Borne in the Blood Read online

  Tesa shook her head, confused. The overwhelming desire to gorge herself on the savory buffet that was steaming away just inches from her was almost too much to take.

  “Yes, you're obviously something,” Yvonne said, and this time it wasn't a question. “Though at this point, the words are going to be meaningless to you. Vampire, witch, fairy, werewolf —”

  “There are werewolves?”

  “Don't interrupt,” Yvonne snapped. “Those are just colorful words. I mean, you can call the Ur ‘vampires’ if you want to be lyrical about it, but scientists have different names for us. Or witches, or shapeshifters… All of these supposedly magical things, once real, aren't super natural anymore. They're just natural . Sometimes they line up with the fantasy, and sometimes they don't. The real magic, in my mind, is where the fairytale meets the science. You know what I'm saying?”

  Tesa took a deep breath. Yvonne looked slightly flushed, somewhat excited. After having seen this sort of behavior in zealots and drunks, Tesa decided to let her just talk, and see what came out of it.

  “Of course you don't know what I'm saying,” Yvonne sneered, rolling her eyes arrogantly. “You know, it absolutely mystifies me that we are going to have to do this again, and probably another dozen times before we’re finally done. You just never learn, do you? It just never sticks with you…”

  Yvonne stared daggers at Tesa, but Tesa didn't respond. She assumed that playing stupid was her only real asset at this point, so she committed herself to it.

  Blowing her breath out through puffed cheeks, Yvonne stretched her shoulders in frustration. “Well, I guess I really do have all the time in the world to explain this to you. But then what will we chat about in ten years? For now, I'll just tell you this. You're fine. You're safe. You're actually safer here than you were with Tweedle-dummie and Tweedle-douchebag over there. At least I have a woman's touch.”

  Tesa nodded to encourage her, trying not to react to the idea that Yvonne's concept of a woman's touch was probably much less compassionate than she would've assumed.

  “Gio is on the mend now, thanks to your friend Jolie… And with you rounding out our happy little empire, I would say that this is just about as perfect as it could get, wouldn't you?”

  “Is it?” Tesa asked.

  “Yes!” Yvonne snapped. “It's absolute balance! It’s utter symbiosis! You and Jolie… Jolie and Gio… Gio and I… And enough food to feed an army — there is literally not a better solution on the planet! It's perfect.”

  Tesa nodded tentatively as though she was beginning to understand, though she really wasn't sure she understood anything at all.

  “See, you keep running away, but you don't have to. You don't have to be somebody's blood bank. Not like this, anyway. You don't have to sacrifice yourself, Tesa. Balance, that's all you need. Just balance. Now if you would just listen —”

  The door opened, startling Yvonne out of her lecture. She raised her chin briefly. Tesa did not look behind her. She knew what was happening by the stench alone. It was Gio, and Gio was not good.

  If Jolie had had a subtle scent of blackness around her, Gio was an entire weather system. The stench preceded him. He smelled like a graveyard.

  Yvonne glanced at her, then it Gio, then back to Tesa. She narrowed her eyes and dropped her voice.

  “You do understand this, don't you?” she snarled accusingly. “You do know what I'm saying, don't you?”

  Tesa tipped her head to the side as though confused. She shrugged noncommittally.

  “Gio, please leave us.”

  Tesa opened her mind. She breathed deep the stench and felt herself recoil, but wouldn't stop. She breathed it so deeply it was almost as though she was eating it. Her deepest reaction was violent, sudden, like an emotional vomit. An absolute rejection of the miasma that surrounded her. She could feel her terror coming, and didn't try to stop it. It wound up like an air raid siren, filling the room. Branching out in an invisible blast.

  “What is that? What do you think you're doing?” Yvonne stammered, rising from her chair with her eyes wide. “Gio, out! Now! Get the car!”

  Tesa couldn't stop her. Yvonne took two steps and touched her wrist, and the blue mist almost drowned her. Tesa gulped it in, letting it douse the terror in her mind, feeling herself tipping sideways and falling to the floor in a heap.

