Nine
IN QUEBEC
“This place is so drafty, Saul. Can’t we do better?”
“Oh, we’re doing better. I’ve found an old manor house on the edge of town with a nice finished basement, but it will take some time to complete the renovations. Until then, it’s safer to stay here.”
“Oh. That’s great. I can’t wait to see it. Where are the others?”
“Getting supplies. Didn’t you say that you wanted a couple of dogs? Why don’t you go and pick out some puppies from that shop downtown?”
“Really? I wasn’t sure you would allow me to get them.”
“We’re setting up a home here, Billie, so if you want dogs, go get dogs. I’d prefer puppies, I’ve always enjoyed watching them grow. But you choose whatever you want. I want to put down roots and it’s lovely here.”
Her eyes big, she slipped onto his lap, looping her arms around his neck.
“You’ve been traveling too long. You told me it’s been lonely.”
“It has. Three hundred years is a long time to be on your own. You and the others are my first attempt at making a family.”
“Aw. I’m so happy you allowed me to be part of it. If I had lived one more month with my father, I might have torn his hair out. Or mine. Or killed him. My life was going nowhere, Saul, because of his abuse. He saw me as a personal ragdoll to take care of him. I would have worked the rest of my life at that factory so he could sit on his fat ass and control me. Getting the chance to make him work, that was joy.”
“You’re a sweet, gentle woman. No one has the right to destroy your beautiful soul.”
“You are my hero, Saul.”
“Hardly. I’m just a lonely, crabby three hundred year old vampire.”
“You’re spectacular. Every woman that sees you wants to shove me aside and hop on top of you herself.”
“You are my girl, Billie. I’m very happy with how you hop on top of me, I’m not looking for a harem.”
“You have always made me feel special. There aren’t that many good men in the world.”
“Billie, there are a great many good men in the world, you’ve just been in a bad situation all your life. I’ve rescued you from that man, but you have an entire world out there to discover, and someday, you’ll want to do that. I urge you to.”
“Saul, I don’t want to…”
“Look, I’m not saying you have to leave here. I’m saying that when you’re ready, you must go. Now, head out and bring home those puppies before daylight. And don’t forget to get puppy food and toys.”
“I love you, Saul.”
“I know, darling. It’s a gift you give me.”
Once Billie was gone, Saul wandered around the ancient house he’d settled his small family into temporarily.
“It is drafty,” he commented to walls with no insulation.
It would get cold here in the winter, but they’d be in the other house within a few weeks.
So this was the life he was building. Centuries on the road, so many countries, he couldn’t remember, so many women. It had been a good life. Drunk most of it, partying, enjoying the pleasures of the body of a vampire, he’d built a life he’d loved.
Along the way, good friends that he’d stay with until they went their separate ways, doing any and everything that he wanted. Perks of being vampire. It had been a wonderful life.
Five years ago, waking on an air mattress in Italy surrounded by naked men and women drunk or exhausted from marathon group sex, he’d walked away to watch a quiet sea and realized that he wanted to build a life. For the first time, he wanted a family.
In his journeys, he’d met vampires who had settled down, who owned property and lived somewhat normal human lives. It was a simple thing, and he wanted it.
With Billie gone to pick up a puppy, he smiled, or two, Hazel and the others on a supply run, Saul took a moment to visit the house he’d chosen for his remaining family to try to make into a home.
Stately, over two hundred years old, almost as old as he, the house had stood alone on a hillside surrounded by trees for the past century. He’d hired a staff of twenty to finish the house extraordinarily fast, the deadline approaching in two weeks.
Coming over a steep hill where the property was revealed abruptly, he stayed put and just took in the beautiful scene below. The house stood as sentry over a pond so large it could be called a lake, and even now, he saw movement around the perimeter. Wildlife. Exactly what he’d sought.
The moon was three quarters full, reflecting off puffy white clouds as silvered magic illuminated the landscape.
Home. He’d hadn’t lived anywhere he could truly call a home since early human boyhood. He could taste the joy of finally putting down roots and building a life. Billie wasn’t a mate for him, but she was a beautiful girl with a heart of gold, and he cared deeply for her. When she’d asked to be brought over, he’d been honored that she loved him enough to give up her life for him. Perhaps in time, his own feelings would develop into love for her. Either way, this was the beginning of a new future for all of them.
