Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down (8 page)

“I think I might know.  Your lineage could very well factor into it.  There’s a possibility you’re a descendent of his.”

“Then my sister Hanna could just
as
easily
have
been chosen?”

“If that’s his only criteria, then yes, she could have been a target.  But likely there are other factors.  Physically you’re… well
,
you’re very…” he gestured to her, unable to find the right words to describe her delicate beauty coupled with the intangible quality that drew him in. 
Carys
had evoked the same feeling in him, making him want to protect her from the moment he’d first met her. 

“Very what?”

Bishop cleared his throat.  Since when did he have trouble talking to women?  “Let’s just say with your coloring, you’re the ideal for someone of his tastes.”

“Oh.”  She sounded almost disappointed by his reply and he couldn’t help but add a simple compliment. 

“Besides which, beauty is often a tempting lure for our kind.”

“You think I’m beautiful?”  Anja gave him a crooked smile, as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe such a thing. 

There was no way he was going to walk into that one
,
he
’d a
lready let himself get far too invested in her circumstances.  “We should
,
ah, keep looking for clues
, a
nything to take back to my team.”

An
j
a nodded, eyes returning to the evidence before them.  “That’s my blood, isn’t it?”

“Most likely.  Only one way to find out for sure though.”  Already familiar with the scent of her blood from the clothes she’d given him the night before, he leaned down very close to the
m
att
ress, methodically working his way across the sprawling stain, searching for signs of any other blood mingled with hers.  Her Sire had to have given her some of his blood, there could have been some spilled in the process.  But they didn’t end up lucky enough for that to happen. 

“Just your blood, A positive,” he reported, straightening.

“How did you know that?”

“Eh, it’s a knack I picked up over the years
.
”
H
e gave a half shrug.  “Most vampires can tell by taste, I’ve gotten very good at tracking.”  The trouble was, the scene had been thoroughly scrubbed down by the human’s CSU,
so
there was precious little to discover.  He was surprised they hadn’t brought the
m
att
ress in with them, but they probably took the samples they needed instead.

“
T
here’s nothing else then?  Nothing to lead us to him?”

Bishop didn’t miss the tremor that went through her limbs and he hated being the cause for it.  But what else could he do?  He couldn’t let her go
,
it went against everything he believed in.  “Come on, let’s get going.”  There was no sense in putting off the inevitable.  Anja nodded, hanging her head in acceptance
,
and he was glad he w
ouldn’t
have to chase her down again.

“Where is it?  This vampire jail you’re taking me to?” she asked after they were in the car. 

“It’s not a jail exactly
,
we don’t house criminals the way humans do.  I’m taking you to the holding facilities at the local headquarters.  We rarely keep anyone there longer than a day or two.”

“There aren’t many vampire criminals?”

Hardly.  “We have very strict penalties
.
”
H
e gave her a mirthless smile, leaving her to draw her own conclusions from that.  Bishop turned onto
42nd Avenue
.  W
ithin the space of a few minutes he’d take her in, process her and then wash his hands of the situation for a few days. 

Strict penalties…
  If her Sire showed up to claim her, he’d be called in to interrogate him.  If no one claimed her… the laws were clear.  No unlicensed breeding.  No exceptions, unless you were one of the
Ellri
, which almost never happened anymore.  The
Ellri
weren’t subject to laws of any kind
,
they came and went as they pleased.  But none had been spotted in decades as far as he knew, and none in the new world. 

Strict penalties…
 

Bishop banished all such thoughts from his mind as he guided the dark SUV through the deserted city streets.  In fact, he pushed any thoughts aside, his body working on autopilot until he stopped the car in the rear parking lot of a hardware store.

“This is where your headquarters is?” she said dubiously, head leaning against the window to peer up at the building.

“No,” he answered shortly, gripping the steering wheel tightly.  There was still time to turn the car around and head back to
HQ
,
he hadn’t done anything illegal yet. 

“But I thought…”

Bishop shoved the keys in his pocket with short, angry movements, mentally cursing himself in five languages.  “Just come with me before I change my mind.”

Chapter
Seven

I glanced nervously up at the sky that
started
to grow noticeably lighter as I stepped out of the car.  Logically I knew I had a
n
hour or more before it
became
a problem, but my skin started to feel itchy and crawly and I couldn’t get in
there
fast enough.
  Then again, Bishop had been out and about during daylight hours the day before with only a pair of sunglasses for protection
.  M
aybe I was getting all itchy for no good reason?  I had a zillion and one questions
,
but Bishop looked a little agitated
. 
I decided to leave well enough alone for the moment
,
and trail along behind him as he led me to a private entrance at the rear of the building.  For whatever reason
,
he had decided not to take me to jail, and that was good enough for me at the time.

