Chapter 13 – Cassini
CASSINI
There are bodies everywhere.
Old and young. Naked and dressed. Dead and alive.
All of them crammed into this partially dilapidated house.
Some are out of it, draped on mismatched furniture, while a parasitic entity feeds on them.
Others mechanically gyrate their bony hips to the hideous drone of the music that pounds through the peeling walls.
As I push through the crowd at this so-called party, all I can think about is Lily and how horrified she’d be to see me in a place like this. At ease amongst the worst of my own kind and the dregs of society they feed on.
She doesn’t know if she wants to see me again, but it can’t end like this. I won’t let that happen.
Despite my resistance, the connection between us is undeniable; she can hear me inside her head—standard for a medium—but now I can hear her, too.
It’s extraordinary to have something like that.
Until a few hours ago, I’d never even considered the possibility of a two-way psychic connection between vampires and humans.
In five centuries, I’ve never heard of anything like it.
I’m desperate to explore it—to explore her—but first, I have a colossal problem to take care of. Lazaro wasn’t just threatening when he told me Julian had a job for me. A test of my loyalty that I’m unable to refuse, despite the many lines it crosses.
A part of me wants to tell him to shove his request up his ass, but I’ll play nice for now. If Lily is really on their radar, enough to be followed, then I’m even more exposed than I expected. Sure, it could be paranoid, but the rock in my gut says otherwise.
As promised, at sundown, I was summoned to a warehouse on the edge of town. I found Julian propped against the hood of a black Audi sedan lit only by the red glow of the taillights, looking extremely pissed to be forced to deal with me.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he snarled, eyeing my soil-covered hair. “Let me guess…sleeping in the ground like a worm again?”
“At least worms serve a purpose,” I replied, brushing the dirt from my sleeve. “What’s your excuse?”
He spat a couple more petty insults in my direction and chewed me out for a while, telling me how useless, arrogant, and untrustworthy I was.
Prattling on for ages about how he couldn’t wait for my demise and how, if it were up to him, I’d be staked before sunrise.
Eventually, he tired himself out and told me why I’d been summoned.
Starting small, as a low-level lackey and collector, I was to drive to the outskirts of town and collect a package from a cesspit of depravity known as a bleeding house. A windowless place where drug users mingle with drug-addicted vampires who pay to party and fuck.
This one was affectionately named House 4 and was one in a vast network of shitty twenty-four-seven party venues.
I wasn’t sure how many there were in Austin exactly, but there were plenty of them.
Once inside, I was to collect two young women and transfer them to Nocturne, the most prestigious vampire club in the South, controlled and owned by the Sixth.
Julian had told me that House 4 was one of the lower-level ones, known for only making the Sixth Clan a small amount of revenue, but the real value was in it as a proving ground.
Sometimes, humans from the bleeding houses would prove their worth and end up earning their way into a place like Nocturne or the Jackalope.
Hard work and sweet blood occasionally rewarded with a seat at the highest table.
A club where feeding costs spiraled into the thousands, and the bleeders could even earn some money themselves instead of getting drained in exchange for drugs.
“Two of them,” Julian had said. “A couple of pretty college girls. They’ve more than proved themselves, and the Primus wants them moved before it’s too late and they’re too strung out to make any money.
You will talk to Eddie; he runs the place for us.
Go there, pick them up, and discreetly transfer them to Nocturne.
You’ll also need to do a cash collection and bring it back to me. ”
As I’d gone to leave, Julian fixed me with his cold, black eyes. “If there’s a single cent missing from the collection, I’ll know about it, you shady fuck.”
He’s never liked me but since the incident with Cyrus he hates me more than ever. I’d welcome him to try his luck. Even in my weakened state, I could snap his neck before he drew his next breath.
On the ride over, I thought about what would happen if Megan was inside.
What would I do if I saw her? How hard would it be to extract her unharmed?
My strength might be diminishing with each day that passes, but I’m still an old vampire.
