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Tina and Jeffrey actually looked at each other sadly. Oh my God, we had to get out of this.
Thankfully, Ariel diverted my ranting before I could get really hysterical. “Anastasia. How’s Gemma doing?”
After a pause, the vampire said, “She’s weak. She needs to feed. We both do.”
The expressions on the humans in the room grew even more wary. “And how exactly are you going to manage that?” Tina said.
We were too screwed to be worrying about petty crap like this. “I’ll do it,” I said. “It’s okay. I’ve done it before. I heal fast.”
“Thank you,” Anastasia said, ignoring the stares of the others. “I’ll bring Gemma up.”
As soon as she was gone, Tina leaned forward, demanding, “Kitty, what are you doing? Are you serious?”
“They’re targets just as much as the rest of us. We need to help each other if we’re going to get out of this.”
“But they’re… they’re…”
My grin turned bitter. “What’s the matter? Some of my best friends are vampires.” Nobody was happy, and the situation was getting worse. “If it upsets you that much, you don’t have to watch.”
“Jeffrey, have you sensed anything?” Grant said, moving forward and back into the conversation. “Do you think Dorian or Jerome might try to communicate with us?” Jeffrey could cha
I expected Jeffrey’s answer. He shook his head. “It’s not so simple. Not everyone who’s passed on can communicate. I can’t just summon them. They may not have anything to say.”
“Can you try? Both of you?” the magician said, including Tina in the question. I understood the logic: at least they’d be doing something. They’d keep busy, distracted. And we might even get some answers.
I went toward the stairs.
“Kitty?” Grant said.
“I’m going to check on Conrad.” I headed upstairs.
Conrad’s room was in the back of the house, near the stairs. I knocked softly and got no answer. Big shock there.
“Conrad?” I said. “It’s Kitty. Can we talk?”
“I’ve barricaded the door! Stay away from me!” His voice was rough with panic. Now, here was someone acting like a character in a horror movie.
“Conrad, I think you need to come downstairs with the rest of us. We need to come up with a plan for how we’re going to get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving this room!”
Sighing, I tried to imagine how I’d deal with a two-year-old. “I don’t know if they told you, but Jerome’s dead. And I don’t think this is going to stop. I think we’re all in danger.”
“Of course we’re in danger! I’m trapped in a house with a bunch of monsters!”
“Monster is in the eye of the beholder, Conrad,” I said tiredly.
“You. I saw you. That’s… that’s not…”
“I warned you,” I said. “And you had to be all smug about it.”
There was a long pause. I didn’t hear anything inside. I could imagine what the room looked like: the bureau pulled across the front door, the shades drawn, Conrad huddled in the middle of the floor with a sputtering flashlight, trembling in the dark. Poor guy. Not.
“That’s it,” I said. “I’m sending Ariel to get you. You can deal with her, can’t you? She’s human.”
“How do you know that? I don’t know anything about any of you!”
I walked away.
Back downstairs, everyone else was still huddled in the kitchen, bent over candles and looking grim. Grant stood by the kitchen window and gazed out, either standing watch or searching. He looked like a sentinel carved from stone, and for my part I felt a little safer with him on duty.
Anastasia and Gemma were in the living room. The younger vampire was curled up on the sofa, her knees pulled to her chin, her brown hair hanging loose and limp around her face, like she’d been pulling at it. I didn’t think it was possible, but she seemed even more pale than Anastasia. More than that, she was listless, glassy-eyed. Grief-stricken, I wanted to say. Except that she smelled cold, didn’t breathe, didn’t blink, didn’t move at all—so she looked dead.
Anastasia had laid out equipment on the coffee table: gauze, blood collection tubes, a sterile pack with a brand-new hypodermic syringe inside. I was a little relieved.
I sat across from her. “I admit, I think I like this a little better than teeth. It’s a little cleaner.”
“If you didn’t like the teeth, your host was doing it wrong.”
“Oh, no, no. She was doing it just right. That’s kind of the problem.” I winced.
That was the secret behind vampire seductions. They could hypnotize their victims, arouse them, bring them to ecstasy even as they drank blood from them. They didn’t have to kill their prey. Why would they, when they could make their victims keep coming back for more? Blood was a renewable resource.
Anastasia gave a knowing smile.
She opened the package and prepared the syringe. Just a pinprick and a little blood. I could handle it. And we needed the vampires at full strength. We were all in this together.
“Are you right or left handed?” she asked, and I told her right. She sat on my left side and took that arm. Polite vampires always asked for the off hand.
I looked away and tried not to pay attention. Grant had shifted so he could see us and watched the proceedings, frowning. I looked back, almost challenging. What did you expect me to do, let them starve?
I hissed when I felt the prick in my elbow. A moment later, Anastasia said, “Hold this.” She left the needle in place and held a square of gauze over it. Her hands were perfectly steady. I put my fingers on the spot and tried not to move.
She popped out the tube of fresh blood and took it straight to Gemma. “Gemma, here. Drink this.”
She had to hold the tube under her nose a moment before Gemma reacted. Slowly, she shifted, blinked, came to awareness. She gripped Anastasia’s hand, clutching at the tube, and Anastasia guided it to her mouth. Gemma tipped her head back and pulled the tube between her lips, letting the contents pour in. She didn’t even swallow. Just let the blood stream down her throat.
Anastasia drew the empty tube away, and Gemma sat, head tipped back, hands covering her mouth. Some color came back; she went from looking corpselike to merely pale. I could almost see energy returning to her as she straightened, her muscles tensed, and she came back to life.
Then she let out a sob. “Ani, he’s gone, he’s gone!”
Anastasia drew her in an embrace. “Shh, I know, I know.” The older vampire held her, curled in her arms, like a mother with her child. Gemma cried, but they were dry sobs, shedding no tears.
I kept holding the needle in my vein and waited.
After a minute, Anastasia pulled away and held Gemma’s face to look at her. “We must be strong. He would want us to fight, yes?” Gemma nodded but still looked forlorn. She watched as Anastasia returned to me and drew a second vial, staring at the blood spilling into the tube.
This one Anastasia drank quickly and without drama. Discreetly, she withdrew and capped the needle, wrapped up the equipment for disposal, and put it in a small vinyl pouch. It was all very clinical. Made it easier for me. Which might have been the point.
“That’s all we need for now,” Anastasia said. “You need your strength, as well. But I may ask for more later.”
I rubbed my elbow; the needle-sized hole in my arm was already healed.
I was still sitting there when Ariel brought me a glass of warm orange juice and a couple of cookies. “When people give blood they’re supposed to drink a lot of fluids, right?” She shrugged, looking sheepish.
“Thanks,” I said.
“So,” Anastasia said, standing at one end of the room, arms crossed, and gazing across it. Grant regarded her from the other side of the room. I couldn’t help but think: the two most powerful people here were facing off. “Now that that’s taken care of, do we have a plan?”
No one answered.
I stared at the picture window and to the big bad world outside, where someone was waiting to kill us. The first response was always: turn Wolf and run. But the hunter was waiting and had silver. Had to use brains, not instinct. The brain clicked.