  Yvonne picked her up like a sack, tossing her over her shoulder and pointing at the service entrance as Gio dashed into the room with Jolie cradled in his arms.

  “Unbelievable! You ungrateful whelp!” Yvonne snarled. “Absolutely unbelievable! Gio, you better get us the fuck out of here, and now !”

  The humans in the lobby didn't even see them as Gio and Yvonne dashed through the space, too fast to be observed. They burst through the parking garage fire door and met the car. Flinging open the doors, Gio stuffed Jolie into the back seat. Yvonne muttered under her breath and dumped Tesa next to her, restraining herself from tearing her throat out, just out of spite.

  “Go! Just fucking go!”

  Without saying anything, Gio hit the gas, jerking out of the space and then accelerating toward the exit.

  Then they screeched to a stop, and Tesa and Jolie rolled forward into the footwells, falling on top of each other from the momentum.

  “What is it?” Yvonne demanded.

  Gio darted his dark red eyes to the corners of the garage and didn’t answer.

  “Shit!” Yvonne hissed, sniffing the air. “Get us out of here! Now!”

  Gio glanced over his shoulder, then jammed the gear shift forward. The car lurched several feet before a crash silenced the engine.

  “Get down!” Yvonne yelled. Tesa flattened herself in the foot well, fighting through the fog in her brain. Some part of her was wild with fright, hammering against her consciousness like a caged animal. But the blue fog thickened, threatening to suffocate her.

  Suddenly there was a cracking thud. The windshield went white with an earsplitting bang. Tesa closed her eyes tightly as a massive rip tore through the convertible roof and a hand reached in.

  Gio leaned over Yvonne’s body, kicking the driver’s side door open with his powerful legs. The door swung crazily and smashed against the front panel as he leapt out of the car too fast to see.

  “You stay down!” Yvonne commanded just as Jolie started to rise, blinking her eyes in confusion. Immediately she fell back on the seat as though she had been thrown, gasping for breath, choking on the fog.

  Tesa could hear them, but she couldn’t command her body to look. Metal scraped on metal and concrete blocks smashed together, then something screamed as it was dragged along the floor. An animal growl cut through the air. The car jolted suddenly with impact of something being thrown against it. Tesa cowered and whimpered with her head in her hands.

  Suddenly someone was reaching for her. She flinched away, kicking. She wanted to scream but the sound choked in her throat. The hand fumbled back and forth in the darkness, seeking to make contact with her. Then another tearing sound, and Gunner shoved his arm and shoulder through the rip.

  “Tesa! Come to me!” he commanded, and Tesa felt as though she was being lifted by marionette strings. Her body moved of its own accord, awkwardly but swiftly through the breach in the roof.

  Gunner grabbed her under her arms and yanked her from the car like a child, folding her knees up and hugging her to his body. The fog began to abate, shoved aside by red, blinding terror.

  She stared into the half light trying to make sense of the figures at the front of the car as Gunner ran with her down the ramp. Yvonne lay in a heap next to the driver’s side wheel, her shoulder and neck at an impossible angle. Stark had Jolie by the collar of her shirt. He dropped her next to the car and whirled around.

  As Tesa watched, Stark took Gio by the shoulders and held him close as though embracing. Then he stretched his mouth wide with a hiss and sunk his glistening white fangs into Gio’s bared throat, yanking backwards and ripping out a huge chunk.


  Gio slumped, lifeless at his feet, a fountain of red-black blood arcing back over his head as Stark panted, heaving, his eyes as red as coals.

  CHAPTER 22

  When Tesa woke, Gunner was holding her hand in the darkness of her own room. She tried to sit up but a blue fog…

  “Stop that!” she yelled. The fog receded instantly, replaced with a gnawing emptiness.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I just thought you might need something… After everything that happened yesterday…”

  “Yesterday? What?”

  “I— I couldn’t wake you. Tesa, I was quite concerned. Are you alright?”

  He stroked the hair over her forehead as she shook her head, trying to reassemble everything. Was this for real? Was any of it real?

