Chapter 6
Anais
While bars and clubs weren’t the sort of place where I spent a lot of time, having the right company certainly made a big difference. My new team were letting their hair down and kept the drinks flowing.
Although none of us drank too fast, or risked shots, we had cocktails in front of us and plenty of different snacks. The music in the background was a dull beat that I ignored as we talked.
For the most part I listened, as always. My three companions were happy to talk among themselves and seemed satisfied as long as I made a remark now and then or gave some kind of opinion on whatever the subject was at that point.
It was low-pressure and it was good to relax.
I was even getting a light buzz from the alcohol.
The snacks were good for the type of place we were in, and I ate my fill, not hesitating to order more for the team.
They’d earned us splashing out and I fully intended to pick up the tab at the end of this.
As team leader, my slightly higher rate of pay for the last few missions would more than cover this night out and I was enjoying it far more than I had expected to when they invited me.
For the first time, I felt like an accepted part of a team.
They trusted me and respected me and it was a strange, new feeling.
My previous team had been efficient and good at what they did, but I’d never felt as if I belonged or was one of them. I’d never felt the bond others spoke of, being one of the slayers in a vampire hunter team. Not until now.
These three were still closer to each other and I understood that they had been working together a long time, but they had welcomed me into their group far more than anyone else ever had.
I wondered if it was partially because we were also living together as one big group.
It wasn’t perfect, the apartment was a little small for four, but it was still better than nothing.
It also meant that we spent a lot more time together. But it was coming with an interesting side effect. They wanted to know more about me than anyone else usually did.
“Come on, Anais. We’ve been hearing the rumors. We know you took out a huge number of vampires on what looked like a suicide mission. You might not want to tell the academy how you did it... And they’ve not asked… But we’re your team.” Naomi almost pouted as she said the last part.
I frowned, not sure how to respond, but Tess and Alan were also giving me their attention. “You’re right. It was a suicide mission. I wasn’t meant to survive it.”
“I knew it,” Alan replied. “The academy never sends us after such powerful vampires normally. It’s like they don’t dare, or they’re in league with them or something.”
Naomi and Tess both nodded.
“We don’t talk about it much,” Tess added.
“It’s what we’ve feared for a long time.
That the academy aren’t really trying to end the vampire scourge, but simply keep it from ending up public.
We only ever get sent after vampires who are being too obvious.
Vampires like Ludis. The ones staying in the shadows and not killing humans very often. They’re left alone.”
I sighed, knowing that I was beginning to agree with them.
“So how did you survive?” Naomi asked.
“If I tell you anything about this, I need you three to keep it to yourself,” I replied. “The academy wouldn’t approve of how I did it. I didn’t break the rules, but it might stop us getting good jobs. Or get us another suicide run that we won’t have the same help for.”
Not one of them spoke, but they all leaned in closer and nodded. I gulped, knowing I was taking a risk telling them, but also knowing that this team was the closest I had ever had to a slayer family, and given how alone I had been in the past, I wanted to take the chance on them.
“We know what the academy would do. If they sent you on a suicide mission once, we know that would happen again. None of us are about to do anything that might get another slayer killed.” Naomi reached out and squeezed my hand.
I gave her a small smile.
“Okay. I ended up getting help from a member of the Brethren.” I paused as I tried to figure out exactly what to tell them.
“The Brethren run the mafia vampire clans and they’re the true-bloods.
The original race. They create the turned, but the turned sometimes draw too much attention.
Just like us, they take out the ones who cause problems and kill too many. ”
Tess’s mouth fell open, but she didn’t interrupt, and Alan even gave a small thoughtful nod as if he thought this all made sense. It helped me to carry on.
“Ludis was plotting to take out one of the mafia leaders and was turning a lot of vampires, doing a lot of other stuff to try to do it.”
“Like building an army?” Naomi asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I think so. So this true-blood was after him as well. We... teamed up.”