Time to forget about the horrible loss in Oregon. He still felt raw about his uncontrolled vengeance forced on the hunter, who admittedly was guilty, and likely dead by now. Pain had driven him to respond so brutally, and he regretted the decision, but he had to move beyond that moment and focus on the family that remained by his side.
Hazel, a nurse in her human life, alone, an artist at heart, had crossed his path six years ago. They’d spent hours talking about life and choices made in a 24-hour diner in Milwaukee, bonded quickly, and become friends. Three months later, she’d told him that she would like to become vampire to see what the future of the planet held.
She was extremely excited about having a permanent home, particularly when he let her know that he was having a studio built for her creations. Hazel worked in glass, and while it was a mystery to him how she did it, she brought photorealistic images out in 3-D. In time, he thought she might become one of the world’s greatest artists.
Jamie and Jeffro, brothers, had joined him three years earlier when they’d been thrown out of a bar one night and landed at Saul’s feet. As humans, they’d been a waste, and they admitted it. Both had been drunk every night, dropped any kind of drugs if someone would give them to them, banged any woman that would fuck them, and neither had ever been good at keeping a job. But they were funnier than shit.
Saul had never laughed more in his life. Yes, the brothers were basically useless, but they were a blast to have around, and with time, had been able to change their habits and begin to become important members of Saul’s family. He was grateful that the two young vampires he loved as if they were his own brothers had not fallen to the hunters.
So with this little family intact, that house on the hill with twenty rooms and a massive underground chamber excavated by the specialists Saul had hired, would become home.
A crunch of leaves behind him drew his attention around, his eyes searching the darkness where trees covered most of the surrounding acreage.
Noticing movement in the trees, he started toward them when he realized that he couldn’t move. Not an inch. Legs, arms, immobilized, he could still turn his head and his eyes could move. Anything below his neck was locked.
“What the fuck?” Saul hissed. “Who’s there? What have you done to me?”
Struggling within, no matter how hard he tried, Saul was frozen in place. Nothing on this earth could do something like this, should certainly not be able to stop a vampire.
Out of the shadows, six large figures moved forward, past the tree line and onto the hill in front of him. The moon and bright night sky illuminated their features. Three, he recognized. The hunters from Oregon. Ben Remington, alive. Saul was both grateful to see he’d survived and surprised to see him here in Canada.
His eyes shifted to an enormous man in the center of the group, bigger than any he’d ever seen. He was vampire, of that there was no doubt, but he read different than the lifeforce he usually sensed from a nearby vamp. It had to be this unique vampire that had done this to Saul.
“Who are you?” Saul asked, his voice calm. “What are you?”
The large vampire stepped too close, as he studied Saul’s face.
“I am yer judge, jury, and, if necessary, yer executioner. Now ya don’t have any options here, vampire, so behave. I’m Xavier, and ye’re comin’ back to Oregon with us. The beard’s interestin’.”
“My family…”
“Will be all right. Vampires have no problem figurin’ out how to survive.”
Saul’s eyes shot to Jack and Ben, legs spread, standing behind the unknown vampire with handguns held on him. “Unless brutally murdered by misguided assholes who have no idea what they’re doing.”
Xavier laughed. “Aye, there’s that. But it isn’t yer concern anymore. Ye have to answer for yer own crime of forced conversion. We’re fair, sir, but yer still comin’ with us.”
Xavier waved a hand to the two heavily armed men.
“Kwano, Alec, bind him for good measure and bring him. We should make it in time for second meal.”
As he was lifted, and thrown over one of the men’s shoulders, Saul watched his dream disappear behind him. Home? Likely not, now.
Minutes later he was laid, gentler than he expected, onto a long leather seat in the back of a long-range lift car. He could see the back of everyone’s heads, but nothing more.
Rolling his head back, he looked at the ceiling of the car. What the fuck?
To his knowledge, nothing on earth could do this. Since this hunting group showed up, he hadn’t been able to move his body. The vampire Xavier had not answered his question on how he could do this, but if the hunters had vampires working for them, this was going to be a bloodbath.
At Hunter HQ
“We need to address Barnaby and his crew right away. Ife, can we leave Elias and Barnaby’s friendship intact? What good is giving Elias a new life away from vampire hunting if he hasn’t any friends or family?”
