3. Amy
Chapter 3
Amy
I f anything could be compared to feeling like a rat in a maze, it would be this. I ran through streets and alleyways, taking turns at random. It seemed like a good idea to shake the vampire, but what did I really know? This was his territory.
But there was a chance I’d end up back by the blood bank, where Cyan would protect me from this guy. Right?
My lungs started to burn, as did my eyes, my itchy hand, and even my lips. Fucking hell, what was happening to me?
Everywhere I went were more cobblestones and tall, bricked buildings. Where the hell was that nightlife district? I couldn’t even hear other people anymore.
I slowed to a walk to rub my eyes and realized both hands were itching now. When I looked up, I noticed I’d come to a dead end.
A tall, brick retaining wall loomed up in front of me, gently curving around to form a semicircle.
“If you’re done running, would you like to come in for some blood?”
I whipped around and instinctively backed up toward the wall. The silver-haired vampire stood with his arms crossed, blocking my way out.
“I don’t want anything from you. And you can’t take from me either. You don’t have my consent!” My back hit the wall. I was cornered, but I refused to cower.
The vampire’s head jerked back, his expression somewhere between shocked and amused. “Little brusang, even if I wanted to take from you, there’s barely a drop in all your veins. You’re starving.” His head cocked to the side as if to inspect me from a different angle. “Were you turned very recently? No wonder you’re a feral little thing. Getting light rash too.”
“Getting…what?”
“Does your skin feel like it’s itching and burning?” When I said nothing, he pointed to the sky on the horizon behind him. “Sun’s coming up in an hour or so. Your kind is more tolerant than mine, but you need blood badly. You have no defenses left.”
Oh God, how could I have forgotten about exposure to the sun? I’d been inside, with artificial light and no windows, for two straight weeks. And he was right. The eastern sky was a quickly lightening navy blue. Already the burning was getting unbearable. What would happen to me once that blazing ball of fire was fully risen?
As if sensing my distress, the vampire said again, “You may come in for blood. And to stay overday, I suppose. There’s no adequate shelter around when the sun’s out. Then you can go on your merry way tomorrow at dusk.”
Like hell I was going anywhere with a stranger.
“No.” I shook my head, putting on my bravest face despite leaning all my weight against the wall. The burning sensation was so persistent, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand on my own. “I’m not going to your house. I don’t even know you.”
“Well, we’re technically already here.” The vampire looked like he was trying not to smile.
“What?”
“You’re in my courtyard.” He pointed at a building just outside the semicircle of the retaining wall. It was at least three stories tall, with stone steps leading up to two wooden doors with heavy bronze knockers affixed above the wrought-iron handles. “That’s the main house.” His arm swept across his body to point in the opposite direction. “That’s my garage.” It was a simpler, single story building with a wooden overhead door.
“So if you insist on staying glued to that wall, the best I can do is set up a shade canopy out here. It’ll be painful, but as long as you stay out of direct sunlight, you’ll live.” He shrugged. “Probably.”
My teeth ground against each other through the pain. It felt like my skin was on fire. “And if I come inside with you?”
The vampire’s expression softened. “You’ll have full protection from the sun, a blood meal, and a room to rest in. That’s it.”
“You’re not a creep?” I demanded. “Or a…I don’t know. Are there vampire serial killers?”
“I’m sure there are.” He gave a full-on smile and despite the fangs, I felt no sense of threat. “But I’m not one of them. Or a creep. At least, no one has accused me of such.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“Well I can’t shove you off to someone else because everyone is already turning in for the day. And you’re going to be dead on my literal doorstep in, oh,” he turned to glance at the sky, “forty-five minutes, probably. So my options, and by extension yours, are quite limited. Wouldn’t you agree?”
It seemed crazy, impossible even, that going with him was truly the only thing I could feasibly do. I wanted to run and scream for help, find Tavi and let her protect me like she always did. But the burning all over my skin was already so bad and getting worse. And I was so weak, I could barely stand without assistance.
None of this made sense to the human me. But my new reality meant that I needed to drink blood and avoid the sun. And this silver-haired vampire was my best chance of getting those things.
He seemed tired of waiting for a response and turned toward his door, a note of regret in his expression. “I have to get inside. Best of luck to you, little brusang.”
“Wait.”
I stepped away from the wall and felt a thousand tiny pinpricks of fire on my feet. Then I was falling, gravity pulling me down to crash against the cobblestones.
The hard punch of stone against my face never came. I was lifted away instead, the distance between me and the ground increasing as I was carried.
“I’ve got you. Temkra, you weigh nothing. When did you last feed?”
“My name’s Amy, not Tenka, or whatever you said.” Everything still hurt, but the burning sensation felt a bit soothed, like I had been wrapped in a cool, wet towel.
“All right, Amy.” The vampire chuckled and I felt the vibration of sound against my cheek. “My name is Novak. Temkra is our goddess. I was swearing, not calling you by her name.”
“That’s a mouthful.” My body rocked with each of Novak’s steps and I was suddenly so tired. My eyelids shunted closed and couldn’t seem to reopen. He might as well have been rocking me to sleep.
“It can be. We’re in my house now and I’m going to put you down on a settee, Amy.”
“’Kay.” All at once, my entire backside was supported by the softest cushions I’d ever lain on. From ankle to nape, I was supported by clouds.
Novak’s arms slid away from me, and I didn’t realize how much I liked the feel of them until they were gone. But from his scent and the volume of his voice, he was still near.
“Lourna, can you bring the salve for sun exposure? And prepare a guest room, please. Thank you.”