One with a history of violence and ancient royal blood coursing through his veins.
I’m still more powerful than many young newbloods, and for the first time in a while, I allow myself to feel something that feels dangerously close to hope.
If I find her, I can end this today.
I’m standing in the corner, scanning the crowd at House 4, when a skinny blonde chick with a little potbelly sidles up to me and runs her finger along my arm. Her heavy lids blink slowly, like they’re drenched in molasses.
“You looking for something to drink, handsome?” she purrs, pulling her fine hair back and tilting her neck to reveal a row of angry purple bruises. “I’m on a lotta weed and a little coke, so it’s a two hundred dollars for a taste, but for you I’d do it for half off.”
I catch a whiff of her blood and recoil. “You’re pregnant. You know that, right? You shouldn’t be anywhere near a place like this.”
She laughs and playfully bats my arm. “Oh, sugar, I know that. The boys tell me it makes my blood taste sweeter. Sometimes they throw me a little extra tip. You sure you don’t wanna try for yourself?”
“I’m good. Trust me.” My stomach turns, and I barely keep the revulsion out of my tone. “I’m looking for someone. Eddie. He looks after this place?”
“Oh, sweetie, everybody around here knows Eddie. He’s probably out back playing cards. I can take you to him if you like?”
I nod, drop my voice a few octaves, and grab her shoulders to turn her into the corner so she’s shielded from the room by my back.
She giggles as I take my phone out, sliding through the camera roll until I land on an image of Megan.
“I’m looking for someone else, too. A girl a little younger than you. Someone’s looking for her.”
When I turn the screen to her, she squints at it for a moment, and then her face drops.
All the forced saccharine sweetness of her smile vanishes, replaced with pure horror.
She shakes her head violently and attempts to push past me, but it’s futile.
I’m infinitely stronger than her, and her tiny fists drum into my chest like raindrops hitting a sidewalk.
“Are you trying to get me killed?” she squeaks.
“I can’t talk about that shit. Do you have any idea what he’ll do to me if he finds out I’ve talked?
” She struggles for a little longer before slumping against the wall in defeat, breathing heavily whilst she strokes her burgeoning belly protectively and turns her frightened eyes up to me.
“Please. I don’t want anyone to hurt my baby. ”
I roll my eyes. The irony isn’t lost on me; this coked-up creature is using her unborn child as a bargaining chip. Whilst I don’t find her the least bit genuine, I can smell the fear on her. It radiates from every pore and mixes with panic and desperation.
“Please,” she whispers. “I’m begging you.”
I shush her and tilt her face up towards mine and pour myself into the cracks of her mind. Cooing gently as I flood it with artificial warmth and comfort, pulsing waves of serenity and trust. The feeling fills her like opium hitting a vein, and her breathing grows slow and steady again.
She softens and leans herself against me, stroking my biceps and pressing her ear to my chest. “What do you need, sugar?” She sighs sweetly. “I’ll give you anything you need.”
I shake her away from me and show her the image again. “This girl. You recognize her, don’t you?”
She nods. “Mmhmmm, I sure do. That’s Meg. She used to come around here…but not anymore.”
“Good girl. Tell me, when did you last see her?”
“Not for a while. She used to stop by and party on the regular. Nothing serious, just a little X and a coke on the weekends, but I guess she got in too deep. One day, some hot Latino-looking vamp came to get her. Told us all that if we said anything we’d be dead.
” She pauses to stroke me on the arm and winks.
“Don’t worry, handsome. He wasn’t a patch on you. ”
“What did he look like?”
“Cute, in that bad-boy kinda way. Black hair, expensive suit, a couple of face tats right here.” She’s swaying as she points a dirty fingernail under her right eye. “Three itty bitty teardrops.”
Angel.
“Where did he take her?”
“Hell if I know. A friend of mine said she saw her down at House 9 a few months back, another one of these flop houses, but someone else said she’s working at that expensive vamp club y’all love so much.
