath, not sure that she wanted to be naked and vulnerable in a house full of vampires. She dressed quickly, putting her knives and sword away after checking the blades. She needed to track down her travel companions and make sure they were okay.

Just as she was about to reach for the door, there was a light knocking, and the door opened a crack.

"Sabine?" Shelby asked, peeking in.

Sabine drew her sword in a flash, and pulled the door open. She stared down the blade of her sword at the surprised young vampire. Shelby had changed into a cowgirl look: jeans shorts, bare midriff tank top with an unbuttoned plaid shirt over it, and cowboy boots.

"Where are Esmerelda and Heather and Trent?"

"Having breakfast, or I guess dinner," Shelby said, staring. "You have no pulse. And you're cold."

"I'm also thirsty," Sabine said, flashing fangs.

"Holy shit. You're... they turned you last night? Aren't you crazed with it? My first night, I went crazy."

"What? No," Sabine said, before thinking. "I was turned a year ago."

"But you-" Shelby covered her mouth with her hand. "You wore a cross. You walked on holy ground. You were warm. That's not possible." She held out her hands, feeling the air. "And you've got no aura."

"Well, Esmerelda says I'm not really a vampire."

"What the hell are you then?"

Sabine shrugged. "I don't know if there's a name for it. So do you have any blood in the house? Do you guys go hunting here?"

"We glamoured the local humans to have them avoid going outside at night, to protect them from the vampires passing through. We have some blood stocked up in the fridge though. We'll need to use it if we're flying out. Don't want it to go to waste. Come on, I'll show you the way."

"Wait, so how are the people safe by staying in? Is that legend about the threshold true?"

"You mean you've never tried to cross a threshold without an invitation?"

"It never really came up," Sabine said, putting her sword back in the spine sheath. She thought of Esmerelda and the werewolves, and wondered if she could have entered without permission. "Well, there was this one house, but they invited me in."

"Thresholds are a type of natural magic, like a witch's ward but not as strong – Lorenzo's words. He says you can push your way through it if you want to risk death."

"What do you mean? What happens?" Sabine asked.

"All I know is that it's bad. Do I look like I'd want to risk death?"

"You fought alongside Lorenzo. That could have been dangerous."

Shelby turned and walked down the hall. "That's different. I owe him."

Sabine followed, feeling a frustrating mix of worry, agitation, and thirst. Worry about Trent and the witches in the home of vampires, worry about what they'd think of her if they saw her thirsty. She felt agitated by the vampire auras swirling in the house, and then there was the ache in her fangs and her stomach. She'd been able to starve herself a whole week before, but something had changed. The well of blood magic within her, whatever it was, had deepened. Just like someone who'd been used to surviving on tiny meals and then switched to feasts.

She smelled werewolf and could sense heartbeats getting closer as Shelby led her down a long hallway decorated wood-cabin style, then down a flight of stained rough-wood stairs. The place reminded her of a hunting lodge. It seemed too alive to be a vampire lair. Then again, she felt the same way about her apartment. The silent march grated on her nerves, so she decided to find out more about their new acquaintances.

"So, you like being a vampire, Shelby?"

Shelby shrugged as she held the railing, trying to glide down the stairs like a sophisticated vampire, but not quite pulling it off. "It's not all glamour and power like I thought it would be. Especially not when you're the low vampire on the totem pole. I didn't know about the part where I have to address the head of the Family as Master or Mistress."

"I didn't know you were all related."

Shelby laughed. "That's 'Family' in the vampire sense... with a capital F. Some people call groups of vampires 'Covens' or whatever, but we're not witches. We prefer the term 'Family' because it means a group of people related by blood, where the older and more powerful members run the House."

They reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through a large common area to the open-style kitchen. Trent and the witches were sitting at a heavy wooden table in the kitchen, eating what looked like burritos. Lorenzo sat with them, sipping on a glass of something thick and red. They all watched Melina as she spoke, half with her hands.

"...And then, Esmerelda tripped when she went to get her diploma," Melina said, laughing. "It was so cute."

Heather snorted. "And here I always thought Esmerelda was perfect."

"It's good to respect your elders," Esmerelda said before picking up a piece of burrito with her fork.

Melina laughed her musical laugh.

"Sleeping Beauty has awakened," Shelby said, opening the refrigerator.

Everyone turned and greeted Sabine. Melina and Lorenzo bowed their heads, watching her with curious expressions. Their auras flared too, making Sabine want to scratch something.

Sabine walked up to the table and fixated on Trent's and the witches' steady heartbeats. The smell of blood permeated the air, and her fangs ached as she opened her mouth to speak. "Glad to see you're all safe."

The witches stared at her, and Heather's heart rate jumped.

Sabine slapped a hand over her mouth at seeing the look in their eyes. "Sorry."

"Here, drink this," Shelby said, offering a glass filled with red liquid.

Sabine took the glass from Shelby. She tipped it to her lips and took a sip. The familiar warmth flowed into her, even though the drink was cold. She tipped the glass back and chugged the whole thing down.

