Thicker than Blood

22. Elias

CHAPTER 22

Elias

“ I t smells disgusting out here,” Jagger complains as we travel through the city looking for our target. “Normally I love the scent of death, but something is off.”

“It must be the vaccine affecting the blood.”

“Foul.” He hooks his arm through mine. “You want to turn the mortal, eh? His blood must be extra sweet.”

“It’s divine.”

“But it’s more than that. You’re not a whimsical beast. It takes more than delicious blood to tie you down. What is it about him?”

I glance at my friend, deciding whether I want to speak aloud the words bouncing around my chest.

“Come on, Elias. I’ll keep your confidence.”

“It isn’t that. I’ve hardly determined the reason myself.” We turn a corner, finding yet another group of mortals tangled in naked ecstasy. “If I’m honest, I’ve been bored, Jagger. Extremely bored. When you’re me, there’s so much that goes along with it.” I chuckle darkly. “Listen to me go on about my privilege like it’s a curse.”

“I get it. You have a reputation to uphold and so many whose reasons for being with you are murky at best.”

“Like Tristan. I don’t know what he wants with me, but it isn’t pure. Sure, I could fuck him, but I sense he wouldn’t just go away.”

“Your instinct has always steered you well.”

“It has, and my instinct right now tells me to keep Geordi close. If he said yes, I would turn him tonight.”

“You don’t need him to say yes.”

“My friend, I am a lot of things, some of them rather dark, but I’m not a brute. I would never give someone this gift without their full and true desire. We’ve seen the result of forcing it upon someone, haven’t we?”

“True.” He bumps his shoulder into me. “Shall I turn the cute little Enyo? I like him. He’s a fun little toy.”

“And when you tire of him?”

Jagger shrugs, releasing my arm. “I can still care for him as long as he’s open to my lifestyle.”

“He does seem eager.”

Jagger walks slightly ahead of me, turning around to face me. “What did he mean when he said Geordi is obsessed with you? Do you know?”

“Geordi alluded to me that I have been somewhat of a fantasy of his for many years. It seems he had an inkling of our existence before it was proven. He read about me.”

“Ah. Your reputation precedes you.”

Nodding, I laugh. “A constant benefit.” I pause on the sidewalk for a moment, sniffing the air. The sweet scent of burning opioids tickles my nose. “A drug den. Come on.”

We head down the sidewalk and slip into a darkened warehouse. In my experience, drug users are open with information as long as you’re not the police.

I spot a group of people, about five or so, sitting around a burning pile of wood and trash for warmth. One of them, a man with long, dirty blond braids, looks up with startled eyes and the energy of a scared antelope about to run.

I raise my hand to calm him. “I come in peace. Just a question.”

A woman with hazy eyes and an intricate tattoo scrawled across the right side of her face looks up. “You’re vampires.”

I pull my head back slightly. “How do you know that?”

“She knows lots of things,” the antelope says with a mixture of pride and defiance.

“A useful skill.” I approach, kneeling on the dirty concrete to meet her eyes. “I’m looking for someone. Perhaps you noticed him earlier before the melee broke out. He was likely the source of it.”

She studies my eyes for a second, her blank expression giving nothing away. I can’t detect what she is as the drugs cloud her true nature.

After a moment, she nods. “The man who ran through town stabbing people with needles?”

“Sounds right, yes. Any idea where I can find him?”

She grips my wrist with spindly fingers. “He’s not well. Sick with poison.”

“Poison?” Jagger asks. “How did that happen?”

Her dull eyes flicker to my friend. “A vampire. Unlike you. His aura is dark, his intentions evil.”

I glance over at Jagger. His jaw ticks.

“What does the vampire look like? A name? Anything?”

The woman shifts her gaze beyond me, the irises clouding over until she looks dead. Her head moves back and forth as her fingers dig into my skin.

“Blond. Petite. Blue eyes. Like a doll. A haunted one.” She opens her eyes and blinks, bringing the dark brown color back to them. “You know him.”

“I know all the vampires in this town.”

She shakes her head. “No. He isn’t merely an acquaintance. You have spent time with him. He wants…” She pauses, moving her lips but not speaking words, until she utters, “More of your time.”

“Tristan,” I whisper.

She smiles, revealing nearly rotten teeth. “Tristan. He wants power, and he knows he can have it through you. He wants your attention.”

“He’s going to get it, but not in the way he thinks,” Jagger muses.

“Okay. Is Tristan with Ronald?”

