Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) (9 page)

“Oh shit, we’re going to have to tell him.”

“Why can’t we just lie and say I’m sleeping with both of you?”

“Do you want to go back upstairs so we can get our scents all over each other as well because that is the only way it will work. Haven’t you learned yet that a vampire can tell when someone is lying?”

“No, that’s okay. I’m good with the scent I have thanks,” I replied a bit nervously.

“Juliana,” Ana purred lowly stepping as close to me as she could get. She leaned into my ear whispering, “I just told you vampires know when someone, even another vampire, is lying.”

We took the same limo to the club that we had taken to the hotel before. Ana was right it wasn’t too far from where we were staying. It took only ten minutes at most to get there. When we arrived there was a line of humans wrapped completely around the block waiting to get in. They were dressed like they were there for a celebrity after party.

“What is all this? I thought the Council was intent on keeping vampirekind hidden from the human world, and they have a club crawling with humans? Can they be any more hypocritical?”

“The humans can’t get in, they just started showing up one night, then more and more came. They’re a little like rabbits or cockroaches in the way they multiply—anyhow, they wait because they know only the most beautiful make it through the doors. They have no idea it’s because we’re vampires. We have people staged throughout the crowd to be sure no one ever says anything suspicious. They just think it’s a celebrity hangout,” Ana explained though I could tell she was still pissed off at William and I both.

“Don’t they wonder why no one is ever let through the front doors?”

“Oh, they let people through the front doors, just not anybody standing in the line.”

We pulled up to a cl
ub that looked very nondescript,
aside from the huge crowd outside that is. It was a small brick building, and there were no lights outside other than the small light shining above the single metal door, and a small light shining down on the faded out name that was painted on the brick in small red letters. Charlie’s. The second we opened the car door flashbulbs started going off in our faces, they were coming from the crowd
outside like we were celebritie
s and they were the paparazzi. I had to purposefully move slowly toward the door, so I didn’t use my vampire speed trying to flee from them. The thought that I might give us away was making me extremely anxious.

Once we made it inside I pressed my back and head against the door, closing my eyes in an attempt to ease my momentary panic. Ana instantly grabbed my arm in a grip so tight that if she allowed the slightest bit more pressure it would break my arm.

“Get up, you are no longer prey, and I won’t have my progeny behaving like it,” Ana hissed out with a barely checked rage.

“I don’t give a damn who you are or who you think I should be,” I snapped back at her gripping the fingers she held around my arm and prying them off of me, “ and you’re right Ana, I’m not prey anymore so stop acting like I’m yours.”

“Ladies, think we can finish this later?” William said while maneuvering his body to block the crowd’s view of us.

“Yes, we will be finishing this because Juliana needs to realize she isn’t human anymore, but that still doesn’t mean others in this room won’t see her as being weak. You are a vampire, Juliana, so start behaving like it,” Ana spit out so angrily it was almost venomous.

“Excuse me? Am I interrupting you two beautiful roses?”

Just as I was about to snap back to the man with a snarky retort abou
t sexist remarks, and that, yes,
he was obviously interrupting
,
Ana turned and gave him the brightest most charming smile I’d ever seen her give. The scary part was it looked genuine.

“Sebastian, how are you? Of course you aren’t interrupting us; it’s you we’re here to see after all.” She leaned in and gave the man a quick, tight hug then pulled back still holding on to his arm, “Sebastian Ramirez, this is my child, Juliana Lucio, Juliana, this is the director we told you about, Sebastian Ramirez.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ramirez.”

Sebastian dismissed my outstretched hand and instead kissed both my cheeks in greeting, “You are even more beautiful than Ana described, I’m charmed that you made it,” he said with a warm smile.

Sebastian then turned giving William a firm slap on the back, “Will it is so good of you to be here.
”
As he finished saying this he narrowed his eyes a little at William, then looked from him to me, then back again his nose flaring slightly as he did it.

