Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Demetrius was trying to keep up with all the information, but his brain felt laggy.
It was as if Zenona’s words took a minute or two to penetrate the fog inside his mind.
She was talking with Cody about their mutual first time meetings with Marlowe, explaining how she’d gone to The Rusty Screw on her own, before sundown, and found the place empty except for the bartender.
But Demetrius wanted to understand something they’d skipped over that was important. Then it came to him, and, afraid he might lose the thread if he didn’t ask right away, he spoke over Zenona.
“What about the people at the hospital?”
She and Cody stopped and looked at him.
“Sorry?” Zenona asked.
“The people receiving blood,” Demetrius said. “The ones lying on gurneys. The two people Cody saw in the waiting area. What was going on with them?”
Silence. Demetrius’s head felt light, as though it might float up and away if it wasn’t attached.
He kept his eyes on Zenona as he spoke. “They weren’t attacked, were they?
They offered themselves up inside the bar didn’t they?
But maybe something went wrong during the, whatever they call it, feeding session.
Maybe their assigned vampire drank a bit too much or bit too deep. ”
Zenona straightened her spine, hands clutched in her lap.
“Is that what’s been going on?” Cody said. “Is it some kind of vampire kink club?”
“No. Of course it’s not a…a kink club.” She wrinkled her nose and drew her brows together.
“What did Michael write about Marlowe in his journal?” Demetrius asked. “What did you know before you went to the bar?”
“All he said was Marlowe was also a vampire, that she’d been in the area a long time and he felt he could trust her.” She ran her palms down her thighs.
“Why did you go there?” Demetrius inched forward on the sofa. “I know Michael’s journal said he trusted her, but why did you go there?”
“I wanted to meet her, talk to this woman who had known him for what he was, known him longer than me. I wanted to see what she knew about everything that had happened, if she knew about his…if she’d heard about Michael.”
“Did she know about Xavier and Aldrik coming into town?” Cody asked. “Did she have anything to do with them?”
“No.” The word came fast and firm. “She didn’t interact with them at all. She knew about them, of course, through Michael, but she had no contact with them.”
“So, she stayed out of it?” Cody said, an edge to his tone. “She just stayed there behind her bar and let them run amok?”
“Yes, she stayed out of it. Wouldn’t you have?”
“We didn’t have a choice,” Cody said.
“Exactly,” Zenona shot back.
Demetrius wanted to get back to the topic. “You’ve been going back to the bar since that first visit. What keeps pulling you back?”
“I don’t know.” She tugged at the hem of her shirt. “It’s a bar, and I know the bartender who also knew someone I cared about. Why all the questions?”
“Zee,” Cody said, his voice more gentle now.
“We need to understand what’s going on. It feels like Halloween is happening all over again, and we’re scared.
When I was at the bar, I talked with a man we all went to school with whose sister just up and disappeared after feeling rundown the days before.
Others have died with marks on their necks.
” He gestured toward Demetrius. “Demmy found a vamp roost where someone had staked one of them. And while he was inside the house, they carved little fangs into the door.”
“What?” She turned to Demetrius, eyes wide. “Fangs?”
“Yeah, just two freshly carved marks I didn’t notice on the way in.
” His fingers were tight around his knees, but he didn’t think he could loosen them in that moment.
“Whatever is going on in or around that bar is escalating. People are being turned or killed. We need to know what you know, all of it.”
“It’s not…” She groaned and sat back, hands covering her face.
After a pause, she lowered her hands and lifted her chin.
The corners of her mouth pulled down, making her look older.
“It’s a hangout for vampires, yes. But it’s not what you think.
It’s not a roost, as you guys call it. It’s not like the DPW basement. ”
Demetrius pulled his shoulders forward and the back of his neck tightened. “What is it then?”
“It’s a bar, that’s all.” She paused. Her hands seemed to wrestle together in her lap before growing still again. “Yes, it attracts a certain kind of person.”
“What’s that mean?” Cody said, frowning. “You already said vampires hang out there. Who else?”
“People who want to feed them,” Demetrius said.
He swallowed hard. Memories of the Halloween attacks in Parson’s Hollow flashed through his mind.
Vampires biting people out on the street.
The cook being bitten behind the Hollow Leg, and the vampire going after Amelia.
Cody being lifted into the air and taken away by Xavier.
Cody had turned to him on the couch, and Demetrius saw the blood drain from his face. Cody lightly touched the tiny scars on the side of his neck, but his eyes were unfocused, and Demetrius didn’t think he even realized he was doing it. Then Cody looked to Zenona.
“Is that true?” Cody drew in a sharp breath. “Is that what you’ve been doing?”
Demetrius’s hands started to shake, and he curled his fingers into fists to keep them steady.
“No, I…” Zenona’s words faded out as she leaned forward, almost doubled over. A long span of silence took over the room until she finally started speaking again.
