Chapter Fifteen – Jack
Chapter Fifteen
Jack
I woke alone in a pit, surrounded by darkness personified, with nothing around for as far as I could sense or see—just coldness. Omnipresent coldness. Chilled to the bone. The cold of the grave.
And then I really woke up, gasping for air, arms wrapped around Paco.
I blinked, listening to my heart race, trying to regain my equilibrium. I couldn’t remember the last dream I’d had—it had to have been before I was turned—but now I knew that vampires could have nightmares.
Up until last night, the prior worst thing in my life had been being involved in a cave in, trapped underground, worried that I would live forever and no one would ever free me.
Now—I sat up in bed, still panting—it was just cold nothingness.
Like space, but without stars, for eternity. I shuddered, and then lay back down.
Paco was going to wake up tonight, after three in the morning.
I nestled my body against his, taking comfort in his familiar form, his familiar scent.
What was he going to think when he woke up?
And how was I going to feed him? Sex with me wouldn’t be enough anymore—vampires were takers of life, not givers, a human partner would be far more satisfactory.
Would he want to go back to his boyfriend?
What would his boyfriend think, after he was gone all this time?
What would’ve happened at his job? I brushed a hand through his hair.
I didn’t mean to make a mess of things for him.
I just couldn’t let him die. I hoped he understood that. I hoped I’d made the right choice.
I kissed the nape of his neck again, and this time really got out of bed.
Sugar wasn’t there waiting for me—I went into the living room to find that Luna had already fed her, whenever it was that she’d gotten up.
The couch cushions were neatly replaced and the sheets folded.
I wondered if tomorrow it would be Paco sleeping on the couch—or in my bed.
Hopeful—and nervous—I got in the shower.
I was at Dark Ink to touch base an hour later. Luna was behind the counter again. After our talk this morning, I didn’t know which version of her I’d find, she was all over the map—but this time when she saw me she squealed my name and ran to my side.
I hugged her because she was hugging me so I couldn’t not with everyone watching, and yet—she looked up at me and gave me a mischievous wink, knowing I was trapped.
Past her though, things looked full—the station opposite mine had a man I didn’t recognize working behind its partition.
When he saw me, he apologized to his client and stood up to come over.
He was taller than I was and had tan skin, with a strong brow and a short round beard.
When he reached me he took off his gloves and offered his hand.
“I’m Nilesh. Mattie told me you’d be coming in.” He had a slight Indian accent.
“I’m Jack—nice to meet you.”
“Mattie hired him this morning, apparently,” Luna chimed in. “His paperwork’s on your desk, and I’ve added his work to all the portfolios, including online.”
“Thanks, Luna,” I told her. I didn’t even know how to add things to our webpage—I turned to him. “What’s your specialty?”
“American traditional.”
“Always a popular choice. How do you know Mattie?”
“Friend of a friend, from the convention circuit. I’m looking to have a home shop here while I go out on the weekends.”
Weekends were our busiest times, but beggars for warm and talented bodies could not be choosy. “Sounds good.”
“I worked his calendar out already, boss,” Luna said, her tone sexy, the word ‘boss’ a tease. I glared at her, but she was grinning, and I had a feeling I’d be boss-this and boss-that all night. I sighed.
“Hey man,” Nilesh went on. “I’ve seen your stuff before, it’s tight—how come you don’t tour?”
Luna wrapped her arm through mine. “Jack’s a homebody is why.”
Then the doorchime behind us rang and Luna freed herself to go say hi, the embodiment of the perfect employee once again. It was like this morning had never happened. The girl gave me whiplash.
“If I had her to come home to, I would tour less too,” Nilesh confessed, his voice low.
“Believe it or not—she makes me want to go on tour,” I said. “Like a long one. Around the world.” Nilesh’s bushy eyebrows rose and he laughed.
As did his client behind him. I hadn’t really looked hard earlier, trying to grant them whatever privacy the partition afforded, but now I did as his client leaned up and back, stretching up from their chair like a cat.
“Sam?” I said in surprise. From as close as I was, I could see she was naked from the waist up.
Her breasts were perfect, high on her chest, her areolas wide and dark, and the sight of her made the hunger lurch inside of me, like a pit bull pulling on a chain, reminding me I hadn’t fed it last night.
“Just getting a touch-up,” she said. Nilesh returned to her side, and she bent back down.
Luna returned after setting up a walk-in with a portfolio. “I told her she couldn’t just wait for you—she had to spend some money.”
I chastised Luna. “She could’ve just waited.”
“No, the timing was good,” Sam said, from behind the shoji-screen wall. “Gimmie fifteen minutes, will you?”
“Sure.” I had a feeling she was here for a reason, it wasn’t just a social call.
But her timing was bad—I had a lot on my plate this evening.