“I see I was incorrect in my memo to Cassa, it would appear you are Juliana’s lover and not Ana as I had assumed. No bother, I’ll inform them of my mistake,” he said with a toothy smile
.

“Sebastian, we haven’t even sat down yet!” Ana snapped before William had the chance to reply, then she walked off into the crowd below us.

“Oh, she must be a lot of fun to live with right now.”

“You have no idea.”

As Ana stormed off I got my first glance of the club we were in. It was larger than it looked from the outside, but that was most likely because there weren’t swarms of humans around. The place was pretty well lit considering vampires could see in the dark. There were several booths scattered throughout the place, all the same mahogany red; which contrasted well with the graphite gray of the walls. The thing most noticeably absent were the tables, there were none.

“Shall we join them, querida?”

Sebastian intertwined his own arm in mine and started leading the way through the crowd toward the booth where Ana was sitting with a short black man. She was sitting with her legs crossed and the slit in the dress was revealing all of her leg and then some. The man sitting at her side was sitting with a stiff and rigid posture, as if it were painful for him to be in the same room with us. His short hair was almost non-existent, and his eyes when they shot our way were a flat lifeless pale brown.

As Sebastian and I stepped down onto the floor, William came over to take my other arm. I could honestly say I had never felt safer or sexier than I did at that moment, walking through a club of vampires with two of the baddest ones around. William was exuding sexiness and strength, it just seemed to radiate from him in the way he walked and carried himself. Sebastian was about the same height as William at 6’2” and his Spanish heritage gave him dark brown hair that was almost black in color and dark brown eyes to match that held a shimmer to them when he smiled. He was quite the contrast from William’s blond shaggy hair, and they both had me feeling small in stature while walking between them at my 5’3”.

We made it to the semi-circular booth, and sat next to Ana and the other man with her. I stayed as close to William as I could without being too obvious that I was scared out of my mind to be there in the first place.

“Hello, I’m Martin Harris,” the other man said introducing himself with a stiff nod. This was the director for Sub-Rosa the clandestine branch of the Council William and Ana worked for. I wondered what he was doing here, surely he didn’t bother meeting all new vampires. There must be something more going on we aren’t aware of.

“Hello Mr. Harris, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I hadn’t realized we would be having another guest.”

I wasn’t supposed to know Sub-Rosa even existed, let alone who Martin Harris really was. God I hope William and Ana aren’t about to be punished because of me.
I spared a quick glance in Ana’s direction, but she seemed unconcerned by his being here, and I wasn’t getting anything from her through our bond.
What was up with that, was she blocking me somehow?

Sebastian had raised his finger in the air gesturing around to all of us at the approaching waitress. She had shockingly red hair and was wearing skimpy white lingerie and high heels. And she was human. I looked around the room and saw several human women dressed the same way. Just as she began making her way to us, the other women began walking toward others booths across the room as well, as if they were assigned-- or chosen.

The red-haired woman came and kneeled upon her knees on a pillow in front of our booth. She didn’t say anything, just had a sort of expectant look on her face. Suddenly Sebastian leaned over and took the small woman’s wrist. That’s why the human women were here; they were feeders. She rose higher on her knees and leaned toward him giving him more access as he put his mouth to her wrist and bit, hard. I heard bones cracking and tendons tearing with his one vicious bite. He was slurping up her blood in the vilest of ways, really causing me to school my face not to cringe from disgust alone. I wasn’t sure if he was purposefully trying to make me sick, trigger my bloodlust or just make me angry with the way he was treating her
,
but he was accomplishing two of three.

“Hungry are you, Mr. Ramirez?” I said smoothly, trying not to let him know I was disgusted at his show.

He pulled away and flashed me a bloody fanged smile, “I like my blood with a hint of pain to it, don’t you?”

“Hardly.”

“Would you like to feed Mrs. Lucio, that is why she’s here after all,” Martin said as he pulled the woman to him and bit into her neck. I looked around trying to ignore what the two of them were doing, only to see the same scene repeating itself across the room.