Following him up a narrow flight of stairs, I waited patiently as he unlocked the heavy metal door at the top, expecting to see a storage or office space. 
A
place you kept people on ice until you were ready to turn them in, I imagined.  Instead the floor above the retail space had been renovated to a generous
, open
living space.  The décor was minimalist, almost Spartan
.  A cluster of furniture centered around a big, flat screen TV mounted over an electric fireplace in a corner of the room.  The walls were mostly bare, with an occasional splash of color provided by renaissance artwork.  A single bedroom/bathroom combination formed the only room that wasn’t open to the main living space and I got a peek at neat rows of books lining the walls inside. 
A small kitchenette lay to the right of the front door.

“You live here?” I asked in surprise, stepping deeper into the room, my eyes lighting on the grand piano tucked incongruously into the corner.  Bishop seemed content to leave m
e
to explore on my own, heading straight for the kitchen counter, which was littered with tactical gear and electronic gadgets I didn’t recognize
.

“Yes.”

“Huh, I would have thought you’d have a place underground, not on the top floor.”  I went to the window and looked down to the quiet street below.  There w
ere
also a
bakery
and a book store in the same building and a bank across the street.

“There isn’t a basement in the building, and it would have attracted too much attention at the time I bought the place to have one excavated,” he replied, pulling off his jacket and tossing it at a coat hook mounted to the wall.  With the jacket off, I could see he had several weapons strapped to his body, and with as close as I’d been to him, I wondered why I hadn’t noticed
before
.  While I watched, he unstrapped them all, laying the holsters neatly along the breakfast bar.

“You own the whole building?”  For some reason that struck me as odd, vampires owning property, but it made sense.  Better to be your own landlord than risk someone snooping through your private affairs. 

“I do, as well as the one across the street.  And no, I wouldn’t rather sleep in the vault.  This place suits me just fine.”

“What about the sun?  Isn’t that a problem?”

Bishop picked up a small electronic device.  “Not for the prepared
.
I have automatic shutters at every window, they block out the light.  Come here for a minute, I want to check something.”

I obeyed him without question, curious to see what he had in his hands.  “What is that thing?” 

“I want to test your blood.”  He held his hand out for mine,
sticking
my finger into a little lead attached to the box.  It reminded me of the thing they use to check the oxygen in your blood at the doctor’s office. 

“Will it hurt?  Ow!”  I scowled at the prick of the
needle;
the machine at the doctor’s never did that. 

“Oh
,
it’s not that bad,” he chuckled, releasing my hand.  I snatched it back to inspect the damage, but my body had already healed the pinprick. 

“What are you testing for?”  I leaned closer to study the readout, but it was all Greek to me.  “Bishop?” I prompted when he didn’t reply.

“That can’t be right.  Give me your other hand.”

“I’m pretty sure the same blood is running through that hand as this one,” I frowned, handing over the other one, bracing myself for the sting.  Once again, there wasn’t a trace of the wound as soon as I pulled my hand free.  “What does it say?” I asked, when he frowned over the display.

Looking up, he studied my face carefully, searching for… I had no
idea
what he could be looking for.  “Anja, I’m going to ask you this one more time, and I promise I won’t be mad if you
suddenly
remember something you forgot to tell me before.  Do you have any idea who your Sire could possibly be?”

“No, of course not.  Don’t you think I would have told you by now if I did?”   

“And you have no clue at all, nothing that comes to mind, nothing odd that’s happened to you in the past few weeks or months that you think might possibly be related?”

“No, nothing.  Bishop, you’re starting to scare me, what’s wrong?”

“According to this, you’ve been a vampire for closer to four hundred years rather than a fledgling less than a day old.”

My mouth dropped open as I stared back at him, at a loss for words.  “How is that even possible?”

“It’s not an exact science, but it’s fairly accurate for anyone born in the last two hundred years.  I’ve seen false readings before when a vampire’s been turned by an especially powerful vampire line but this…”

“What?”

“This means it’s very likely you could have been turned by an
Ellri
.”

I stared at Bishop blankly, waiting for him to explain what that meant, but he
stood
lost in thought.  “Bishop?” I asked gently after a few minutes.  “Pretend I don’t know anything about vampire culture or society.  What’s an
Ellri
?” 

“What?” he looked up, “Oh, sorry.  It’s an old word for Elder, it’s the name for natural born vampires that created the vampires species we know today.”

“So my Sire is…”

“Possibly one of the oldest living beings on the planet.”

I let that marinate for a moment before a distinction came to my lips.  “Well, not living, because we’re undead, right?”

“No, the surviving
Ellri
are alive.  They were never reborn like you and I were
,
they’re immortal.”

“And they’re out there walking around, kidnapping women and turning them into vampires, abandoning them for you to clean up?”  What kind of elders were they? 

“No… you don’t get it.  The
Ellri
are extremely reclusive, they haven’t embraced the modern age very well.  I can count the surviving ones on one hand.  It’s been easily a hundred years or more since I last saw one, and I can’t remember the last time one chose to turn a human.  Something this monumental would be big news in the vampire community
.  W
hen this gets out, you’ll be a celebrity of sorts.”