“That’s doable. And wise. I’ve never done this before, Sanquinetta, and it seems to me that you have the proper insight into what will be the best choices for redesigning these people’s lives. We’ll keep it simple as possible, we’ll try to keep relationships intact, but I really need you to help me stay straight on what will ultimately be best for them. I’m so happy you decided to work with us to fix this tragic situation. For both humans and vampires. Innocents have been dying and that must stop.”
“Yeah, well, if you had told me last week that I’d be working with vampires to protect vampires, I would have sent you to the head doctor.”
Ife laid a hand on Sanquinetta’s wrist and she found herself leaning toward her, calmness infusing her mind and body, and…something else.
Ife moved closer and closed her eyes, both hands now on Sanquinetta’s arm. For long moments, neither spoke until finally Ife sat back and her eyes opened.
Crystal clear blue eyes searched Sanquinetta’s face.
“Do you realize that you have talents?”
“Talents? Like singing or painting?”
“No. Sanquinetta, I feel within you an ability to sense the feelings, the nature of others. It’s latent, but strong. You need training, San, you are a latent empath. You must have sensed it at times. Your mother should have apprised you.”
“I was raised by my grandmother. She never mentioned anything like that. I doubt my gram even knew what empathy is. However, she often told me that I was a special girl, but that’s what any good gram would say. It did seem like she said it a lot, though. So, I don’t know, maybe she knew something? But to answer your question, yeah, I have always had an odd ability to read people’s emotions, sometimes their intentions, and a few times I’ve had what I called a vision. Even though the visions came true, I always convinced myself it was because I am good at deduction and I probably had already worked out likely scenarios in my head, so it had less to do with prognostication than brilliant supposition.”
“You are brilliant, yes, but you are also somewhat empathic. We are finding more and more humans with latent talents these days. Your skill has aided you all along and will be doubly important as we unravel and rethread lives in the coming weeks and months. I wish I could stay and help.”
Sanquinetta paused at that comment. So Ife was still leaving? What about Jack? Setting her jealousy aside, which she admitted was ridiculous, Jack had never been hers romantically, she folded her arms and regarded this vampire who had stolen his heart.
“When do you plan to go?”
“I’m not certain. Honestly, I’d like to stay and help, but my work in the Amazon is at a critical stage and I need to be there to guide the next wave of restorations. No more than three weeks, I think.”
She didn’t want to ask, but she couldn’t stop herself.
“What about Jack? Will you two see each other again?”
“I hope so. I think so. Jack and I are very new. San, I’ve never been in love. I think I am now, with Jack, and I don’t know how he would feel about becoming vampire. I, too, have empathic skills, but with him, I’m just blank. I guess he and I will have to have a talk before I leave.”
Ife moved back a little. “Sanquinetta, I know you have feelings for him too. This hasn’t been easy for you.”
“Nope, it hasn’t. But I want what’s best for him. Like most of us who have been raised to be hunters, we suck at relationships. We never had role models or tools to help us understand how they work. We’re raised to fight, to be warriors for our cause, not to fall in love and share ourselves with someone else. But, yeah, Jack and I, we kind of found a way to do some of that. Not romantically, at least, not him, but in the end, all I want is for him to be happy. You get me?”
“I do. Vampires really aren’t different from humans, San, I hope you’re beginning to see that. We love, we lose, we hurt. I have been raised in the most incredible community of love and support possible. My siblings are in love, my friends have mostly found love, and I never have. So, yes, I really am not sure where things go with me and Jack either, but I want to find out. I do hate if it hurts you, I think we could be good friends. You’re quite a fascinating woman.”
Sanquinetta smiled as Ife left the room. If Jack wasn’t going to be hers, she found satisfaction that with Ife, he would have someone just as magnificent as she. Sighing, she looked at her computer.
Work to do. Barnaby next. How would they integrate him into the life they’d built for Elias?
The next two hours, she and Ife worked out the details, logistics, implementation, of the assignment. Plato would accompany three of Xavier’s vampire crew to a small town outside Seattle to intercept Barnaby, begin compulsion and purge him from the life he’d lived since infancy. It would take two days to put everything in order. They would leave him in his own home since it was a separate residence from their base of operations, which would be shut down instantly. Once Ife had the names and residences of all of Barnaby’s crew and any contacts in the area that knew about vampires, she would began the process of stripping his memory of his hunter’s life.
On the way back to Oregon from Quebec
“Well, that went smoothly. Let’s hope it will be a trend.”