“No thanks, I’m good. I fed before we came.”

“Really? Because from what I hear you don’t have a problem feeding in public, in fact I’d venture a guess you seem to prefer it,” Martin responded snidely.

It was true I had fed in public before, but nothing like this. It was at a dance club and had been discrete. How did they know about that anyways?

“Excuse me, where are you going with this? Juliana has never allowed a human to see her feed and she had always been with either William or myself.”

Martin pulled back from the woman leaving a trail of blood behind to fall between her breasts, but after what Ana put me through this was nothing. I looked at Ana who just raised an eyebrow at me in an I-told-you-so kind of way.

Sebastian turned to William and asked, “William, is this true? Has Juliana never gone out alone, unaccounted for?”

Before he could answer that I had indeed gone out alone, he was cut off by Martin.

“Why aren’t you drinking? The woman is getting blood all over the floor!”

She was in fact bleeding all over from her torn wrist and her bra was soaked in her own blood.

“I can see that, and I told you already I had fed before coming, but thank you again for the offer.”

Sebastian seemed content to stop his interrogation of William and instead sat back to watch what was unfolding between Martin and I. I began to ruffle through the small purse I was carrying when Martin again brought my attention back to him.

“Juliana.”

“Yes?” I asked momentarily stopping my search to glance up at him.

“Feed on this woman now.”

I could feel him in my mind pushing with an unspoken command that was like tendrils taking hold, wanting to command me, control me. He was trying to compel me and it felt slimy, and foreign, and I didn’t want him in there. I shook my head as though I was shaking off dust from a dirty room, as I did I saw the scarf I was looking for. I reached out for the woman’s wrist and gently cradled it in my own hand looking it over. Martin sat back against the booth mimicking Sebastian’s pose crossing his arms over his chest with a self-satisfied smile on his face.

“Ma’am,” I began as I was wrapping the scarf around her bloody wrist, “you really need to get this looked at tonight. Do not wait until tomorrow. I think you have some tendon damage and it will be permanent if it’s not taken care of immediately.”

She gave me a wide-eyed stare as if she were afraid to speak or move, and then looked to Sebastian and Martin for guidance.

“Go see the house doctor,” Sebastian said waving her off. The woman clutched her wrist closely to her as she scurried out of sight.

“What the hell was that?” William asked
.

“That was your boss trying to incite bloodlust in me and Martin here attempting, and failing, to compel me within only minutes of meeting me. Does anyone have a napkin? My hands are a mess.”

“Do you think it wise, Querida, to speak to us that way? Do you know who we are?” Sebastian asked.

“Mr. Ramirez, I know as the director of the Council, you are the one who ordered my death. As for Mr. Harris well, I know nothing about him, other than I didn’t do what he wanted so he attempted to compel me, and couldn’t.”

“Mrs. Lucio, we can tell you are lying.”

“I’d like to see you try to make me say anything different.”

“Don’t be so sure of yourself, compulsion isn’t the only way to make someone talk,” Martin said with a grin.

“What did Nathaniel want with you?”

“What do you want with me? Why did you bring me here, what is the purpose of this?”

“Ok, I think perhaps we have gotten off on the wrong foot, let us start fresh shall we?” Sebastian said with an amicable smile.

“Did you kill Nathaniel?” Martin suddenly asked ignoring Sebastian’s attempts at diplomacy.

The room went silent. The two seemed to forget we were in a room full of vampires, the idiots.

“Nathaniel Retta was over 400-years-old, and I am just a newborn of only a few months. Can you conceive of any plausible scenario where I can stake a master vampire in the chest and kill him?”

After a brief moment of considering silence the chatter in the room began once more, as if in sync with one another they decided there was no plausible way for me to do what I had just described.

Martin leaned all the way over and whispered so faintly I almost couldn’t hear him, “I never said how he was killed Mrs. Lucio. . .”