Breach (The Blood Bargain) Read online

  “Staying?” I put my attention back to Cole, knowing he had seen Dad alive and well and probably further into town really settled my nerves. I was able to put down the mental imagery of him being devoured from the inside out.

  “I’m going to try to help, no way I can sleep with that breach.” I opened my mouth and he cut me off before I even made a peep. “No. Go home, clean up and get off that leg. I can see it in your face that you're exhausted.” He was right, as the adrenaline faded, screaming pain had replaced it. My limbs throbbed, my breath continued to come out in a wheeze and I think I was drifting to the side. Or perhaps the ground moved.

  “See you tomorrow alright?” I think he nodded, then I went looking for my father.

  I found him at the first building on the edge of town, barking orders to four men who looked like someone had slapped them in the face with a wet chicken. Those poor lads were in an utter state of shock, holding some boards, buckets of nails and hammers.

  When he noticed my approach I saw my relief mirrored in his tired eyes. An order barked at the wide eyed men behind him got them moving away at record speed, giving Dad plenty of time to fuss over me.

  “Are you injured?” He put a hand on my shoulder, I steadied myself against the weight.

  “Nah, I feel like a million bucks.”

  “Thank Heavens. Please go home dear, get some rest. I’m going to be at this all night.” I nodded and we exchanged a few more words, it was a conversation that stayed in my short term though. Moments after my mouth shut I dare say I couldn’t remember anything that had come out of it. Regardless of the shortcomings in my subiculum, my cerebellum appeared to still be functioning. Legs swung one foot in front of the other putting me on autopilot to home.

  The town seemed so surreal after everything that had just happened. I felt like I had just flipped TV channels from a horror movie to the Amish hour. Everything here was, just as it had always been. Tra la la, happy happy and all that.

  I was still in a daze when footfalls fell in place beside me.

  “I’ve been looking for you.” I’d know that voice anywhere, no point in turning my head to look at him. I concentrated on walking. One foot. Other foot. Repeat.

  “Holding up okay?” Adam King asked me, his tenor voice laced with genuine concern.

  Even in the darkness his eyes had probably picked up my uneven gait.

  “I was supposed to meet Candice at the garage, but I want a shower. I need a shower.” I muttered. One foot. Other foot.

  “Hey.” A familiar hand on my shoulder. “Stop for a sec and talk to me.”

  I turned toward him, looking into those familiar big brown soulful eyes that topped off his warm smile. A grin decorated with fresh fangs.

  I couldn’t hold that stare, his eyes were too kind. It was enough I was going to boil over, instead I stared at my black goo covered shoes. I knew it was blood. I could smell the iron in the air...there had been so much of it tonight I wasn’t sure I’d ever get it all off me. I couldn’t do compassion at the moment, I didn’t deserve it. Not when I had been grateful.

  “Someone died Adam. I didn’t know him but it was...brutal.” He shrugged.

  “Just one with an onslaught like that is a pretty good ratio.”

  “I don’t think he would have considered it a good ratio.”

  “I know...Sorry Liv...just trying to cheer you up I guess.” It didn’t cheer me up, it popped the lid off my temper.

  “What the hell happened?” I snapped. “I thought you had been clearing farther and farther?” Arms came up in defense, open palms raised like I pointed a gun at him.

  “I have no figgen clue where all those things came from, I’ve been doing my job.” I was still having a hard time picturing Adam sweeping anything. The guy was the least intimidating vampire on the planet, his thin frame covered in a ratty flannel shirt and torn jeans. Hardly the kind to be exploding corpses and shredding guts with his bare hands. Perhaps that was the point, his appearance made him easily dismissible which in fact made him a greater threat than his best dressed vampiric brethren.

  I didn’t want to think any further on Adam hurting anyone, I had enough traumatic imagery dancing in my brain for weeks to come as it was. Instead, I needed him on the deadheads.

  “They don’t just magically appear, last time I checked there were no crazy teleporters stuffed in their chests.”

