Blood Relations - Chapter 3

Friday, July 18, 1997

Amber was just finishing her dinner when someone knocked on the door. The heavy scent of the pizza masked Emil’s arrival, and Vicky offered him an awkward smile as she stepped back from the door. “Sorry, we’re not ready to go yet.”

“Which one of you is really the pet here?” Emil grinned and waved a hand as he walked inside. “Don’t worry, I can wait for...” His gaze flicked over to Amber, and his smile fell into a concerned frown. “She looks ill.”

“Amber hasn’t been eating properly these days,” Vicky said. She couldn’t resist giving Amber a stern glare, a subtle warning for Amber, Be good. “Amber, this is Emil.”

Amber wiped her fingers on a napkin and got up, moving to offer her hand. “Hello, nice to—”

Emil turned her hand to expose her wrist as he leaned over. He inhaled deeply, and said, “Oh, that’s...very interesting.” He released her hand and straightened up, offering her a smile which didn’t show off his fangs.

Amber knew he was trying to be civil, and she returned the smile. “What is?”

“Your scent. It’s almost human, but you’ve got just enough halfling to make you different.” Emil moved to sit down in the chair beside Amber’s, then waved at her plate. “Please, finish eating. None of us will be going hungry tonight, so there’s no reason you should either.”

Amber returned to her seat, chewing a mouthful of pizza before she said, “Vicky says you consider me a pet.”

“No, not me,” Emil objected with good humor in his voice. “Vicky tried to lie and claim that to make things easier for me to understand. But I saw her eyes when she talked about you, and I’ve been around long enough to know what a vampire looks like when she’s in love.”

Amber glanced over at Vicky, whose muddled expression said a lot more than she had in months. Vicky looked frustrated at Emil for confessing her feelings to Amber, but she was also embarrassed under Amber’s intent gaze. The two emotions fought for space on her face, with neither able to claim victory.

Amber smiled at Emil and asked, “Did she say it to you? Because every time I say I love her, she brushes me off.”

Emil laughed easily. “Amber, vampires have a hard time expressing any emotions besides joy and anger. Everything else confuses the animal inside us, and that animal nature makes us thickheaded.”

Amber couldn’t help but laugh, and she set down the rest of her pizza. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you just insulted her.”

“Maybe I did, but it’s just harmless ribbing.” Emil’s smile fell, and he raised his head to stare at Vicky. “What did you want from our coven?” Before Vicky could answer, he added, “Be honest, please.”

“I...I want a child.” Vicky stared at Emil with a worried frown. “Did you follow me last night?”

“No, I bugged your jacket just before you left.” Emil offered a tired smirk at her sudden angry expression. “I do what I can to keep my people safe. You seem nice enough, but you’re still a whelp who’s used to causing trouble and having your way.” The smirk faded, and he shook his head. “Vicky, I’m sorry, but there’s no easy way to say this. I can’t help you have a child, because you’re sterile.”

“I’m...” Vicky sat down in the middle of the floor, thumping down hard on her tailbone. She barely felt it. Her senses just unplugged on her, and she was unconscious with her eyes wide open.

Amber stared at Vicky, her appetite gone. It was replaced by nausea, and the feeling was made stronger by the lump rising in her throat.

She couldn’t look away from Vicky’s slackened face as she asked, “How can you be so sure?”

“Her hormone levels are low, and her scent...” Emil made a weak shrug. “It isn’t fertile, you see?”

“I guess,” Amber murmured.

“Vicky told me she was shot in the abdomen, and I think one of the bullets might have been responsible for rendering her sterile.”

“But...but, shouldn’t she heal from that?” Amber asked.

Emil shook his head. “There’s two kinds of tissues we can’t regenerate. I’m sure you can guess which two.”

“I don’t want to play guessing—” Amber started to object until she realized that she already knew. She said, “The brain and reproductive organs.”

“Yes. Everything else is just meat that we can heal. But if the bullets struck her ovary, that would be permanent.”