I needed to feed, I needed to back-up Maya, and then I needed to get home before Paco woke, and then with him figure out how best to feed him.
I’d texted Francesca, one of my local hook-ups for blood, but she hadn’t texted me back yet.
Luna was watching me, and she’d been around Rosalie too long not to know what I was thinking.
“I am literally right here,” she said, swiveling her head to show me both sides of her neck.
“Yes you are, and yet no,” I answered her, ducking into my office as Nilesh finished up.
Sam met me there. I gave her the office chair and stood to lean against the desk. I was curious about what Nilesh had done to her, but I didn’t want to ask her to move her bandage—she was far too attractive to be alone with half-naked.
“Just because I’m pure doesn’t mean I’m a prude,” she said with a smirk.
Somehow all the women I knew could read my mind. “So what’s up?”
“I talked to my superiors. We’d like your help to quarantine that land.”
“Your people want my help?” I tilted my head. “Why?”
“They don’t believe I made an error. Nothing followed Bryan through the conduit—I tapped into something that was already out there. Until we know what that was, we need to make sure no one else gets hurt.”
“Small problem. That land isn’t mine. And the woman it belongs to just sold it. The transaction will be finalized tonight.”
Sam’s teeth ground together. “Who will own it next?”
“The Sangre Rojo.”
She rocked back and the back of the chair hit her fresh tattoo, making her hiss. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“I thought pure people didn’t curse?”
“I’m pure of heart, not pure of tongue.” She stood, looking for someplace to pace.
“I take it you can’t arrange a quarantine with them.”
“Let’s just say the Faithful and the Rojo are not on speaking terms. Have your friend, the current owner, call off the deal.”
“Already tried that, last night. She likes money more than she likes helping people. It’s a bad trait among my kind. Plus, she’s afraid of pulling out on them.” I watched her grimace. “From your reaction, sounds like she has reason to be.”
“The Rojo are irrational. They pursue dark magic and follow dark gods. Whatever their interest in that land is it cannot be good. They likely know more than we do already.”
“Literal gods? Like—you people know about an afterlife?”
“Gods like semi-physical manifestations of the will of groups of beings combining psychic power towards one purpose.” She took in the confused look on my face, and simplified for me. “Like a religion—only one where prayers work and you use them to kill things.”
“That sounds bad.”
“Because it is.”
Sam wasn’t the only one with the urge to pace. I needed to figure out how I was going to get Maya out of this mess—I didn’t want Dark Ink to sink with her. “I don’t suppose you want to join forces for the night?”
Sam stood up straighter. “How so?”
“Maya, kin to me through Rosalie, is meeting the Rojo at Vermillion at midnight tonight to hand over the deed. I was going to go and help her make a show of force. I don’t think she can back out of the deal without dying—or without help.
But if all the Rojo that show up mysteriously wind up dead, then, well, we outnumbered them. ”
“You would only be making yourselves targets.”
“Ahh, but you arrive to help us kill them all. If we blame you and claim casualties as well, then their anger would be misplaced. You’ll have the deed and we’ll repay the Rojo, there won’t be any witnesses, and maybe we survive.”
One of her eyebrows arched. “That is a wildly improbable plan.”
“Agreed. But do you have a better one?” I nudged the mouse, turning the computer screen behind me on to check the time. “Because you’ve got about three hours till midnight.”
Sam frowned deeply, furrowing her forehead. “I’ll have to communicate with my superiors.”
“All right,” I said, moving for the door. She blocked it with her body and held her hand up for silence, while closing her eyes.
“Okay,” she said, after a long pause. “They’re in agreement.”
I inhaled to ask how she knew, but then realized telepathy was only a skip, hop, and a jump away from telekinesis. Being a Faithful seemed a lot like being the protagonist in an 80’s Stephen King novel.
“What about you and yours?” she asked.
“Maya won’t be happy but she’ll listen to common sense. I’ll make her. How many reinforcements will you be bringing?”
Sam flashed me a wolfish grin. I had a feeling she enjoyed fights. “Enough of them. What time should we arrive?”
I imagined there would be a period of metaphorical dick-waving before business commenced—but I also knew vampire conversations could get deadly, fast. “Ten after. Fifteen at the latest. And remember—not a single Rojo can survive.”
Sam grunted. “And just like that, you’re willing to condemn so many that you’ve never met.” She made it sound like we weren’t in agreement—like it was a character flaw.
“If it means that that thing in the desert that’s a portal to a cold dark hell doesn’t open again, yes.” I leaned past her and opened up the door behind her. Luna was hovering nervously right outside, as was Nilesh, presumably looking to get paid. I jerked my chin at Luna.
“Pay and tip him from the register. Her tattoo is on the house.”
Nilesh’s eyes widened as Sam strode out. “See you soon, Jack. Between now and then, stay good.”
“We both know that’s doubtful,” I said, then she was gone.