  “It’s been three days since I’ve swept north side, even then I was confident everything was empty through Ackworth.” Adam replied factually, so much so that it came off as...cold. I wonder if he still sees himself as one of us or now only as one of them. I shook my head to clear it and threw out a follow up question. Of course Adam still aligned with us. He’d been vampire for only two months, been with us for over a decade.

  “Over to Indianola?”

  His head shook, his brown locks dancing in the dark. “Haven’t made it that far yet.” “It’s not that far.” Less than thirty miles and a once population of several thousand.

  “Cut me some slack, I’m young.” I knew by his tone at that point I was hurting his feelings by blaming him for this event, which was not one hundred percent the correct thing to do. Ninety eight maybe, but not one hundred. Now I felt like the ass for jumping all over him.

  Adam was after all a baby in vampire lifetimes and here I expected him to conquer the world. I knew nothing about their abilities when it came to speed and combat.

  “Didn’t seem so young tonight, I thought you were a tornado.” With a half-smile, I tapped him lightly in the shoulder.

  “Wasn’t me, that was Caius.” Hair on the back of my neck stood up at the name. Creeper in chief was a sheer force of nature just standing in a room. Picturing him in any sort of battle well, it’s enough to make the man with the highest constitution on the planet wet himself.

  “Speaking of, your boss have any ideas about this?” Adams head shook back and forth.

  “Haven’t asked. Not going to.”

  “Look at your immortal courage!” I scoffed. An act that kept me from dwelling on the waves of pain emanating from my thighs.

  “Stuff it, the pecking order is something to respect. Immortal or not he could smash my ass into a sardine can if he felt the urge and you damn well know it.” Despite the harsh words, his tone was playful, just like he had always been. Adam King was an easy going, crowd pleasing guy. Always the first to offer an olive branch or to worry about someone else in a pinch. If anyone was going to live forever, I was glad it was someone with those traits; provided he had maintained those traits.

  “Going to the garage tonight?” I asked him, not wanting to continue that thought train. Adam, the only one of us to have been turned, took advantage of the fact that the majority of people in Junction knew of him only as human.

  “With all the drama of today, probably not so wise. Plus I'm exhausted and I need to feed something fierce.” He frowned. “You should turn in as well rather than drink it up.” That brotherly tone came back.

  “Yeah yeah. I’m not doing anything till I get cleaned up. I smell like a corpse.”

  “And you look like one too!” I flipped him off.

  “You’d know.” I took a step forward and my leg didn’t quite work right. My knee bent against the commands my nervous system was throwing out, arms went up to try to catch my balance.

  “Whoa!” A thin arm wrapped around me and scooped me up like a doll. “See I knew you were just being obstinate.”

  “I’m fine put me down...”

  “Nah check this out.” In a blur we were no longer at the edge of town, we were on 2nd street, right in front of my house. He set me down gently, not holding onto me a second longer than was absolutely needed. Even injured, he let me keep my dignity.

  “See how easy that was?”

  “You’re a good friend Adam.” That moment reassured me about he had become, he was to me as he had always been. I smiled at him, hoping he knew how sincere I was. The shine in his brown eyes declared tha
t he did.

  Then Adam was gone, off to do whatever it was he did these days. Feed, yes he did say he had to drink. Many would be terrified to have a vampire in the throes of hunger carry them home, I however knew that Adam would never hurt me. Not because he was my friend before he turned, that would be a very stupid assumption on my part, but because of his core.

  The way he explained it to me, when a vampire was freshly turned their elder had an opportunity to instill them with their principals, initial programming as it were. Dimitri, in an act I will never get a reason for, commanded Adam to never harm nor allow harm to come to me.

  So whatever blood was on his mind, it wasn’t mine.

  I briefly wondered who he was using for sustenance. I wouldn’t ask and I knew I would never find out. Those that offered themselves for blood rotation were kept confidential, there were those within our walls who still had a severe degree of animosity toward the vamps and the last thing anyone needed was to give them a target. Angry mobs made battered bodies. Far as I knew no incident had ever occurred, not that I wanted to break that record. Whomever it was he was seeing, I wished her or him well. Who knows, she or he might actually enjoy it. If the donor remembered it at all.