“Vampires only have one?” Amber asked.

“Yes.” Emil glanced at Vicky, who still hadn’t moved. “I don’t know where the shots went, so I’m only guessing.”

Vicky raised her hand to point low on her stomach. “Entry,” she said before she moved her hand around her back and drew a circle. “Exit.”

She repeated the display twice more. Emil couldn’t see where she pointed on her back, but he grimaced at the large areas that must have been blown out of Vicky if her arm movements were accurate. “I’m truly sorry, Vicky. I still would like to invite you to stay with my coven, and Amber will be welcome in our home. You have my word that she’ll be treated as one of our own, if she can behave.”

“I can, really,” Amber promised. “I’ll be good, so long as nobody refers to me in snacking terms.”

Emil smirked, barely a second passing before he said, “I’ll keep that in mind, honey.”

***

Amber rode Emil’s back during the trip, and though he ran slower to match Vicky’s shorter stride, his pace was still much faster than Amber had ever moved in a car. She needed to bury her face in Emil’s shoulder for most of the trip to keep her hair from whipping into her eyes and blinding her.

But she did look up once, and everything around her had become too blurry to make out any details clearly. Amber started to say something, and then she ate a mouthful of hair, only half of which was hers. Emil laughed at her, and she didn’t bother looking up again.

When the vampires stopped at the front door, their hair settled back into place without assistance. Their hair was straight and neat, while Amber’s head looked like a storm of stray blue-black strands that stuck out at all kinds of odd angles.

Amber resorted to licking her palms to slick down the strays, which caused Emil to snicker. He said, “I guess she’s the pet after all.”

Vicky and Amber were separated almost from the moment they arrived at the house. Introductions were made, and Claudia took hold of Amber’s arm at a look from Emil. While Emil guided Vicky to the kitchen, Amber toured the house with Claudia acting as her guide.

The first thing that Amber had to get used to was the dim lighting. Every bulb used was low wattage, and even with overhead lights and many lamps on, the rooms were deep with shadows.

Most of the furniture in the rooms were antique, and Amber had the feeling that she might end up voluntarily sitting on the floor instead of dirtying the pristine chairs and couches in every room.

The dining room was a joke, and Amber didn’t need to have it explained. Claudia waved and said, “The dining room,” and Amber giggled before asking, “How do you get rid of the bloodstains?”

There was a layer of dust on the table, as though no one had even been through for maintenance of the room in a few months.

There was a living room and a den, both of them looking similar except for the additions of a fireplace and several rows of bookshelves in the den. Both rooms had a similar grandfather clock. The same style of couch was in the living room, right down to the same shade of stained wood on the arms and back.

There were matching divans in both rooms, though the divan in the den looked like it was actually used, while the one in the living room was in showroom condition.

In neither room could a TV be found. In the den, a slim CD stereo system sat above the mantle of the fireplace, and beside it was a row of classical music CDs.

Amber could almost imagine Claudia lounging over the divan in the den with a book in her hand while she listened to Beethoven. The scene in her head was so domestic and tranquil, yet Claudia looked perfectly at home in the mundane fantasy. The same vision seemed comical if she tried to replace Claudia with Vicky, who was anything but a homebody.

The tour continued upstairs with the bedrooms, and each room differed according to the owner’s preference.

Emil’s room was the most elaborately furnished with antique furniture. He had a massive four post bed and a vanity which obviously served him as a writing desk, given how many notepads were stacked neatly on the surface. A pen and open notepad were set in front of the antique baroque-style chair. The vanity was complimented by the dark wardrobe on the other side of the room, and the far wall was filled by a massive painting of a mountain range. Under the painting was an antique padded chair and an ottoman, both covered in red velvet, and beside them was an end table stacked with four cloth-bound books.

