Thicker than Blood

1. Geordi

CHAPTER 1

Geordi

W ailing sirens shatter the silence of night, startling me out of a deep sleep. I shoot upright, rubbing my eyes and groaning from the headache caused by too much celebratory birthday champagne hours earlier.

Awareness grips my chest. The sirens. Fuck.

Launching myself out of bed, I grope around the floor for my jeans, tugging them on just as my phone buzzes across the nightstand.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Hopping over on one leg, I grab for my phone and press the button to answer. “Geordi.”

“Get your ass over to the city center, stat.” Meredith, my boss at the research center, sounds panicked in a way that makes my heart race even faster.

“Already getting dressed. I’ll be there in less than ten.”

“Bring your camera.”

The call ends, and I shove my phone into my back pocket before finding a shirt and sliding my foot into my boot. I hobble to the living room, still wrestling with the second boot, but I don’t have time to sit down and dress properly like a normal person.

This is an emergency.

I’m out the door minutes later, my camera bag on my shoulder over my bulky coat. It must be twenty degrees outside, and as I make it to my car in the apartment building lot, I’m silently thankful for the forecast being wrong and the snow stopping hours earlier than planned. I don’t have time to brush my car off.

Not waiting for the car to warm up, I tear off, patting my dashboard. “Sorry, old girl. I’m in a rush.”

My beat-up sedan sputters down the snow packed street, but I know Brenda’s a reliable car no matter how hard I push her. Luckily, it takes less than five minutes to get to the city center since there’s virtually no traffic at this hour.

As I pull into the lot adjacent to the park, the sight that greets me makes my stomach plummet. I exit the car, moving in stunned slow motion.

Oh no. Not this.

Meredith sees me, her normally smiling face creased with concern, and waves me over. She’s standing with the mayor, Luci Ferguson, and the chief of police, Bernard Canales. At their feet is a body.

“Vampire attack,” Meredith says when I reach them, entirely unnecessarily.

Given that I research vampires for a living, I’m intimately acquainted with what an attack looks like. Throat torn open, flesh and blood staining the pure white snow, the victim’s eyes forever open and frozen in terror. Nothing else kills like a vampire.

But then Meredith squeezes my shoulder and gestures to the park. Through the dark, my eyes focus, and I gasp. Bodies litter the ground, the fluffy white snow soiled by splattered blood and flesh. There must be…

“Forty-two people,” Meredith says.

A shiver goes down my spine and I’m positive it’s not the cold causing it.

“Why? Do we know?”

She shakes her head. “Not yet, but this is clearly a message.”

A wave of phones buzzing and pinging drowns out my thoughts and we all look down at the same time as notifications light up our screens.

Photo after photo of parks and streets, just like ours, pop up on the news channels, more bodies frozen at the moment of their death.

I shake my head as the reality of what’s happening grips me. “Mere.”

“Fuck,” she mutters. “Why are they doing this? The treaty…”

“Someone doesn’t give a fuck about the treaty,” Bernard replies through gritted teeth. “The vampires have gone rogue.”

“But why now?” I ask no one in particular. Obviously none of us know.

The sound of static and buzzing draws our attention to the digital billboard above the courthouse, installed five years ago when the first wave of vampires attacked. It’s been nothing but images of our city’s amenities for years now, but as the images blur and a terrifying face appears, I’m hit with memories of the day we all learned that vampires do indeed exist, and they aren’t a friendly bunch.

The man on the screen has a maniacal grin on his face, his red tinged fangs on full display. Inadvertently, I move closer to Meredith as foreboding spreads through me. His eyes glow bright blue, and he’s so pale that the veins beneath his skin are visible across his broad forehead.

“Surprise,” the man says, his voice deep and raspy. “I hope you enjoy our gift. We certainly enjoyed procuring it for you.”

The longer he talks, the more uneasy I feel, as if his voice is a virus pricking at my cells.

“In case it isn’t obvious,” he says, “not all vampires agree to the terms of your peace treaty.”

The more he speaks, the more I detect an accent of some kind, but not one I’ve heard before.

“Why should we be treated as mere citizens, forced to repress our nature for your comfort? So we can go to the coffee shop?” He scoffs, and tittering laughter sounds from behind him. “We don’t even drink coffee.”

Luci whispers something to Bernard that I can’t hear, but my focus is drawn back to the screen as the strange vampire continues.

“We propose a new treaty. One where the vampires take their rightful place and you take yours—on your knees, mortals, bowing down before us.”