I turned my head on the pillow and inhaled, seeking out that warm, comforting scent I couldn’t quite place, but wanted to bury my nose in.
“Amy?” Gentle fingers moved hair off my forehead. “I’m going to give you my wrist. I’m well-fed, so take as much as you need?—”
“No.” I shook my head, scooting toward the back of the couch as my eyelids flew open in panic. Novak sat on the floor next to the loveseat, a bewildered expression on face.
I wasn’t sure why it was a detail I noticed, but this close, his hair looked like platinum silk spilling over his shoulders.
“No,” I repeated. “Not from the wrist. I… I know I need blood, but not like that. It freaked me out last time.”
“Ah. Okay, well.” His smile looked uncomfortable, pasted on for the sake of politeness. “The other best places to feed from usually require a degree of… intimacy.”
I scooted even farther away. To his credit, he did not move in any closer.
“Aren’t there any non-intimate places that aren’t the wrist?”
Novak’s eyes lit up and he straightened. “Hold that thought.” With effortless grace, he stood and walked out through a wide, open doorway.
Now that I was alone, I could finally take in my surroundings. Well, try to, anyway.
“Fuck me,” I whispered, eyes roaming all over the details of the elegant, high-ceilinged room.
The walls were a dark forest green with a subtle damask pattern. Built-in bookshelves painted in the same green covered one wall from floor to ceiling. The crown molding was bronze, as were the legs of the furniture, the coffee table a few feet away, and tons of other accents and small details.
It felt like I’d been transported to a movie set, a historical drama from the Victorian period or something. Only nothing looked fake and prop-like. Everything was real, and looked incredibly well-crafted.
This guy was rich, and obviously so. Blood ‘til Dawn, the clan that Cyan was part of, was the ruling clan of Sanguine, but they didn’t look wealthy. They rode motorcycles and wore beat-up leather jackets. Their compound was simple, no frills. Above ground, it looked like a small warehouse. The biggest extravagance was the stripper pole in the great room.
How did Novak live in a place like this and not be considered royalty?
“Here you are.” He returned a few minutes later, holding a crystal glass filled with a dark red liquid. “Better drink it fast. Blood doesn’t keep well when exposed to air.”
Novak held the glass out to me and my eyes went straight to the thick bandage wrapped around his forearm that wasn’t there before.
“Jesus Christ, were you trying to amputate yourself?” I stared at the glass, which wasn’t small and nearly filled to the brim with blood.
He gave me a bored look. “We heal at a rapid rate so yes, I had to cut myself pretty deeply for this much blood. I’m fond of having two hands though, so not quite amputation level. But I’ll be completely healed by dusk and this way, you won’t have to put your mouth anywhere on my,” he inhaled sharply, “on my person.”
With slow trepidation, I accepted the glass from him and just stared at my reflection on the dark surface of his blood.
“Do you need anything else?” he asked dryly. “A curly straw, perhaps?”
I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny, but a short laugh burst out of me anyway. “No, thanks. But, um, do you have to… watch me?” I had barely glanced up to meet his eyes when he started backing out of the room.
“Of course not. I’ll see how your room is coming along and return to check on you later. I can have my chef prepare you some solid food as well, if you’d like. She’s human, but knows the brusang palate very well.”
“Oh no, that’s not necessary.” I tried to sit up taller without spilling my glass of blood. The longer I stayed, the more I wondered how embarrassed I should be. With rooms like this, a chef and housekeeper presumably, who was this guy? Some kind of vampire prince? He certainly talked like one.
“It’s no trouble at all. Jo will be thrilled to work on something new.” Novak gave a slight smile, showing only a hint of fang. “Please just drink up and relax. I’ll be back shortly.” He turned and walked out again, leaving me alone with this cup of blood and the fancy wallpaper.
I stared at the glass of blood, trying to decide if I’d drink it or not, when a human woman in her forties walked in, carrying a small jar.
“For your skin,” she said with a polite smile as she set the jar on a side table, and left the room before I could say thank you.
I set aside the blood on the same table, grateful to have a distraction as I unscrewed the jar and took an appraising sniff. The substance inside was creamy and white, like lotion, and smelled faintly herbal.
The moment I swiped my fingertip through it, instant relief came to that sore, itchy spot. I gathered more of the lotion and rubbed it everywhere that had hurt, sighing with relief at the coolness.
Once that was done, my attention returned to the blood. The hunger pains had returned, but at least the burning sensation all over my body had gone. My instincts screamed at me to chug down the blood, to lick every drop until the glass was clean. But I hesitated, remembering the watery taste of the anonymous donor’s blood and how I had freaked out. The heat of his skin against my lips, the pulsing of his open veins directly into my mouth. It had been too much all at once, and I shuddered at the memory.
Novak was clever to bring me a glass. Without even knowing why the feeding process had freaked me out, he eliminated those aspects. I had been a human for twenty-seven years; I could totally drink from a glass. I could pretend it was juice, or one of Tavia’s wines.
Bringing the glass toward my nose, I took a tentative sniff, lifted my face away, then sniffed again. Novak’s blood even smelled a little bit like wine in a way I couldn’t place. Something sweet with a little bit of a bite to balance it out.
“Ow.” Something stabbed my lip, and I brought my hand up to realize it was my own fang. They were longer than they’d ever been before, and pulsed with a dull, insistent ache.
I had been stalling, working up the courage to drink the blood of some strange vampire from a glass that probably cost more than my old house. But right then, I had forgotten why I hesitated at all. Novak’s blood was rich and full of vitality that I so desperately needed.
I brought the glass to my lips and drank deeply.