The rest of the vampires chose to go with more modern furnishing. In particular, the room Claudia shared with Charles seemed the most lived in. Clothes were piled in a plastic basket in the corner of the room, and instead of a wardrobe, two darkly stained modern dressers sat on either side of a black lacquer vanity. The poster above the bed was tacked to the wall unframed, a print of an Olivia painting, The Invitation.

On the back of the vanity behind Amber, the lower portion of the mirror was obscured by a CD stereo and a stack of CDs. At a glance, Amber recognized a few of the bands. Claudia and Charles had modern tastes in music, and their room reflected a modern laziness that couldn’t be found in Emil’s immaculate room. Their bed was an extended double instead of the king-size Emil preferred, and the covers were arranged to look halfway made.

The room Claudia and Charles shared reminded Amber of the bedroom that she’d shared with Marcus. In this way, the room felt comforting to her, and it helped Amber identify with Claudia as a person, rather than as a vampire.

No one slept in coffins, but then Vicky had only done so based on her morbidly sarcastic nature. Vicky had given up the coffin in Tucson to travel light, and though Amber knew vampires didn’t need coffins, she still felt guilty over taking something else away from Vicky.

She barely saw the furnishings of Lucas’ bedroom, and she nodded randomly while Claudia finished the tour in a guest room.

Her gaze kept wandering back to Claudia’s stomach. Vicky lost so much more than a coffin, Amber thought. Because of me, she’ll never have kids.

“Do you eat babies?” Claudia asked suddenly.

“Huh?” Amber asked, still lost in her thoughts.

“I’m not due for a few more months, but this kid isn’t going on the menu.” Claudia smiled while her expression became sympathetic. “You’ve got something on your mind, little mage.” She moved to the bed and sat down, patting the covers beside her. “Come sit down, and tell auntie Claudia all about it.”

Amber hesitated, and then she moved to the bed and sat down. She wasn’t sure what she was thinking, and she couldn’t form words at first.

“Do I intimidate you?” Claudia asked.

“Maybe a little bit, yeah.” Amber tried to fake a thin smile and failed. Her eyes filled with a look of anxiety, and her voice was thick when she said, “I guess you already know that Vicky is sterile.”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s my fault.” Amber started to talk about how her involvement with Wendy led to Vicky being grievously wounded, and by the time she finished, she was talking in a warbling voice between hitching sobs.

Claudia slipped a cool, slender arm around her shoulders to pull her into a hug. Amber tried to keep herself together, but the guilt was tearing her apart at the seams. Vicky wouldn’t let Amber speak about her feelings anymore, because she was willing to take equal blame for agreeing to help Wendy.

But Amber wouldn’t let Vicky take the burden away. She clung to her guilt stubbornly, unable to share the load with anyone. The weight of her regrets were heavy before, when all she thought Vicky had lost was her home, her job, and everything she owned. Even her beloved monster truck had to be sold to a chop-shop to ensure a clean escape with no trails left behind.

But knowing that she had taken away Vicky’s ability to have a child, Amber felt lower than a murderer.

She blubbered her feelings out to Claudia, who said nothing. Claudia offered only the comfort of her presence, acting as a sounding board to let Amber vent.

When Amber quieted into sniffles, Claudia stood up and said, “This is your room. If you wait here, I’ll be back soon with fresh bed clothes. Those are going to be dusty.” She waved toward the door and backed up. “I just need to talk to Emil and the others for a few minutes, all right?”

***

Vicky sat in the den, waiting for Emil to return. Claudia had called him away, claiming that she wanted to discuss something in private upstairs.

That was half an hour ago, according to the antique grandfather clock sandwiched between two massive bookshelves on the far side of the room. She looked around the den, her gaze falling again on the empty fireplace. She wondered if it had ever been used by anyone in the house.

The Bach CD looped to start from the beginning, and Vicky got up to wander up the hallway to the stairs. She was surprised when she found Amber hunched over to peer through the keyhole into Emil’s bedroom. Vicky crossed the wide corridor swiftly, intending to pull Amber away.