  “Jolie…”

  “Is with her mother,” he murmured reassuringly.

  “That’s great,” she sighed, letting go of something she hadn’t realised she was gripping so tightly.

  “You’d have to check with her to see if it’s great,” he chuckled. “Bernie was quite put out.”

  She stared at him in the darkness. With Jolie safe, there was nothing left to do but look at him, really look at him. It had been days since the last time she had had any of his blood but there was still some of the effect remaining. She could see him clearly, yet felt she understood infinitely less than before.

  Who was the real villain? Gunner or Stark? Was Yvonne truly offering her freedom? Was anyone really on her side?

  Someone had to know the truth.

  “I want to see Rose,” she said suddenly.

  To her surprise, he nodded.

  “Actually I wanted to talk to you about that,” he said softly. “Rose is… Well, Rose is the same, but Stark… Gio hurt him. Badly. Stark needs Rose… And so Rose needs you. Now.”

  “Oh really?” she heard herself say. “Yvonne said Rose would kill me, and that you know it. Is that right?”

  Gunner looked away. “You won’t have to worry about Yvonne anymore,” he said softly.

  “Why? What did you do to her? Is she all right?”

  Gunner rocked back, scowling. “She’s fine. She’s always fine. Why do you care so much?”

  “I told you — she says you’re lying to me!”

  “And I told you — don’t worry about Yvonne!”

  “I’m not worried about Yvonne. What I’m worried about is… have you ever told me the truth? Ever? Even once?” Gunner looked up at her with an expression of pain and disbelief. She told herself to ignore it and press on. She had to know. “Is this all just some sicko vampire bullshit? Is she even really my mother?”

  That was the first time the thought had occurred to her, and it clanged through her mind like a bell.

  “Wait a second, is she?? Is Rose my mother or not? Tell me!”

  Tesa leaned over, flicking the lamp on. Gunner slid off the far side of the bed with his hands up.

  “Tesa, you can’t believe the things Yvonne was saying… She was just manipulating you!”

  “For what?”

  “For Gio… You could… You could have probably brought him back.”

  “He didn’t look that far gone to me,” she sneered. “In fact, he didn’t look nearly as bad as Stark when S tark was ripping his throat out! ”

  Gunner held his hands out. “Tesa, you don’t understand…”

  “Then make me understand!”

  “I want to do that for you. I do! But there is no time. We have to go see Rose!”

  Tesa picked up her last remaining porcelain figurine and threw it. It smashed against the wall next to Gunner’s head and splintered into a million tiny pieces.

  “Is she my mother or not?” Tesa said in a low, even voice.

  Gunner let his hands fall to his sides.

  “I don’t know!” he said defeatedly. “That’s what she told us… That’s… Everything we know says yes .”

  “Is helping her… helping Stark… Will I live?”

  Gunner looked at her darkly, stepping close and then stopping when he saw the expression on her face. “Tesa, I have made you as strong as I can,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t ever want to see you hurt. Please believe that.”

  Tesa opened and closed her mouth helplessly. It was starting to seem like the only way to find out if this was a trap was to go ahead and walk right into it.

  “I can’t believe anything,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “Every step of the way, you have lied to me… manipulated me…”

  “No, I told you,” he objected, “I didn’t want this. I wanted to wait. I would have waited years for you, Tesa. Decades. A lifetime. You’re so important to me. I never would have risked you for anything, if I knew. But Stark…” He picked his hands up and let them drop to his sides again. “He needs you. I didn’t realize how much, or I would have handled this differently.”

  Finally daring to get close to her, Gunner stepped forward over the shattered pieces of the figurine. Tesa looked away even as her heart was softening. She knew he could be lying, but what if he was telling the truth?

  “Tesa, I promised you. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I know you’re confused… I can feel how much this hurts you. But I will do anything to keep you safe. Please… Look at me.”

  Tesa kept her head stubbornly cast to the side.

  “Please,” he whispered.