  Looking up at the house in front of me, I admit, I was filled with pride. The moonlight danced on the peaks of the Victorian house, the covered porch was inviting even in the dark night. It was both beautiful and timeless. Standing here on the sidewalk, you’d never have known the world had changed. Inside there was a happy family with peace of mind, children that giggled and laughed, a mother that looked to the future.

  I limped around to the back yard rather than go through the house. I didn't want to track all the sick blood that stuck to my skin and my clothes inside my home. I just couldn’t bare it.

  Despite the fact that it was just a little above freezing outside, I stepped into our outdoor shower stall, stripped and flipped the lever. The frigid water was likely to make me sick, but it didn’t matter. I wanted that blood off of me. I wanted the memories of today washed away along with it. My skin barely visible in the cool night I couldn’t guess at how clean I was and wasn’t so I just kept scrubbing.

  I thought of the man who had died, he had started his day like any other. Blissfully unaware he would never go home, would never see whatever family or friends he had. That his fellow citizens, would be grateful for the few moments of time his chewed intestines bought them to reload and aim anew.

  My gut wretched, my ears ringing with his horrific screams. I was not a monster, I did not delight in death. I tried to close my eyes to calm down, but every time my lids shut I saw rancid hands and hollowed eyes. Chest tightening, each breath I took becoming quicker and more desperate.

  I stayed under the faucet until I began to lose feeling in my fingertips.

  My teeth shattered and my arms shook, the thin towel did little to improve my temperature.

  I had brought no clothes outside, which left me stumbling like a drunkard up the back steps practically naked. Praying I didn’t have to run into anyone, I turned the knob on the back door and pretty much fell through the door onto the cold tile floor. The kitchen was pitch black, no witnesses for my amateur gymnastics. Three shaking attempts to get back on my feet ended in failure, I don’t know how much time passed between them. I was tired, exhausted really. Music-where was music coming from?-was in the distance lulling me to sleep. This was a good place as any to take a nap.

  Perhaps in the morning I’d do better.

  There were warm hands on my shoulders, soft singing. No that wasn’t music that was Zoe? Where did she come from?

  “Liv! You’re freezing.”

  “Sssorry I needed a ssshower.” Zoe was helping me stand. My towel was a crumpled mess on the floor, making me vaguely aware that I was naked in the kitchen but I was too tired to care.

  “Get in here, cover up. My goodness you’re practically hypothermic.” She dragged me through the kitchen into an oversized fabric chair in the living room, my head lulled to the side against the off white cloth.

  “I need ccclothes.” My mouth mumbled, teeth chattering.

  “You need blankets now shush.” She wrapped me in blankets, so many layers. I sighed, burying my face further into the soft fabric that smelled of lemon, fingers starting to burn as they warmed up.

  While my body temperature rose I drifted in and out, vaguely aware that someone was sitting by me. My eyes focused on the candle burning in the living room, watching the fire dance blissfully in the darkness. In less than lucid moments I heard his screams, that poor man being ripped to shreds. I pushed it to the bottom of my mind; forcing everything-every thought, every feeling down with it. There was just this little flame in front of me, a beautiful mixture of orange and red light frolicking as it consumed all in its path. This basic element, a building block of our world. There was no blood in the air, only the sweet tartly smell of fresh laundry.

  When my head cleared I sat up a little straighter, registering Zoe’s presence in the chair next to the candle topped end table. Her thin body drowning in a bulky burgundy sweater and an open book in her lap. Her eyes flipped up from the pages as I cleared my throat.

  “Boys are in bed with Mark, Candice is out. I was just doing a bit of reading before I turned in.” She looked my face over in that practiced motherly way. “Feeling better?”

  I nodded.

  “Would you like some tea?”

