Page 9 of Accidental Vampire

“Oh, you know, work, work, work.” She made a sweeping yet dismissive gesture at the people filling the space. “Someone has to keep the common folk in line.”

I jutted my chin out at the slight. I would not give her the satisfaction of my guilt. Juliet made herself important by enforcing Veronica’s whims. I didn’t ask that of her. The role of Legate was a fixer, a councilor, the glue that held shaky families together. Since the wars ended, it was a title of no real importance. A reward for my suffering, for being a good boy. That’s all.

“Ooooo, she’s going to make him ask formally,” Aurora butted in, sliding between us, becoming a welcome buffer between Assassin and Legate. She plucked the glass from my hand and finished it. Juliet was unphased, used to Aurora seeping in everywhere.

The buzzing conversation lulled enough for us to hear Veronica’s satin voice.

“As it is Tribute day, I won’t be deducting your last folly from your Bond Price, Juan Carlos.” She waved a cream-colored envelope over his head to a smattering of applause. He followed the movement like a thirsty man in a drought.

“If she made us all pony up the police bribes we owed, we’d all be paying her.” Juliet snorted. Bond prices were usually negotiated in private, no one likes to talk publicly about how much their soul and freedom cost.

“Now, tradition dictates,” Veronica tapped the envelope on the top of his head, “should any other Patron or family counter my Bond Price, I shall gladly accept.” And then she waited. I’d seen a similar thing play out in mortal movies. This was the “speak now or forever hold your piece” moment. Another family could buy you right out from under a Patron’s nose. It rarely happened though as the older you are, the less you like surprises.

“No?” She scanned the room one last time. “Pity.”

“Oh, that had to hurt.” Aurora winced.

“What did he expect? He did call her a cow.” Said Juliet.

“She’s going to enjoy making him grovel for a hundred years.” I said.

“Jealous she might have found a new toy?”

Aurora knew she was crossing a line with that one. It was her own jealousy twisting her tongue. She wanted nothing more than to be a pretty plaything of something powerful. Proper stupid, that was.

“Very well,” Veronica sighed heavily. “Juan Carlos Venier.” She handed him the envelope and turned her back to him.

Applause mixed with wry laughter. Everyone knew that poor soul would be the new public whipping boy. Aurora blew me a kiss as she dove into the crowd with my glass, probably to welcome Juan Carlos to the family with blood and sex. I craned my neck for a waitress, I needed a drink and a bite, myself.

“Be a gentleman and hold this, will you?” Juliet said, tossing her decorative pistol at me. I rolled my eyes, holding it with two fingers like a shit-stained cloth. With a sound of delight, she found her treasure and snatched back the gun to feed to her purse. I wiped my hands.

“Here. You might need this.” She waved a vial full of blood under my nose. I pulled my head back to read the label. “It’s K. Freshly squeezed from a juicy OD this morning.”

“Ambulance chasing again, are we?”

“Needs must, Pet,” she said, tapping my nose with the vial. I batted her hand away, not that she would lose her grip on anything. She tucked it into my shirt pocket before sauntering away.

Of course, vampires could drink or do drugs on their own, quite well actually, but it was more potent when filtered through the blood of a mortal. Aurora and I ate our way through Limelight, back when MDMA was Ecstasy, before it was Molly. I fished out the vial to toss it away, but tucked it back in with a little pat. Better safe than sorry. Juliet always did have the best drugs.

“Lachlan.” I heard my name boom across Ruelle and it reverberated in my soul.

Veronica was snapping my leash with more than her voice. She was using our Patron Bond. I was already reeling when I pushed off the wall, compelled to go to her. Usually she just snapped that bond, plucked it like a violin string. It twanged and then melted into a soft vibration. She was strumming our metaphysical tether, leaning on it hard, making every cell in my body scream, smashing the reverb pedal. Maybe she was more ticked off at my late arrival than I thought.

The crowd parted for me. Faces in a happy, expectant blur. There must have been murmurs but all I could hear was my own blood ripping through my veins, until it became the sound ofherblood, discordant and rhythmic.

I stood before her and she pushed harder on our bond, stealing my breath, her heartbeat swamping me. She forced me to a knee. Breathless, Veronica’s supplicant. Panting.

She was sinfully beautiful. Ebony curls framed her face in a way that made you long for forgiveness. Her wine-red lips were full and inviting, giving hint to the darker things in life, tainted with whispered secrets and deals with the malevolent gods.

I was in awe the first day I met her, kneeling just like this. Warren was at my side, stiff the tension. The day I became a Venier. She handed me her dagger, whispering low so only I and Warren could hear. “I give you my name, you will swear to always be mine.” I had looked to Warren, his eyes burned. “Say it,” she pushed. I bloodied the dagger and fed her my blood and promise. But it was a lie. I would always be Warren’s.

She towered over me until shewasmy existence. She filled my senses, I could taste her already, thick in my throat. She raised my chin with the hilt of her dagger. She twirled the blade in her fingers.You will always be minerose like a chant, poisoning my blood, invading my brain.

I shook my head. The tiny movement clawed out of me, desperate to save what it could before she devoured me. I would never give my blood to another. Not after Warren.

She pierced my lower lip, that trembled, the dagger splitting the flesh effortlessly. I could feel the blood well and pool. She drew the blade to her. The tip merry with red. And took my blood into her, her tongue obscenely teasing the dagger tip.

She took my blood.

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