  He raised his hands and gently cupped her cheeks, tipping her face toward his. She cursed the surge of light and electricity she felt at his touch, and the instant desire to forgive him, to fall into his arms. By sheer force of will she kept the expression on her features calm.

  Let him apologize, at least, girl, she thought. You deserve one hell of an apology.

  “I know I can’t convince you with words… But give me a chance. Please. Tesa… I’ll do anything.”

  She stared up into his copper colored eyes, trying in vain to keep her emotions in check. The touch of his smooth palms on her cheeks and the warm, familiar scent of his breath made her heart cry out to be near him.

  “Don’t leave me again,” she said in a near whisper.

  He shook his head, breathing in relief that there was a chance…

  “I won’t… Never.”

  “You left me for Yvonne to find,” she accused.

  He plunged his hands into his hair, grimacing with desperation and regret.

  “No! Francine had… Well, it doesn’t matter. I did leave you alone, and you’re right. That was unforgivable. I should never have put you in that situation.”

  “Promise me,” she insisted.

  Gunner dropped to his knees, throwing his arms around her waist. He held her tightly with his face buried in her hip. Finally he looked up at her with plain, uncontrived sincerity.

  “Tesa, I swear to you I will never let anyone hurt you. I will do anything to protect you. You are the most important thing in the world to me. I swear it.”

  She bit her lip, trying to keep back the surge of emotions that racked her heart. She knew she had every right to be furious, but more than anything she just wanted to be near him. When she looked into his face she could feel him complete her, fit onto all the spots where she was lacking, driving away any thoughts of being frail or alone. After waking up alone in Yvonne’s apartment and realizing how much a void his absence left, rejoining him was irresistible.

  That had to be true, it just had to. No one could possibly fake that feeling. For all the promises Yvonne made, none of them contained any comfort. And now that she knew that, she could never go back.

  She fell to her knees as well, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his face onto hers. Her lips found his immediately and she pulled him tighter, kissing him with an insatiable urgency.

  He kissed her with relief and passion coursing through his body and his blood, pouring his emotions into the tender space their minds shared. She felt all of it and gave herself permission to trust him, simply trust him again. With the conne
ction between them wide open and unobstructed, she knew that this was the one thing she could believe in, after all.

  Then she leaned back, opened her mouth wide, and snapped her fangs neatly into place.

  CHAPTER 23

  The stone corridors were strangely warm and sultry, lit by candles and dim sconces. Gunner held Tesa’s hand protectively as they made their way through hallways, down marble steps, and through still more hallways. Always it felt as if they were angling ever downward, and Tesa wondered just how deep the estate went.

  Finally they stood in front of the carved wooden door to Rose’s chamber. Gunner pulled her hand up and pressed it to his lips with his eyes closed. She felt a rush of confidence and calm pouring into her heart and breathed deeply.

  The wolf-tail handle turned with a small click and the huge door swung soundlessly open. Tesa waited a moment for her eyes to adjust, drinking in the whole room at once.

  She was still flushed with the pulsing strength of Gunner’s blood and everything buzzed with electricity and meaning. The thin web of connections throbbed from the giant bed in the center of the room, across the huge stone slabs of the floor, to the carved chair where Stark sat in silence. His hands were folded under his chin and his eyes were closed.

  “Is he sleeping?” she whispered.

  “Doubtful,” Gunner whispered back.

  As soon as she spoke, the figure in the middle of the bed half-raised her head. The gauzy curtains had been pulled aside and tied to the corner posts.

  With her enhanced sight, Tesa flinched at the vision in front of her. Rose’s skin looked like it had been flayed from her body from her jaw to her hips. She shuddered and quaked as her ribs struggled to expand for each laborious breath. She panted quickly like a dog in the hot sun, the rivers of blood and ooze reflecting an ever-changing pattern of ziggurats and chevrons.

  “What do I do?” she whispered, unable to take her eyes from Rose. A pitiful yowl spooled out of the woman’s throat and she half-lifted her head to let it flow over her lips.

  “Oh my God,” Tesa whimpered. “ What am I supposed to do, Gunner?? ”