I heard she’s called Lexi and she’s into the hard stuff now.
Chiva Loca is some real bad shit. I never touch the stuff…
” She leans in and rubs her face against my chest like a feral cat scenting a doorway.
“But I guess I could try it for you. For a price.”
I shake her away and leave her in a cloud of empty euphoria, her eyes pressed shut, swaying and grinding alone to the beat with my lingering mood still hanging in the air.
The growing crowd of revelers doesn’t even flinch as I shove through them to the shitty makeshift kitchen in the back, in search of Eddie. The man who keeps them dancing.
The back room stinks of acrid body odor and stale beer, and when I open the door, a cloud of cigarette smoke billows out, revealing a small circular table with several figures hunched around it.
At the center sits a man in a filthy Slipknot T-shirt and a camo trucker hat with frayed edges.
When I cross the threshold, he barely glances up from the spread of cards in his hand, regarding me with irritation whilst chewing on a toothpick.
“Eddie?” I ask.
“Depends who’s asking,” he grumbles.
To his side is a young female who looks as if she’s been dragged through Hot Topic, her soulless eyes ringed with kohl, staring daggers into me from across the room.
Eddie’s bruised neck has the telltale signs of feeding, so I guess he’s not one of us.
Makes sense that the Sixth would stack the flop houses with familiars, too.
Someone living to keep the drugs and alcohol flowing twenty-four-seven. Someone too afraid to steal from them.
I look around at the degenerates in the room. “I’m here to collect the package for transfer.”
“On whose authority?” the female asks.
“Lazaro Malvini.”
The room fills with the sound of shuffling.
Cards hit the table and furniture shift back as Eddie signals for the players to leave.
They grouse, but the female vamp silences them with a look.
She lazily slides off her chair like a displaced cat and exits with the rest, but not before shooting me a withering look that could strip the flesh from my face.
“This better be quick,” she hisses as she herds the others out. “We were having fun.”
Eddie takes a long pull from his beer bottle, watching me carefully.
“So you’re the pickup. Julian said someone would be by.
” He gestures to the threadbare couch in the corner where two young women are curled together like sleeping kittens.
“Mara and Brielle. Good earners, those two. Shame to see them go.”
“You got their cut?” I ask.
Eddie reaches under the table and produces a rumpled envelope thick with cash.
“Thirty grand total. Not bad for a couple of college girls, eh?” He hands it over, then leans back in his chair.
“You know, since you’re here… I got some premium stock if you’re interested.
I got a blonde in the back fed on nothin’ but champagne and strawberries for the last week. I hear she’s sweet as candy.”
I force myself to look interested. “Actually, I’m looking for someone specific. A girl I used to feed on regularly. Lost touch when she moved.” I pull out my phone, show him Megan’s photo. “I’m willing to pay big to find her again.”
Eddie’s expression shifts, becomes guarded. He studies the image for a long moment, then examines me with fresh suspicion. “Where’d you say you knew her from?”
“I didn’t.”
“Right.” He takes another swig of beer, buying time. “Well, can’t say I recognize her.”
I pull out a roll of hundred-dollar bills, peel off five of them, and slide them across the table. “Maybe this helps jog your memory.”
Eddie’s eyes lock onto the money, and his finger twitches towards it as if he’s weighing his options. After a moment, he reaches out and palms the bills.
“Last I heard, she was headed to the same place you’re taking these two,” he says, nodding toward the couch. “But that was months ago. Could be anywhere by now.”
“You’re the kind of guy who knows how to keep his mouth shut. Right, Eddie?”
“For that kind of money? I’m deaf, dumb, and blind.” He taps the side of his nose and pockets the cash, jerking his thumb to the corner as he stands. “Want a hand loading these two into your car?”
I look at Mara and Brielle, still unconscious, still breathing. Still human, for now.
“Yeah,” I say, as something miserable twists at me. “Let’s get them loaded up.”