Blood Relations - Chapter 12

Thursday, November 13, 1997

Vicky opened the front door and stepped back, waving an invitation to Marcus and the unfamiliar couple behind him. Marcus smelled human, for the most part, but both the man and woman stepping into the foyer carried overwhelming scents of exotic races.

The woman carried faint traces of halfling and human blood, but whatever dominant race she belonged to was a mystery.

Vicky was sure that she had known someone with a similar musky scent. But her memory eluded her, and she had no clue why the odor should have been familiar.

Marcus said, “Vicky, this is my brother, Felix, and his companion, Simone Lafleur.”

Vicky shook their hands, but her gaze stayed on Simone, whose eyes were a soft silver color. She could almost pass for a halfling, but when a halfling’s eyes were silver, the patterns of their irises were always in motion. Simone’s iris patterns were fixed, and around the bright silver color was a thin band of dark grey.

Her hair was dyed a bright shade of periwinkle, which provided little contrast with her alabaster skin. Her face was narrow and refined, a beautiful blend of European and Asian facial features that graced her with high, smooth cheekbones and a narrow, pointed chin. The shape of her eyelids also suggested a mixed heritage, and with no other label to apply, Vicky temporarily chose mutt.

Simone wore no makeup save for a hint of lip gloss that made her pink lips gleam invitingly. Wide steel hoop earrings dangled from her earlobes in rows. Vicky counted four rings on each lobe.

She also seemed to share a vampiric addiction to black clothing. A loose silk peasant top hung off of her narrow shoulders, while a long cotton skirt trailed down to her ankles.

Vicky noted with approval that Simone wore wide black platform boots. She stepped back and turned to offer Felix an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry for staring, but your companion is quite fetching.”

Felix laughed as he slipped out of his black trench coat, draping it over his forearm. He was far more muscular than Marcus, and his thick arms bulged the sleeves of his black shirt. His chest bore a Batman logo in the middle, and whether he wore it with intentions to be sarcastic or not, Vicky still found it amusing.

“I tell her that all the time, though not in such polite terms,” Felix agreed, reaching over to smack Simone’s bottom. “She is a fox though, isn’t she?”

Fox, Vicky thought, and she drew in a deep breath. Yes, it was possible that she was smelling kitsune in Simone’s scent. Nodding, she muttered, “Maybe, but not a pure blood.”

Laughing, Simone asked, “What?”

Vicky smirked when she realized that she’d talked out loud. “Never mind. Come this way, and the coat closet is that first door under the stairs.”

 “Gotcha.” Felix turned around to hang up his coat.

Vicky tried to discreetly pant to sample Simone’s scent, but it was hard to tell if she really was kitsune with her standing so close to Felix. He reeked of halfling, so much so that he was almost masking the presence of Marcus. Vicky guessed that he was a stronger genetic throwback than Marcus, and she wondered what kind of mixture their parents were to produce two vastly different scents.

As she led the trio down the hall to the den, she glanced back over her shoulder to compare the brothers again. Felix was at least six inches taller than Marcus, and his angular, pale face was more masculine in appearance. He had bright green eyes, and Marcus’ were blue. He had a broad nose and distinct brow ridge that shaded his eyes, while Marcus’ features were almost Asian for the smoothness of his brow, jaw, and chin.

Vicky’s comparison of the brothers made her wonder if one of them was adopted. Or perhaps they had different mothers. But it seemed unlikely that they could both come from the same parents with so many differences between them.

She had to push aside the thought for later, because when she led the three magi into the den, Marcus gasped at the sight of Amber and froze in the doorway.

Amber stared back at him from where she sat on the couch beside Emil.

Vicky moved to sit beside Amber, while Charles and Lucas took up their places on the divan with Claudia sandwiched between them.

Marcus gawked until Felix and Simone stepped around him. Then he looked around for a place to sit. He took a chair by the fireplace, his mouth pinched in a thin line while he tried to cope with the sudden shock of seeing his transformed ex-girlfriend.