The whole group watched her.

"What?" Sabine asked, licking her lips.

Lorenzo stood and walked over to her. He looked down into her eyes. "You have no aura, and no heartbeat. Yet you have fangs and feel the thirst?"

Esmerelda cleared her throat. "How are you feeling, Sabine?"

Sabine looked at the concern on their faces, and nodded. "I'm fine."

"Would you like a refill?" Shelby said, holding out her hand for the glass.

Sabine nodded without even thinking, then paused. "Who did this blood come from?"

Lorenzo sighed. "A small supply yet remains from the bounty that we stockpiled over the last month, courtesy of travelers."

Sabine watched Shelby pour a second glass, suddenly feeling guilty for enjoying the blood, and suspicious of her hosts. "Were the donors hurt?"

"Not at all," Melina said. "They enjoyed every donation."

Melina stood and faced Sabine. "We follow the 'no kill' laws set forth in the concord of 1494 with the witch clans. There were a few deaths here in this town due to other vampires, before we convinced the residents not to come out after dark. We used a little glamour to help start a rumor about a loose Shoshone spirit to explain the first disappearances, and most people locked their doors. The gas station owner wasn't one of them, as you saw."

Sabine took a breath and sighed. "So what do we do now?"

Lorenzo smiled. "We pack up and fly you back to the city."

"We got a call after we went to bed last night. The wards fell. Dark magic breached the ward at the Bay Bridge," Heather said. "I guess the city will have to just deal with them. I just wish there was a way to make sure what happened to my family never happens again."

"We can talk to the Masters and Mistresses of the Twelve Houses," Melina suggested. "Maybe they'll be willing to make some concessions to keep you from reconstituting the wards and banishing them again."

Heather shook her head. "Even if I enchant another wand, I wouldn't subject this town to another vampire invasion. The Masters and Mistresses could call my bluff."

"Did anyone hear from the group that was looking for the ceremony?" Sabine asked.

"They were looking at the Golden Gate, so they missed them," Esmerelda said, shaking her head. "By the time they got to Oakland and found where the ceremony had taken place, it was too late."

"But not all our news is bad news," Lorenzo said.

Sabine raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear the good stuff then."

Heather smiled. "My coven got Julie to a safe place, and stopped Neville's assassins."

"When you say 'stopped'," Sabine said, holding up her fingers for air quotes, "what does that mean?"

Trent smiled a vicious smile. "It means Mike and the pack tore them to shreds."

Sabine nodded her head in approval and turned to Lorenzo. "I'd like to meet Neville face-to-face. Can you arrange it?"

"He's the regional representative of the North American Council. He doesn't grant audiences easily, but I'll see what I can do," Lorenzo replied. "Why do you want to meet him?"

"I plan to kill him."

Lorenzo leaned back in his chair and stared at Sabine, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "He has more than a dozen vampires."

"I know."

"He's the most powerful Master in San Francisco."

Sabine nodded and narrowed her eyes. "I'm not worried."

"Then you're naïve," Lorenzo replied. "He'll stop you with glamour before you even get close enough to challenge him."

"Didn't you try to glamour me during the fight in the street?"

Lorenzo nodded slowly, rubbing his chin again. "Yes, and you surprised me. I didn't use my full strength, thinking you were human. Neville is three times my age, and if he knows what you are –"

"He made me what I am."

Lorenzo contemplated her. "And you have no idea what that is."

Sabine looked to Esmerelda, but the old witch just shrugged. She searched the faces of the others, coming at last to Lorenzo and his the slightly raised corner of his mouth. "But you do."

"I have a theory," he said. "If you plan to go against Neville, you'll die without allies. As it happens, my Family has a grudge against Neville as well. So our aims may be aligned. You'll need a Family at your back."

Melina stood and put a hand on Lorenzo's shoulder. "What my love is suggesting is that you'd need us at your back."

"I guess I wouldn't mind the help," Sabine said.

"But we have rules about these things. Since you are a – " Melina paused, looking at the witches before deciding how to continue, "vampire – you must defeat the Master of the House in a contest of glamour."

Sabine took a breath and let it out. "Meaning I have to fight Lorenzo?"

"If you win, you take over our Family," Melina said. "If you lose, you join us and follow Lorenzo's commands."

Lorenzo nodded. "And if you're not able to defeat me, then going after Neville would be suicide. So my first command would be to avoid him and bide our time for a century or two."

Sabine went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of blood from the shelf. She popped the cork and drank the contents, feeling the well of power inside her fill. She put the empty bottle in the sink and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Let's do this."

Lorenzo's aura burst forth, and Sabine felt Melina's aura adding strength to Lorenzo's. Sabine held the image of a fortress in her mind, but it changed as she pictured it. Waves of a turbulent sea crashed against the walls, and stones fell as the walls shuddered. The gate leaked, water flowing through until she imagined the gate walled up and water-tight. The water raised, surging against the walls, and threatening to flow over the tops. She'd never experienced the mental image shifting before, and the shock of it confused her for a moment.