Xavier had been jovial on the return trip, recounting similar situations he’d fixed in Europe. “I don’t know what gets into the bastards. Some arsehole makes a group of undesirables into vampires, they think they’re little tin gods, and they rape, drink, and pillage. I have no choice but death for those rogues. That kind of behavior is unacceptable in any kind of society. We do what we have to do, difficult though it may be.”
Nodding, because he agreed on principle, Jack’s eyes strayed to the bundled man frozen in the back of the car.
“What are we going to do with him?”
“We find out what he’s been up to, see if he’s unsalvageable. If he’s killed people, if he’s committed to the lifestyle that we find unacceptable, then he will be gone. We have found that leaving these type of threats alive has too many inherent dangers. Once, we allowed a woman to live who had tried to murder one of our own community. Hell, she was the head of security for me at the time. We decided to let her live, purged her memory, gave her a simple life, and that worked for about twenty years. Something must have broken the compulsion and her base tendencies returned. She came after him again, and we realized that sometimes you have to do the wise thing and relieve the world of the threat. I don’t get that sense from this one, but I’ll let Ife find out what we need to know.”
Ben felt conflicted. Still pissed at Saul for kidnapping him and making him vampire, yet finding more and more each night that he might be exactly where he wanted and needed to be, Ben couldn’t condemn Saul, but wouldn’t absolve him either. “He changed me against my will.”
“Aye, that’s why we sought him. Also, I have other plans for ye sire, Ben. Yer team in Oregon will help us track down and disband the human huntin’ teams. But, if he turns out to be an honorable man, Saul may be our best lead to findin’ vampires who have gone rogue. Our task is large, men, and we’ve a long road to travel with it. Once we get things on track, I’ll leave a team here to finish and return to me other duties in Europe. It’s an ever increasingly small world, and yet I still find meself far from home too often.”
“I have no interest in helping you kill vampires,” a voice from the back of the car called out.
“Shhh. Ye’re not part of the conversation yet, Saul.”
At Hunter HQ the following night
“We’re nearly finished with re-organizing the hunters outside of Seattle.”
“Great job, ladies. Thank everyone for me, Cari. Now, Ife, I’ve another task for ya. Ye know we’ve brought Ben’s sire back to face judgment for his crime. I need ya to take a look at him on the spirit plane and let me know if he’s a risk to people or our race.”
“Of course, Xavier. You have him in the basement?”
“Aye. We need to settle this so he can be released to move. I hate keepin’ someone in this condition for too long a time.”
“Then let’s go down.”
Jack watched Xavier’s request, wondering about yet another odd vampire skill he wasn’t familiar with. What was Xavier requiring of Ife? Was it dangerous? Once the vampires had retreated to the basement, he followed.
Ben was near Saul, his expression unreadable. Ife sat beside the sexy rogue that had changed Ben, her hand reaching for his.
What the hell was going on with that? She had to hold hands with him? And why did he think he had any right to be jealous? Jack tried to close down his strong uber-macho reaction to his woman touching another man, with minimal success.
He felt Ben’s hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, bro. I’ll be here for you.”
Nodding, he accepted his brother’s support as he watched Ife scoot closer to Saul. “Fuck,” he whispered, and hoped it was only loud enough for Ben to hear.
“Saul, have you ever done a spirit walk before?”
“No.”
“It’s easy. All you have to do is relax and clear your mind. Let me in. I’m only going to stay long enough to confirm your nature, to see if you are worthy to keep the gift of immortality. To see if you are an honorable man with respect for both vampires and humans. If those things are true, you will be exonerated and free to go.”
“Then let’s get this shit-show on the road.”
“I understand your anger. Please, try to let it go, it will make it much easier for you to clear your mind and let me in.”
Silence let her know he was trying. His eyes strayed to Ben, to Jack, to Xavier, then back to Ife’s unusual blue eyes. “Vampires usually have dark eyes. Why don’t you?”
“That is a conversation for another time.” Those blue eyes went to Saul’s amber eyes. “For both of us.”
He let his eyelids drop and laid back against the sofa, his breathing slowing.