But Emil growled angrily, and shouted, “Absolutely not!”

Vicky froze and held her breath.

“Emil, you don’t understand,” Claudia said, her voice much lower. “This would help both of them.”

“Do you really think the halfling is going to endure such an ordeal?”

Vicky stepped closer to the door, drawn in by the mixture of anger and concern in Emil’s voice. Amber glanced back nervously, almost thumping into the door when she realized Vicky was behind her. She straightened up, and a silent conversation took place between them.

Vicky narrowed her eyes and frowned. What’s going on?

Amber pointed at the door while her expression became muddled. Ask them.

Then Claudia said, “I know Amber would. It’s obvious how much she cares for Vicky, but they’re both driving each other away because of the guilt they feel for their failures. I listened to that girl crying, and I know she’ll be hurting for a long time over Vicky being sterile.”

Vicky almost dropped to the floor again. The word was still too much like a physical punch that sucked the wind out of her chest and drained the strength from her legs.

But she couldn’t give in to the shock, because then all of the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together in her mind. The last tile dropped into place when Emil said, “But what you’re suggesting could kill Amber.”

Strength returned to Vicky’s legs, and she strode to the door, moving Amber to one side before she shouldered it open forcefully. Everyone in the room jolted as the door thumped on Vicky’s shoulder, and heads were spinning toward Vicky when the knob cracked and embedded into the wall.

She ignored Emil’s look of annoyance, putting her hands on her hips while she glared at Claudia. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, bitch?”

Claudia’s mouth flapped while she tried to sputter a quick explanation. An instant later, Charles and Lucas were standing on either side of Claudia, their eyes narrowed as they glared at Vicky.

Emil was faster to recover. “Claudia was suggesting that I should let Charles or Lucas mate with Amber.”

Vicky clenched her jaw, angry that she’d guessed exactly right. “What the hell? We’re not even here less than an hour, and you’re looking for a way to kill her?”

“Vicky, she’s got enough halfling blood in her that it might work,” Claudia said. “She could—”

“The baby would kill her and itself by the first trimester!” Vicky shouted, cutting her off. She clenched her fists, taking a deep breath as she tried to dispel her rage.

But she had a stray thought, and the emotion boiled hotter in her chest instead of simmering. “Come to think of it, she’ll die when her partner goes into a bloodlust. Did you think about this at all before you suggested something so stupid?”

Claudia sighed. “I did, and if you’ll both calm down, I can explain. Amber can carry the child full term, but she’ll need to become a blood drinker for the full eighteen months. If she’s able to stay here, I can handle the nursing duties after the child is born, and Amber will be free to go off the bottle. As for the bloodlust, you’ll be in the room, and you’ll offer a limb to whichever male she picks, allowing him to feed from you while he impregnates your partner.”

Vicky shook her head. “She’s not my—”

“She is, and you should just admit it,” Claudia snapped. “You wouldn’t show this much concern for a pet, so stop playing dumb.” Her gaze wandered to the door, and she raised her hand to wave Amber inside. “You’ve been listening all this time, so you know what I’m proposing is slightly dangerous.”

Emil snorted and rolled his eyes. “Slightly.”

“If you don’t have enough halfling genes to pull this off, then all this will be for you is sex...brutal sex.”

Amber looked at Vicky, who was already shaking her head. Amber smiled weakly. “Gee, that’s one hell of a sales pitch, isn’t it?”

Vicky pleaded, “Amber, think about—”

“Emil, can I choose you?” Amber asked.

Emil’s face flattened in a slack look of shock, and he stared for several long seconds before he asked, “Why me?”

“You’re the oldest, so you’ll know how to take your time,” Amber said.

Claudia tittered, and Emil stared blankly for another second before he laughed as well. Lucas and Charles joined in, and the only person not laughing was Vicky.

Vicky felt like she’d just stepped through a portal into Heil, and the fires of the rift were snapping shut behind her.