“I felt a strong connection with Michael. Stronger than I’d experienced with anyone before.
I don’t know if it was because he had my blood, or if we connected on an emotional and intellectual level.
” She gave a quiet, stilted laugh as she wiped her cheeks dry.
“Maybe it was all of it. And he was brave.” She glanced up, then away.
“You know. You saw what he did, how he tried to stop it all. How he…” Her throat worked as she swallowed, and tears coursed down her face.
“How he died. When that happened, it felt like a large piece of me went with him.” She cleared her throat and shook her head.
“I’m not explaining it very well, but at that time, and in the weeks that followed, I felt like I’d lost everything. ”
“Why didn’t you talk with us?” Cody’s voice was quiet, almost wounded. “I would have listened.”
A small, rueful smile curled one corner of her mouth as she looked at him. “Would you have? After everything you went through?”
Cody didn’t answer.
“Did you miss the connection?” Demetrius asked. “Was that what you were searching for at the bar?”
She lifted one shoulder slightly. “Maybe. I don’t really know. I think I wanted to feel special again, you know? To know this huge secret and to move among people outside society’s norms. People who are usually so much older than me, who have experienced history, not just read about it.”
“You were a human in a vampire bar, offering yourself up,” Demetrius said.
Her expression tightened. “It wasn’t like that. I went there for connection. For community.” She stopped suddenly, dropping her gaze.
“Do you want to become a vampire?” Cody’s face was blank, almost like he was in shock.
“No!” Her denial was sharp and immediate. “I don’t want to become a vampire. But I…I don’t know. I understand them, I guess. I feel comfortable around them. And Marlowe runs the place well. She has rules.”
“Rules?” Demetrius repressed a scoff. “Like what?”
“Rules to keep us safe. The bar is a safe space for them, and for those of us who want to help them.”
“To feed them.” Cody’s voice had an accusatory edge to it. “Do you know how dangerous that is? You’ve already been bitten. If one of them is too hungry and drinks too much, you could turn.”
“It doesn’t work like that, and you know it,” she protested. “And Marlowe wouldn’t allow that to happen.”
“How can you trust any of them?” Cody demanded, his voice rising.
“Because I loved one of them!” Zenona shouted. “Okay? I was in love with Michael. And he was in love with me.”
Cody shot to his feet. He rounded the couch and paced behind it, his hands in fists and his jaw clenched. “People are vanishing. Annie’s probably already been turned. It’s happening all around us, right now, despite Marlowe’s precious rules.”
“Okay, okay,” Demetrius said, looking between them. “Everyone’s tired and on edge, and fighting with each other isn’t going to help.” He checked on Cody. “You okay?”
Cody grunted and waved a hand as he prowled behind the couch, glaring at the floor. Demetrius returned his attention to Zenona. Her lips were pursed, and she had one leg crossed, her foot jiggling in the air.
“Tell us about Marlowe’s rules.”
She glared. “Why?”
“It will help us understand, okay? Please?”
She shifted in the chair, foot still moving. “There are two nights a week devoted to it.”
“The feedings,” Cody said. He’d stopped and stood near Demetrius, holding tight to the back of the couch. “You can use the word.”
“Fine, the feedings are limited to twice a week. Humans who want to donate are only allowed to do so once a week. Vampires and humans are not allowed to meet up outside the bar in the nights between.”
“Someone’s been breaking the rules,” Cody said, tone hard.
“No one from the group I know is doing it,” she said. “No one. They’re all just trying to keep a low profile and find a way to exist in a world that doesn’t believe in them. Or, if they do believe, they’re terrified and want to destroy them.”
“Because they kill people and create more vampires,” Cody said before starting to move again.
“Are all gay men the same?” Zenona said.
“What the fuck?” Cody stopped and stared.
Her question raised a familiar knot of emotion—shame, guilt, and anger braided together—that tightened low inside Demetrius’s belly.
“You’re not, are you?” She looked between them. “It’s no different for them. You trusted Michael, why can’t you trust Marlowe?”
“We don’t know Marlowe!” Cody’s volume had gone up again.
“Let’s all take a beat here, okay?” Demetrius stood and held both hands out. “Emotions are running hot, and that won’t help any of us.”
“Fine,” Cody said with a snarl, then pointed at Zenona. “I’m bisexual, and you know it.”
She stood and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. “Do I?”
Cody’s cheeks reddened, and he turned away.
Demetrius watched them. Cody’s face was still flushed, and he practically stalked the area behind the couch, avoiding their eyes. Zenona had put the chair between them again where she picked at a thread.
“All right,” he said. “There’s one way to get through all of this and figure out what we’re dealing with.”
“Oh?” Cody and Zenona said at the same time, then exchanged glares.
“Yes.” Demetrius looked at Cody a moment before turning to Zenona. “Take us to The Rusty Screw.”