A celebrity in vampire society?  Unbidden, visions of vampire paparazzi swam in my mind and I shook my head to clear it.  “Why are they so reclusive?”  If I was a centuries old vampire, there wouldn’t be much I’d be afraid of.

“I don’t know.  Like I said, it’s rare they move around and they’re not
very
sneaky, they usually travel with a full court.  None of them have set foot in the
United States
as far as I know.  As a rule they don’t do well with change, they honor tradition.  That’s what made me first suspect one was involved when I saw how you’d been turned, but
I
can’t imagine why he wouldn’t have taken you with him.”

Tha
t part didn’t bother me so much
,
I was glad I hadn’t been taken by an ancient vampire who feared change.  There was another point that caught my interest though.  “If he’s so old he would have been able to get a license to turn me if he wanted to, right?”

“
Ellri
are exempt from vampire law.  They can do as they please.”

“Then… you won’t have to turn me in after all, right?  You can let me go?”

Bishop hesitated and I wondered what he wasn’t telling me.  “In theory no, but this is all based on speculation.  There hasn’t been a precedent set like this before.  Without your Sire to claim you, we don’t know for certain it was an
Ellri
that sired you.”

“But your little machine…”

“It’s evidence in your favor, but it’s not enough to establish your line on its own.  In fact, it’s more likely you were sired by a direct descendent than an
Ellri
himself, and he would still be subject to our laws.”

“So we’re right back where we started.”

“Almost.  This tells us at least that whoever turned you is very old
,
very powerful, and not to be dealt with lightly.  You know, that explains why I had so much trouble catching you tonight.”

“You said it was easy to catch me!”  My eyes widened in surprise.  And here I’d thought he had been toying with me!

“
Y
es, I did say that,” he grinned.

“You lied?”  Somehow I hadn’t thought him capable of it, I have no idea why.  Bishop shrugged, unconcerned as he turned to put the device back on the kitchen counter and I decided not to make an issue of it.  “So what happens now?”  I felt like I was constantly asking him that, but how else would I get the answers I needed to survive?

“I have no
idea
. 
I’m a vampire, not a psychic.”  Ignoring me for the moment, he pulled a wicked looking knife out of his boot and a short pistol from the other, setting them to rest beside their brethren on the counter. 

My teeth pressed against the inside of my lips as I fought the
urge to scream at him for blowing me off. 
Like it or not I needed him at the moment, keenly feeling my own lack of experience in all things vampire.  “I mean… to me.  Will I fall into a coma as soon as the sun rises?  Will I burn if I’m not in a coffin?   I see I still have a reflection, what about holy water and garlic and silver?”  The questions tumbled from my lips without end. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, one thing at a time before you have an aneurism.”  His hands came up in a supplicating gesture, that trace of annoyance coming back to his
eyes
.  Bishop
looked like he wanted to disappear out the window.  I forced myself to stem the flow of questions, but my eyes begged him silently to respond.  Pinching the bridge of his nose, he looked like he was starting to get a migraine.  Did vampires get migraines?  My mouth opened to ask him but I snapped it shut again, thinking better of the question.
“I knew I was go
ing to
regret this…”
he muttered
disgustedly.

*
*
*

It felt like hours later when we found ourselves sitting there looking at each other.  Me sitting on his couch while
Bishop
slowly but surely edg
ed
his way closer and closer to the door.
  My head crammed full of information, I worried I wouldn’t be able to retain it all, because I surely couldn’t ask him again.  It wasn’t that he was angry at me exactly; it felt more like he wasn’t used to so many questions at once and maybe just a bit angry with himself for letting me stay there in the first place.  I was pretty sure I had the basics
down though
. 

Beheading and fire were the surest way to kill a vampire, so I should avoid swords and bonfires like the plague.  A wooden stake through the heart wouldn’t kill me, but it would send me into a torpor (it means a coma
-
like state, I had to look it up), which would render me particularly
susceptible
to being beheaded or set on fire.  Any other wound would heal rapidly, and my blood could heal humans to some extent.  Silver, garlic, holy water, none of those
had
any effect whatsoever.  Sunlight wouldn’t make me burst into flames, but it’d be painful if I was in it for very long and it would sap my strength, making me slow and lethargic.

I could drink anything I wanted to, not just blood, but heavy food would make me feel sick until my body absorbed it.  Bishop had no idea how often I’d need to feed.  Most new vampires, or noobs as he called them, needed to feed nightly
.  B
ut with my specially souped up blood, he didn’t know if I’d be able to hold out longer. 

Bishop was right about the laws, there weren’t t
oo
many to remember.  The number one rule was to defer to all
Ellri
.  They were as gods among vampires
,
and no actions could be taken against them either officially or unofficially.  If one wronged you… tough.  Luckily, that didn’t come into play very often in the last century, except for my unusual circumstances.