Ife was surprised that she slid into his mind easily, Saul open and receiving her spirit as she moved into the white space and beyond. His aura colors and patterns showed a man with deep convictions, a gentle man with good values and intentions. There was nothing unkind or dangerous in Saul, unless he was fighting to protect someone or something. She saw the pain that drove him to his recent act with Ben and she saw how much the decision hurt him still. No, Xavier could not destroy this beautiful heart. While she was with him, Ife sent a healing touch to his spirit, let him know that he wasn’t ever alone, and that he had family in his vampire race. Overwhelmingly, she could feel his loneliness.
At once, she felt him touch her back, and he sent back to her a mirror of her gift. He’d mirrored her? This was a talent she had never come across before.
Sliding back out, easily, she opened her eyes to his, already open and staring back. He’d come out with her, exactly as she had, when he should have needed more recovery time. This man had special talents, something that Xavier needed to know. Ife smiled at him and pulled her hands away.
Glancing toward Xavier, she noticed Jack’s upset face.
Oh. He was jealous; it poured off him. When they went to bed, she’d have to show him that he had no reason to be.
“Xavier, this man is a benefit to our race in every way. He’s loving, kind, has no delusions that he’s superior because he’s vampire. There isn’t any meanness in Saul, Xavier. This man is highly honorable and trustworthy.”
“Thank ye, lass.”
Xavier turned to Saul and flipped a hand.
Standing, slowly, because his muscles were sore from inactivity, he stretched out his arms and flexed his legs.
“I’m free to go, she said.”
“Aye, ye are. One last thing, though. Well, two, but first, how do ye justify yer behavior with this young hunter? Ye forced a change.”
“I did, and I was sorry once it was done. They’d killed my family out of ignorance and prejudice and I wondered how they would feel if faced with that choice for one of their own. It was cruel and unacceptable. I can only offer my apology in the most sincere way, that I am sorry for what I did. Ben, I know it may take a while to forgive me, but I can already see that being vampire suits you. I hope you thrive.”
Saul looked around the room at too many big vampires for his comfort. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Starting to hurry up the stairs, Saul yanked at his arm when he felt Xavier’s hand on it. “I said two things, lad.”
Well aware it wouldn’t do him any good to refuse, Saul followed Xavier back up the stairs and into a dismal room with four computers and large vidscreens.
“Look, I’ve no reasonable belief that ya might want to do this, except that now that we know ya are a good-hearted vampire who cares about humans, I wonder if there is any chance ye might help us to stop the hunters? Vampires, too, if they’re rogue and hurtin’ people, but if we put the hunters out of business and stop the rogues, we win. People win. Innocent vampires win.”
“No. Good luck with your work.”
Saul pushed past Xavier to feel a soft touch on his arm that he responded to at once. Ife, those beautiful fingers on him again.
“Think about it, Saul. This might be the one thing you could do to atone for hurting Ben. Even if he’s ultimately happy as a vampire, he should have had the choice. Now he’s vampire for the rest of his life, no matter what. Give us a month and see what you think. You can always join your family afterward.”
Once again, he scanned the room. So many earnest faces. He could see they were focused on the job of ending the barbaric hunter’s groups. But he had a life to build. Family to care for. He couldn’t. Didn’t want to anyway. Then he stopped on Ben.
His make. Family.
“Please. Just give us one month.” Ife was still asking for a response.
Saul couldn’t walk away, as he’d intended. Not yet. He did need to ask for redemption after that knee-jerk nasty action. Xavier was right, his family would be okay. He looked at the huge vampire. Not only was the man right, but as much as anything, Saul wanted to know what these vampires were that they could do the things they did. What if he considered…
“When would you want me to begin?”
“Ye can take yer time, lad. Two weeks, three?
“I have to think about it. I’ll let you know when I decide, that’s all I can offer you right now.”
“Aye, that’s fine, lad. We’ll be here most nights right after sunset.”
“Okay.” After looking around the room one last time, Saul disappeared. Sighing, Xavier shook his head.
“Well, that was a beginnin’ anyway. So, Hunters, where do we start next?”
Later that night, outside the main office of the hunter’s headquarters, Xavier leaned on a stone wall. Ife and Cairine rested their backs to it.
“So, he’s a mystery, isn’t he?” Ife commented.
“Aye. Not the first time a vampire didn’t fit the mold.”
“He has talents, Xavier. I don’t think he’s a made vampire.”
“First blood?” Cairine asked, surprised.
“It’s possible. Did ya see his eyes, Cari? Golden. Someday, Saul and I are gonna have a conversation about his origins.”