Felix took the other chair, and Simone settled herself across his lap. They both seemed less surprised, but neither knew what Amber had looked like before her transformation began.

Finally, Marcus said, “When you told me that you were adapting well, I didn’t think you meant you were turning into a vampire.”

“That’s not possible,” Amber corrected him. “I’ll remain in this condition until the baby is born, and then some of the changes will fade.” Amber grinned to expose her budding fangs. “I will get to keep some souvenirs, though.”

Felix chuckled and said, “I’ll bet being a temporary blood drinker must suck.”

“No, not—” Amber caught the pun and giggled. “Very good.”

“Thanks, I’ll be here all night.” Felix waved a hand for her to go on. “You were saying?”

“I thought I’d have a problem drinking blood, but it’s not so hard once the kid inside me started clamoring for his meals. It doesn’t taste or feel the same in my mouth now either.” She paused to smile at Vicky. “Now all of her comments that sounded snide before make sense. I can’t feel guilt for eating, even if what I’m eating is human blood.”

Simone snickered as her gaze wandered to Marcus. “Ask her for a hickey.”

Felix coughed, his smile falling. “I should give us all time to relax and get to know each other, but I need to tell you about something that will spoil the mood.”

Amber glanced at Marcus and asked, “Does it have anything to do with daemons or magi?”

“Both,” Marcus said. “I’ve explained everything we know, and I told them about you working with the McCulloughs.” Marcus cringed and shook his head. “That might have been a mistake. The magi recruited the soldiers from Fort Huachuca to deal with the McCullough family.”

“Right, because the McCulloughs kept magi as slaves,” Vicky said.

“Yes,” Marcus said, and then his face pulled into a look of confusion. “Wait, you knew about this?”

“Marcus, I’ve had a relationship with Ellen McCullough. Do you think she would have kept these things from me?”

“But you never––”

“You didn’t need to know about it,” Vicky said. “You’re close enough to human that I didn’t feel like bothering you with old history.”

“What do you mean, I’m close to human?

“You smell mostly human, but there’s a trace of halfling, or...maybe something else. But it would have to be halfling, right?”

“What about me?” Felix asked.

“You’re definitely a halfling,” Vicky said. “Your companion is even more interesting, because I think I can smell kitsune on her.”

Emil snapped his fingers. “That’s it!” He laughed and nodded. “I was driving myself crazy trying to remember where I’d smelled that before.” His expression became confused, though he still smiled when he returned his attention to Simone. “That’s really very odd, though. The kitsune are blood drinkers, and you have a scent strong enough that you should have cravings.”

Simone shook her head. “No, I’ve never...” She noticed Felix rolling his eyes, and she asked, “What?”

Felix shrugged. “Oh, let’s see. You’ve sent back rare steaks for not being rare enough. Your favorite dishes are usually raw meat like steak tartar or sushi.”

“Sure, but lots of people eat those things,” Simone said.

“Yeah, but then there’s your midnight snacks,” Felix said.

Chortling, Emil prodded, “Do tell.”

“She’ll open a package of raw meat and cut it into strips. You know that little pad they put on the bottom of the tray to soak up blood?”

Emil shook his head and said, “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

“Why would—oh, right, you don’t hang out much in grocery stores. Anyway, she wrings out the pad and dips the meat in the blood. When we were staying with her parents in Quebec, I caught her snacking on a package of horse meat, and when she finished, she tipped back the tray to drain the last sip of blood off the bottom.” Felix shuddered, his smile becoming embarrassed. “Ever since then, when anyone says they’re hungry enough to eat a horse, I cringe.”

Simone groaned and slapped his arm. “It’s not that bad. All of my family eats like...” Recognition dawned on her then, and her annoyed expression loosened into a slack look of surprise. Her eyes glazed while she went over her memories. “Huh.”

Emil heaved a sigh. “That’s a shame. I was hoping you could explain who in your family line was a true kitsune. The Asian blood drinkers are supposed to be even closer to extinction than we are. I’ve only seen three in my life.”

“I’ve seen one,” Vicky said. “I lived with him for a few months, but he was killed by the Germans.”