“Fuck,” Meredith says, glancing at me, her eyes saying far more than her words do.

We’re in trouble. Big trouble.

“Tonight is just a taste of what we’re capable of. We can decimate your cities before the sun rises if we choose to.”

Luci squeezes her temples.

“In case you’re wondering how you can stop us,” the vampire continues, “you can’t. You are powerless against us. We will no longer stay in the shadows, masquerading as mortals. If you want to live, my only suggestion is to accept the inevitable. The vampires will prevail.”

The screen goes black, leaving us all in stunned silence for several minutes. I’ve gone numb, unable to process the reality of what’s happening. Even the bitter cold can’t touch me. Memories of the original war and all I lost still haunt my dreams.

“What do we do now?” an officer behind us asks.

Meredith glances over her shoulder, her face a mask of the determination I’ve come to know.

“We fight back.”

ELIAS

My late-night reading is abruptly disrupted by the heady scent of mortal blood saturating the air. It’s been ages since it’s been so strong, and I’m drawn to my feet and lured to the window to investigate.

I shove the window up and stick my head out, inhaling deeply. My eyelids flutter as my fangs involuntarily descend. What is happening? Why so much?

Before I can ponder the situation any further, there’s a knock at my library door.

“Enter.”

“Elias, sir.”

I turn around to see Benicio, my faithful, very platonic companion. His expression is unusually panicked for the reserved man, and his black hair, normally slicked smooth, sticks up wildly.

“What is it?”

“There’s been a breach of the treaty. A pack of vampires, quantity unknown, launched attacks around the entire city. They hacked the alert system and announced their plans to wage war on the mortals.”

“That makes absolutely no sense. Why?”

“All they said was that they don’t want to be equal or submissive to mortals any longer. They’ve killed, Elias. A lot. Hundreds.”

“All mortals?”

“Yes.”

“Any idea who’s leading this misguided mission and why they neglected to approach me first?”

He shakes his head. “No. I’m told by the vampires who witnessed the broadcast that they don’t recognize the one who spoke. The city leaders are downtown now, surveying the damage.”

“We must go then.”

Benicio nods, stepping to the side to let me pass. I ascend the stairs quickly to head to my bedroom, where I change from my lounging clothes to my outside clothes—a pair of jeans and a sweater should do for now.

I return to the foyer, ready to walk outside until Benicio clears his throat and points to the wool coat on the rack by the door.

“Right. Thank you.”

I grab the item, shrugging it on. It’s one of the details that helps us blend in that I sometimes forget. It’s far too cold for any average mortal to be outside without a proper coat.

We choose to walk, since we can do that faster than driving, and within minutes, we arrive at the park where the heavy metallic scent of blood assaults me. I knew before we got here how bad the carnage would be, but the closer we got, the more putrid the scent. The longer a person is dead, the less appealing the blood.

The area is eerily silent until muffled voices reach me. I turn my head, following the sound to the other side of the park, where I find the mayor, the chief of police, and another woman I’ve never seen before.

They all turn to me as one, Luci and Bernard quickly suspicious based on the uptick in their pulses as I approach.

I hold my hands up. “I come in peace. I’m just as concerned as you are.”

“Who are you?” the strange woman asks. Her stance is defiant, as if she could harm me.

“Elias Caswell. And you?”

“This is Meredith Woodrow,” Luci says. “She heads the SRC.”

“Ah.” The Supernatural Research Center—the somewhat voluntary partnership between our world and theirs. “I’m surprised our paths haven’t crossed prior to this.”

“Have you offered your blood?” Luci asks with a challenging smile.

“I have not, nor do I plan to.”

“You’re a vampire,” Meredith says, finally catching up.

“Not just any vampire,” Bernard says, but his tone is filled with disdain. “Their de facto leader in our state and the greater region here. Are we to believe you have nothing to do with tonight’s events?”

“Come now, Bernard. You don’t think I’d go about a coup in such a sloppy, unorganized manner, do you?”

He scoffs. “No idea what you guys are capable of.”

Ignoring the jab, I continue. “I came here to see for myself what they’ve done. I’m a big fan of the treaty. It’s made me an even wealthier man and given me freedoms I didn’t previously have.” I focus my gaze on Meredith. “I’m just as motivated as you are to quell this uprising.”

She opens her mouth to say something, but the subtle sound of pebbles skittering across the sidewalk pulls my attention abruptly to my left. From the trees emerges a man carrying a camera. He’s staring down at his screen with a concerted look on his face, nearly tripping over an untied shoelace, but catching himself before he can take a tumble. He looks up and stops abruptly, oddly clutching the camera to his chest.