  “That sounds like heaven.” I rasped. She closed the novel in her lap and set it gently on the side table. Moving with quiet grace, she exited to the kitchen. While I waited for her to return my eyes traced the spine of the book, I didn’t recognize the title but I was familiar with the author. Who would have guessed Zoe liked seedy romance novels.

  She was back before I could work myself up to an immature giggle, two crackled blue ceramic mugs of tea in her dainty hands. The aroma of mint wafted into my nose from the cup as I accepted the hot weight into my grip.

  “Liv, why on earth did you feel the need to go and do something like that?” The usual sing song of her happy housewife was gone; her tone flat and lifeless. I didn’t even know what to tell her. How could I say that our safe world that we had lived in for the last decade wasn’t so safe? That the wall, our pride and protection was actually breached, that earlier this night dead blood spilled inside Junction. I thought of the boys sleeping upstairs in their innocence, I didn’t want her to worry. I didn’t want them to know.

  “You missed dinner, both you and your father. I still haven’t seen him yet.” She pressed gently.

  I took a sip of tea, trying to formulate a way to explain it.

  “Liv, is it that bad?” Yeah it was. With a deep breath I responded factually.

  “Horde came at the North wall. Held them off till nightfall, then well they got through the wall in a section.” Zoe looked almost green, her hands tightening around the mug in her hands. “They’re all dead, the dead that is. For good. We got ‘em all. Vamp’s cleaned it up, walls being rebuilt. That’s where Dad is, helping get it repaired. Everything is going to be okay.” I wasn’t sure, but I wanted her to be. “Really Zoe, it’s alright. Just a long day.”

  “You are hiding something from me.”

  “Am not.”

  “Same look on your face as when one of the boys gets into a pinch and doesn’t want to tell me.” I took a deep breath and the truth flowed forth.

  “There was a casualty in the conflict. I didn’t know him but...it was brutal. I mean brutal in the worst ways. The sick part is, at the moment I was thankful for the distraction, it gave the rest of us more time.” I shuddered. “I’ve never seen something like that...up close. I’ve heard stories and been by the aftermath, but the sounds. Sounds of him dying I can’t shake them from my ears and that disgusting gratitude I felt...I feel like a monster Zoe and I want to throw up.”

  Her blond head dipped as she took a sip from her mug.

  “Did I ever tell you about my brother?” I shook
my head, I had always thought it was just her and Candice.

  “His name was Aiden, he was ten.” Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat. “Aiden got scratched by a loner walking home from school before they cancelled classes. He was fine for a few days after that. We kept going about our usual routine like it was just a rainy Saturday, lounging around watching cable while my Mom kept the drapes pulled. That was when the TV was still calling it potential terrorist acts. Dad still went to work every day like it was no biggie.” Zoe took another draw from her mug.

  “It was a Wednesday. The day he didn’t come home from work. Frankly, I still have no idea what happened to Dad but I can only assume. Anyway, it was about supper time. Spaghetti. Mom loved to make spaghetti, but then she’d make us eat the leftovers for days and I hated that. Candice and I had started to set the table, bickering the way sisters do after a few days of cabin fever. I remember jokingly threatening to stab her with a fork if she didn’t stop saying I had a crush on some boy...Bobby Whitfield. I can’t remember his face, but the name stuck with me. I’d just put the last napkin out, flowery spring patterned ones because Mom always had to be festive, when we heard a scream.

  “Aiden was...

  “He’d taken a nap and...” Zoe’s shoulders slumped inward.

  “Well when we got to the door to his room, he was chewing on my mother’s arm. Already had bitten off two of her fingers on her right hand, there was blood everywhere. All over his bed and thrown on the shelves around the room. I remember my first thought was something like this is going to be a lot of cleaning, but that’s before I understood what I was looking at. You know it takes a few minutes to process something so...

  “Guess she probably went to check for a fever when he snapped at her. She had this weird look on her face, like she didn’t care. Maybe she knew more than we did, maybe she knew Dad wasn’t going to make it home. She told us to run, take the keys from her purse and get as far away from people as we could.

  “Candice screamed, you talk about those screams that stay with you...” Zoe cleared her throat again.