Emil started to ask a question, but then he and all the vampires swung their heads around when they heard a vehicle pulling into the driveway. Even Amber looked away at almost the same time.

Marcus, who’d heard nothing, whined, “Oh, that’s too creepy.”

Laughing jovially, Emil checked the clock and stood up. “That will be the caterers coming to set up dinner in the backyard.”

“What are you talking––” Marcus stopped as someone knocked on the door. He frowned at a stray thought. “Can’t they set up in your kitchen?” Marcus asked, glancing around when the vampires snickered. Amber held a hand over her mouth to hide her smile when he glanced at her, and then he smiled in embarrassment when he realized that the refrigerator was probably full of blood.

He thought, Humans are just ingredients in a vampire kitchen.

Marcus laughed at the morbid thought, and shook his head as he answered his own question. “No, I guess not.”

***

The barbecue dinner went well, though the caterers were upset that only three people were eating. They were also upset by Simone, who was true to form by sending back her steak for being overcooked. But the caterers were paid and sent home with a large tip to make them forget their indignation.

Felix tugged a baggie from his right hip pocket to roll a joint, only looking up when he started to lick the gummed edge of the paper. He closed the flap and twisted the ends before he held up the joint. “Do you mind if I smoke?”

“Knock yourself out,” Emil said.

“Not with this ditch weed.” Felix sighed as he put away the baggie. “Man, I miss Amsterdam.”

“I don’t,” Vicky muttered.

Felix watched her with a curious expression, but when she gave no explanation, he shrugged and raised his hand, balling it into a fist. He flicked his thumb out, and a flame popped above the tip, hovering without a fuel source until he lit the joint. The blue flame brightened to yellow, then flickered away once the joint had a glowing tip.

Emil chuckled as his mouth turned up in a sarcastic smirk. “Cute. What’s your next trick?”

Felix was genuinely disappointed that his spell impressed no one. “I guess you’ve seen magi playing with fire before.”

“Sure, if by playing you mean roasting on a stake.” Emil leaned back in his seat. “You wanted to warn us about something earlier before we got distracted on the topic of body odor.”

Snorting a plume of smoke, Felix nodded and passed the joint to Simone. “Yeah, but now I think it’s not a warning so much as stating the obvious. We aren’t waiting for a conflict to start. There are a lot of signs that the halfling prophesies are coming true, and the conflict has already begun. We still can’t figure out who all the sides are, but we know the daemons, the halflings, and the magi are already fighting.”

“Are you coming to appeal to us for help?” Emil asked.

“No, I’m just passing along a friendly warning, from one hunted species to another,” Felix said, taking a puff from the joint. “We’re still hiding ourselves. Marcus is going to take forever to train properly. He’s got lousy focus, and he can’t summon anything besides an oversized raindrop. Simone used to lead a coven, but neither of us have much experience in being teachers. All of our skills were passed to us telepathically, so we just know how to summon elements as second nature.”

“Do you still maintain any connections with the halflings?” Emil asked.

“No, we’ve lost contact with them. We’d returned to Texas so Katherine could get in touch with some halflings from another family, but she was taken by a group of men in black uniforms.”

Sitting up stiffly, Vicky groaned, “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“Nope, and it’s the same group that you fought with Wendy in Tucson,” Marcus said. “But we were calling them rogue soldiers, and it’s more likely that they’re all magi.”

“What?” Amber asked, her head shaking faintly in disbelief. “How can that be possible?”

“The magi were taking halflings from all over the place,” Felix said. “We think one of the halflings showed them how to bless normal humans to convert them into magi.” Sniffling, he turned his head to blow off the ash  on the end of the joint. He took another hit, but no one spoke in the meantime. He had the coven’s undivided attention.

Felix passed the join to Simone. “We were heading to Austin because Katherine’s father had been taken from out of a high security mental ward in Middlesex. They were wearing the same black uniforms, and when she tried to find her family, all of the main homes were deserted. Katherine decided to head to the US, to warn the other halflings that the magi were starting to get more aggressive.