“Geordi,” Meredith says. “Come here.”

He walks towards us, never tearing his curious gaze from my face. Once he’s closer, I catch his scent, soft and floral with an underlying cherry note. Like a fine wine. His eyes are big and hazel, and I already know that he knows what I am from the way his body heat radiates off him and his pulse speeds up slightly. He isn’t afraid of me. On the contrary, he’s attracted.

“This is—” Meredith says.

“You’re Elias Caswell,” the man says. “Wow.”

“You know him?” Luci asks.

“Of him.” He clears his throat as his cheeks turn slightly pink. “I’ve read about you.”

“How unfortunate that I know nothing of you.”

He startles, stepping back slightly. Meredith grips his shoulder protectively. Ah. Attracted, yet cautious. Smart.

“Geordi is my head researcher,” Meredith says.

“Ah. I suppose you’d love nothing more than to investigate me.” I lean closer. “Do you want my blood, Geordi?”

His brow creases, and even as his body recoils, his scent sweetens. Delightful. Too bad he’s not in the volunteer program. I bet his blood tastes like paradise.

“Do you know what happened tonight?” he asks, jutting his chin out like a spicy kitten and ignoring my teasing.

“I have eyes, so yes. As to why or who, I know as much as you do.” I turn toward the park, allowing the anger I’ve kept restrained to burn just a little. “There are rules within our species that have been broken. I am not pleased.”

Benicio has been sniffing around, returning with a sour look on his face. “They’ve masked their scent. No idea who’s responsible.”

“Which means they don’t want me to know either. Do you have a plan yet?” I ask the mortals.

“What kind of plan could we possibly have when we don’t have a fucking clue who did this?” Bernard grunts. “Fucking supes.”

“No need to be derogatory, Chief.” The comment is benign enough, but the tone I deliver it with gets his attention and he takes a step back.

He grumbles something that sounds a lot like an apology, but I don’t press the issue. I made my point.

“I think we go back to our records,” Meredith suggests. “We can start there looking at anyone whose blood has been off or different, or anyone acting strangely recently.”

“Assuming they’ve volunteered to be poked and prodded by your staff. I have a feeling the responsible vampires are less than compliant with established protocols.”

Her face falls. “You’re right.”

“We have to start somewhere,” Geordi says. “We can’t stand here all night looking at mutilated bodies.”

“A fair point.” I nod. “I’ll start making calls to those I know are loyal to me. There haven’t been any rumors or mumblings, so I’m not sure the problem originates here.”

“Then why did they attack us?” Bernard asks.

“We have the highest concentration of settled vampires, everyone knows that. The city appeals to us with all its programs and civility in place. That’s why I live here.”

Bernard huffs. “Make your calls then.”

“Thank you for your gracious approval. For the record, I don’t require your permission. I am outside your jurisdiction, remember?”

Bernard narrows his eyes. “Yeah, I remember, but you’re not doing such a hot job governing yourselves.”

My eyes sting from the insult, and I lunge forward, stopping just an inch in front of his face. From the corner of my eye, I see Geordi grab Meredith’s arm as he gasps.

“I could choose to insult you for the violence you did not cause and were not capable of preventing, but I’ll restrain myself. You may not want my help, but you’re getting it anyway since it benefits me.”

Bernard’s heart is beating so hard I can hear the blood in his veins. He’s fortunate that I am on the side of peace, or I could drain him in the blink of an eye.

“Tread lightly with me, Chief. I am a vampire, after all.”

He nods, stepping back, and releases a shaky breath.

“Thank you,” Geordi says, his voice shaking but determined. I turn my gaze on him and he straightens his shoulders, puffing his chest slightly. “We need the help.”

His comment soothes my anger and I nod, pulling back the beast in me that’s been awakened by the bloodshed.

“I’ll let you know what I find out. Who is the point of contact?”

The four mortals exchange glances and then Geordi raises his hand. “Me. I’m always available.”

How delightful. The mortal seems bereft of the inherent bias so many of his kind carry. He should be easy enough to interact with.

“If you have your phone, I can put my number in,” Geordi offers.

I pat my pocket, realizing I left it at the house. I hate those things. “Just tell it to me. I’ll remember.”

“Oh, right.”

He rattles off his number, and I nod. “Very well.”

“Any tips for us before you go?” Luci asks.

I pause, turning back to them. “Beware. They’re likely lurking everywhere.”