“Just the two of you?”
I couldn’t help but smile at the question. “Just the two of us.”
Tess let out a giggle. “You almost make it sound romantic.”
Although I opened my mouth to try to deny it, my cheeks heated under their gaze and I closed it again.
“Did you and him...” Naomi’s eyes went wide and now they were all intently listening.
“We’re not in a relationship. It was purely business and getting the job done.”
“Was he hot though? Did you want to see what he was like? We’ve all heard the stories.
How they have humans as sort of pets.” Naomi didn’t stop prodding and I frowned, not sure how much detail I wanted to give on that part.
It hadn’t helped us defeat Ludis entirely, and as much as I’d enjoyed the sex, I knew it had been part of the act in some ways and also just good fun at other times.
“He was hot,” I admitted as I gave myself time to think. “And they do take humans as a sort of... pet isn’t the right word. Not really. It’s more than that. There’s a sort of mutual exchange.”
“They drink the blood and you get what?” Alan asked, clearly not impressed by it.
I exhaled, not sure how to answer it without giving away too much. While I paused, I tried to fight the heat that was threatening to flush my cheeks again.
“I don’t think we should push Anais to tell us,” Tess said, her eyes fixed on me. “It sounds as if it is a private matter between a vampire and the person he has chosen.”
This only made it worse and my cheeks grew even hotter.
“Sounds like he was... very hot.” Naomi grinned broadly.
“He was... focused on the task at hand. And we did what we needed to in order to get the job done. There really isn’t much to tell beyond that.” I knew they weren’t buying it by the looks on their faces and the glances they shared with each other.
Naomi squeezed my arm again. “Thank you for telling us what you have. We really will keep it to ourselves. You took out a nasty vampire and that’s all that matters to us.
How you did it, why you did it and what the academy might have been hoping for are irrelevant.
It sounds like he was very hot, however. ”
Her grin reappeared and even I chuckled.
“I will say that he was definitely hot enough that doing what was necessary was no hardship, and we’ll leave the matter there,” I replied eventually, also grinning as I thought back.
Being the human he had on his arm in front of the other vampires had certainly had its perks and I had enjoyed my night with him afterward.
The last part was my little secret, however. I wasn’t about to tell anyone that we had slept together when we hadn’t needed to pretend we were more romantically linked for appearances’ sake.
I got the impression that my team suspected more had happened, but I wasn’t about to confirm it. They could wonder about it.
They seemed satisfied that I had given them this much information and finally opened up about something, and I took it as a good start myself. Opening up to them could be a process, and that meant I didn’t have to tell them everything right away.
Now they had me thinking about Leandro and what had happened between us. While I had been nervous at first, and letting him touch me and even more while other vampires were around us had been an experience that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself, I had begun to feel safe in his arms.
It was an odd admission to make. A vampire slayer safe in the arms of one of the most powerful true-blood vampires in existence. But it was true. Being with him had been easy in many ways. Of course, he had also fed on me in exchange. And more than once.
Even that had been different and unlike anything I could have imagined. There was a small amount of pain at first, but it was soon replaced by a sort of euphoria that made it easy to give a vampire whatever they wanted. And I could see why it was addictive.
The first day I had come away from Leandro and returned to my country to continue my work, I had been distracted by thoughts of going back to him and asking to be his.
He had told me I could. Offered to take care of me.
Even promised he would treat me far better than the usual pet a vampire kept. And I had believed he meant every word.
Still, I was a slayer and he was a vampire. We were meant to be on very different sides of this centuries-old war. But our goals were the same. Keep vampires from eliminating or scaring humans. Keep as many humans alive as possible.
Given that, it made sense that he would want a human he could feed on, but also take care of.
Someone willing to be part of the solution.
And I would have been lying to myself if I hadn’t admitted I’d considered it as possibly the ultimate sacrifice a slayer could make.
Be the food source so no one else ever would be.