“We were in Austin to set up a meeting with a family leader. I think the men who hit the motel tapped the phone line somehow. Katherine couldn’t read the men who came for her.” Felix frowned, his face drawing into a deep scowl.

Despite all of his training, he’d failed to protect Katherine. Shortly after she’d been hit by a tranquilizer dart, Felix was also taken down by a dart. He let the memory play itself out before he continued with his story. “The entire attack happened so fast that none of us had time to think, much less to cast a spell. Katherine was hit by a dart, and she fell over the side of the railing. I was going after her when I got tranqed, and they hit Simone as she was running to check on me.”

“They still might have been normal soldiers,” Emil said.

“No, not with Katherine’s range,” Felix insisted. Simone tried to pass him back the joint, and he waved it off. “I’m sure that’s the only way they managed to sneak up on us, so I think the men involved were all magi.”

He sighed and dropped his head, his face filling with conflicting emotions as he asked, “How much do you know about Katherine Collins?”

Amber grimaced, her disbelieving gaze drifting to Marcus. “And you said that I’d fallen in with a bad crowd.”

“I’ve kept up on her story,” Emil said. “I’d guessed that she was a berserker, but I never figured out why she went crazy without something else triggering her temper.”

“She was a family slayer, actually,” Felix said. “We’re not sure what set her off either, but with the little information we got after the fact, we think the magi must have drugged her.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Emil said. He started to say something else, and then he shot to his feet quickly when he picked up a strange scent in the air.

Felix tensed in his seat as all of the vampires sprang to their feet, their heads craning toward the sky. Amber was up with them, her mouth hanging open while she panted.

“What is it?” Felix asked, rising from his chair in spite of his full stomach.

“I don’t know,” Emil said. He turned his head, scanning the horizon for anything out of place. “There’s a scent on the wind, something...bloody.”

The vampires were backing away from the table, drawing into protective trios. Acting on their cue, Felix grabbed Simone’s wrist and drew her to his side while he moved closer to Emil, Amber, and Vicky. He was about to search for Marcus, then realized his brother was already behind him.

Marcus was panting, and when Felix looked back, he saw his little brother was trembling. “Marcus, calm down,” he whispered. “It’s probably nothing.”

“It’s getting closer,” Amber whined. She started to pant faster. “Goddess, what is that?”

No one had an answer. The vampires were equally as pensive as the magi, their heads swiveling back and forth while they searched for the hidden threat.

Amber dropped her head, then clapped a hand over her mouth and pointed at the black fluid rolling into the yard through the chain-link fence.

By the time she could squeak a warning, the pool of shadow was in the midst of them, rising up into a humanoid form.

The body and limbs remained glossy black, making the creature appear as if it was wearing a long leather coat and boots. But the hands and face bleached to a white color, and the bald head elongated slightly before the creature opened his waxy eyelids to reveal twin pools of black.

Light from the kerosene outdoor lamps flickered across the black fluid eyes. The flickering flames made his coat sparkle, and the yellow light flooded his skin, giving it a jaundiced coloring.

The creature turned his head slowly, a smile stretching his white, bloodless lips while he stared down each of the vampires.

“Well, this is a wonder I didn’t expect to find,” he said in a soft hissing voice. “Am I interrupting...a family barbecue?”

Emil stepped out in front of Vicky and Amber. “My name is Emil, and this is my coven. These magi are our friends, and they are under my protection.” He relaxed into a stance. “Who are you?”

“I am Dimitri, and you should stand down, whelp. I’m a wyrm of considerable age, and I could put you down without blinking.”

Vicky drew in a soft, involuntary gasp, pulling Amber against her side. Dimitri’s black eyes locked on her, and he laughed, a dry rasping sound like a pile of leave rustling in a breeze. “What is this? A mixed partnering? How very modern.” Laughing again, Dimitri waved an invitation for Vicky and Amber to come closer. “Step over here into the light, and show me your partner.”

Vicky tried to resist, but she was being telepathically compelled to move forward. Dimitri’s icy voice was in her head, echoing the command until she complied.