The woman shakes her head. “Ronald… The man with the needles?”

“Yes.”

“He’s not far from here.” She stands, twisting around rapidly like a compass, her baggy clothes flowing around her. Her companions watch her with their hazy eyes until she jerks sharply to the northeast. “There’s a house two blocks from here. You’ll find him there.”

“And Tristan?” Jagger asks.

“I can’t find him. Something blocks his location from me.”

“Are you a witch?” I ask.

The woman shakes her head. “It’s complicated. I’m cursed. The drugs help keep the worst of it at bay.”

“Thank you for your help. If I can do anything for you, please ask. I am El?—”

“Elias Caswell,” she says, completing my sentence. “I know. I’m Zena.” She bites her bottom lip. “I could use money.”

“How much?”

“Whatever.”

I dig in my pocket, pull out the stack of cash in my money clip, and hand it to her. “There’s a few thousand there. Come back to me if you need more.”

Her scent softens instantly as her eyes well with tears. “If you need my help, you will have it.”

I nod, taking my leave with Jagger on my heels. We head in the direction Zena sent us. I’m intent on retrieving Ronald to bring him to Geordi, but my mind is stuck on Tristan.

“I knew it,” I mutter. “There’s something wrong with his energy. He was using me for his own traitorous purposes.”

“Won’t he be fun to kill then?”

“Very.”

We arrive on the darkened street of abandoned houses used as temporary sleeping quarters for squatters and the addicted, zeroing in on the house Zena described. A dim light emanates from the front, likely the living room.

In complete vampire stealth mode, Jagger and I approach the house, slipping in through the cracked-open front door. The floor is littered with trash, empty food containers, and a few dead rats. It reeks of piss and feces of both the human and animal variety.

“Ugh.” Jagger shudders.

I catch movement from a dark corner and focus on it, discovering the huddled figure of a mortal man.

“Ronald.”

In a flash, I’m on him, lifting him by his collar, only to find him weakened, pale, and near death with his throat torn out.

“Gods. What happened to you?”

He flinches, barely able to hold his head up. I lay him down on his back, kneeling over him as Jagger does the same opposite me.

“Who did this to you?”

Ronald opens his mouth to speak but all that comes out is a trickle of blood sliding from his lips down his chin.

“Zena said he was poisoned,” Jagger says. “Do you think Tristan did it?”

Ronald reacts, gripping my arm as best he can in his state. He grunts as his eyelids flutter and he sort of nods.

“Tristan did this to you?”

Ronald grunts again. I start to stand but he grabs at my shirt. “S-s-s…”

“You can’t speak like this.”

“We could turn him,” Jagger says. “Do you want us to save you?”

Ronald furrows his brow, clearly torn. “D-d-d…” He squeezes his eyes shut in clear frustration.

“I have no idea what he wants to say.”

Ronald taps his chest. “Mmm-unc-beer.”

He makes just enough sound that I think I’ve got it. “Your uncle, Bernard?”

He grunts.

“He can’t save you. You want us to get you to him?”

He looks distraught again. I have no idea what he wants, but I get a thought.

“Hand me your phone, Jag.”

My friend looks surprised, but does as I ask. I stare at it for a second before figuring out how to call my own home. Benicio promptly answers.

“Sir?”

“Put Geordi on the phone please.”

Ronald grunts hearing the name, almost in relief.

“Hello?”

“Geordi. I’ve found Ronald but he’s suffering. He’s been hurt. I know there’s a way to heal a vampire injury without me turning him but I can’t recall it. Do you know?”

“Uh, yeah, but you’d have to have access to the vampire who did it to him.”

“I think that can be arranged. Then what?”

“Spread the vampire’s blood over the wound. We’ve seen it work.”

“On a fatal wound?”

“Ooh, never tried it on something fatal. What happened to him?”

“Long story. I’ll bring him back there.”

“Did he tell you what’s going on?”

“I’m afraid he can’t yet. I’ll be there soon. Can I speak to Benicio again?”

“Sure.”

He hands the phone off.

“Hello, Sir.”

“Don’t let anyone in until I arrive. Especially Tristan.”

“Of course.”

“I’ll be back shortly.” In the background, the sound of splintering wood comes through the phone. “Benicio?”

Geordi’s bloodcurdling scream reaches me next, and within seconds, I tear off back towards my home.

“Benicio!”

“Come quickly, sir. It’s Tristan and he’s got your mortal.”