Amber moved with her, also trapped by the impulse. Vicky’s mind nagged, Why isn’t her blessing keeping him out of her thoughts?

Once Felix realized that Dimitri was forcing the couple to move, he threw a fireball. Dimitri’s hand shot up at the same instant that Felix cast the spell, and the fire sizzled and faded just inches from Felix’s outstretched hand.

Dimitri wagged his finger at Felix, though his intent gaze never left Vicky and Amber. “Be good, mage, or I will consume you and your family in a heartbeat.”

He knelt down, bringing his gaze level with Amber. “Hello Amber. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

His hand settled on her stomach. The fetus pulsed under his hand, and he grinned, revealing two rows of jaggedly pointed teeth. “You’re right. It is a boy. He’s going to be a real lady-killer.”

Dimitri laughed at his weak joke and sat back on his haunches. “There’s a storm of wicked thoughts coming my way now, so I guess you’re pretty important to everyone here.”

Amber felt her jaw relax. She was free to answer. “I’m not really. None of us are in this world. We’re just...strays.”

Dimitri’s smile softened. “Good answer.” He raised his hand to lay a finger under her chin. “You love your new family, don’t you?”

Amber took the question as a threat. Her blood froze in her veins, and her chest locked tight, preventing her from drawing in even the tiniest breath. He compelled her to answer, and she said, “Yes.” Her voice was thick with fear.

“Would you like to stay with them forever?” Dimitri asked.

Vicky shouted, “Amber, no!”

“Yes,” Amber replied. “Please don’t hurt them.”

“No, I won’t touch them. But I want to give you a—a gift, to help you cast off your old life. It’s something you’ll come to appreciate when you’re older.”

Dimitri drew his hand away from her face as he sank the point of his black thumbnail into the tip of his index finger. Impossibly, the fluid which swelled from his finger was bright crimson, though it smelled nothing at all like human blood.

He slid his finger over Amber’s lips, a wet, grotesque decoration that felt icy cold on her skin.

But the scent! The aroma was so inviting, and it made her budding fangs ache with a deep pulsing pain. Her lips curled in, and she lapped at the cool fluid. The ache in her gums faded to a low thrum.

Her mouth felt cold where the film spread, and when she swallowed, the chill sank down her gullet to her stomach. Amber’s mind yammered a panicked thought, The baby. But the feeling didn’t spread from her stomach.

Dimitri slipped his split finger between her lips. “This won’t harm the child. You have my solemn oath.”

Amber drew back on the wound, surprised at the flood of cold liquid that filled her mouth. She swallowed again and again, but there seemed to be no staunching of the flow. Her stomach was full, and she had to stop herself.

When Dimitri withdrew his finger, the wound was already gone.

The wyrm rose and turned to regard Emil with a questioning look. “I’ve just recently arrived here, and I’m looking for some friends. I wonder if you might have seen a black elf escorting a werebear around this neighborhood?”

Emil gaped at him, blinking as though the words were spoken in a foreign language. “You must be mistaken. There haven’t been any druids––”

“He’s not a druid. This werekin is a cursed orc. It’s a long story, and it involved a cub who hadn’t been collared.” Dimitri paused to shake his head. “The orc has been collared, and he’s a new arrival to the Earth plane, though I’m not sure how long ago he showed up with the elf. I’m guessing it was probably four months ago.”

Dimitri glanced back and forth between Emil and Vicky. “Ah, you haven’t seen him, but you still caught his scent.” He laughed at a random thought. “Well, it was good timing, wasn’t it? You running into the werebear brought Vicky and Amber into your coven.”

Emil nodded, unable to relax or let go of the question rattling in his mind like a coin in a beggar’s can. “What did you just feed Amber?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Dimitri laughed and added, “Much.”

Before anyone could ask what he meant, his body melted, and the pool of shadow slipped through the grass. His scent vanished just as quickly, leaving the vampires confused and wary.

They were still waiting for Damian to return when Amber dropped to the ground, looking like a marionette whose strings had been cut.