Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

"Your face says it's not good news," I said.

He shook his head. "The whole family was so brutally attacked that none of them rose as vampires."

"How can you be sure?" Echo asked.

"They're starting to rot."

"Sinead had two younger brothers, as well as the parents," Pearson said.

"Where were the bodies found?" Edward asked.

"In a shed three houses over. The smell alerted the neighbors."

"Where were the owners of the house?" I asked.

"In the shed," he said.

"I take it that they won't be rising as vamps either."

"No."

"Is this the most victims that were torn up too badly to rise as the undead?" Echo asked.

"That we've found, yes."

"Maybe it's a clue," I said.

"A clue to what?" Edward asked.

"I have no fucking idea, but it's something different in the pattern and different is something."

"Do you want to go look at the shed?" he asked.

"No."

He smiled. "Want to go look for clues in a shed that was full of decomposing bodies?"

"When you put it that way, how can I resist?"

59

WE NEVER GOT to investigate the shed. Some of the neighbors decided that it must be evil, or full of some disease that was ravaging their town, so they set it on fire. We got to watch the fire department do its job, but that didn't help us find a clue to what, or who, was spreading vampirism like a summer cold through Dublin.

In fact, everywhere we went that night, there were no clues, only more victims. Either the victims that the newly risen had attacked or the new vampires themselves, who weren't much better at being vampires than Edna and Michael Brady. One thing was different about almost all of the newly risen, though: Once they took blood, they stopped being dangerous. They couldn't always remember anything, but they were more coherent than any newbie vampires I'd ever met. They also looked more normally human.

"What bloodline is this?" I asked Echo and Fortune.

"I do not know," Echo said, and Fortune just shook her head.

Kaazim and Jake didn't know either. Since between the four of them they'd seen thousands of years of vampires, we were well and truly clueless. Eventually we got sent back to our hotel for sleep and food, but I was too tired to eat. The jet lag had finally caught up with me in a major way. As Nicky opened the door, I leaned beside it and stared at the opposite wall as Domino and Ethan opened the next door. Magda and Giacomo were on the other side of them. They'd left the three vampires at Nolan's compound with its one working cell. Magda made a comment about the three new vamps tearing up the cell they were in the way she had done to the other one: "They have not the will, nor the training yet. The cell will be sufficient for the newly risen who are untrained in combat."

I thought that was interesting wording and texted Edward to tell Nolan that they might need special accommodations for any vamps who had military, martial arts, or other physically trained backgrounds. He was staying at the compound with Nolan. Apparently there were living quarters there, though Magda said calling them apartments would be too much; they were more like barracks. Since I'd never been in the real military before, I didn't actually understand the difference, but I was too tired to ask for an explanation. No, I was so tired, I didn't care what the explanation was; that was the truth.

Fortune and Echo were beside us on this side of the hallway. Socrates had decided to stay at Nolan's in the barracks, to continue to foster goodwill and to learn as much as he could about what the plans were for the paramilitary group. That left Pride in a room by himself, or sharing with Dev. Jake and Kaazim were bunkmates, but somehow if Socrates had been there, we'd have been short a bed. Nicky had bunked next door with Pride for the nap earlier, but I didn't want to give up Nicky for the whole trip. I just didn't. I was in love with him, and other than Nathaniel, that wasn't true of anyone else on the trip with me. I liked some of my people very much, and was wildly attracted to others, but it wasn't "in love." This tired after the night we'd just had, being held by people you truly loved sounded just about perfect.

My phone rang as Nicky got the door open. It was Jean-Claude's ringtone, so I answered as Nicky held the door for me. "Hey, tall, pale, and handsome, what's up?"

"Ma petite, I will soon be down for the day."

"The time difference is going to take some getting used to," I said as I sat on the edge of the king-size bed.

"Yes, but I cannot take the ardeur for you while I sleep. You may wake for the morning before I do, and if so, then you will need to feed the ardeur when you wake. You must also eat a real breakfast, not just coffee. I need you to take care of your physical needs so that me being unable to take your other hunger will not get out of hand for you."

"Crap," I said, and the wave of tiredness washed over me.

"Ma petite, what is wrong?"

I didn't try to explain, just thought about the last few hours. He got the shorthand version, all the awful in a fraction of the time. His comment was "That is truly terrible, ma petite. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with such things."

"It's my job," I said.

"Actually, it is not, but I understand that you feel that way."

Opening to him enough to share the memories let me know that he was alone in the bedroom sitting on the edge of the bed as I was. "Has Richard gone back home?"

"Oui, Jason has arrived from New York."

"Tell him hi for me and give him a hug. I miss him."

"As do I, ma petite. If you are still away by the next weekend, his J.J. will be joining him here in St. Louis for a few days."

I thought about the blond ballerina who had finally won Jason's heart. They were very warm thoughts on my part. She was probably my favorite female lover after Echo. I wasn't sure why Fortune and Magda were third and fourth on that list respectively, but I could honor the truth of it without overanalyzing it. Fortune was committed to Echo and liked men a lot. Magda seemed content to treat all of us as fuck buddies.

"Have fun," I said.

"I hope that you are home by then, ma petite."

"Me, too. Hey, ask him if I am home next weekend, could he and J.J. stay over anyway?"

"I will happily do so," he said.

I smiled. "That would be great."

"I have spoken with Micah on the phone about the Roane and their plight with She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Edward's calling her that, too. I'd really prefer not to mix Harry Potter with this awfulness."

"As you like, ma petite. Micah will be speaking with Rafael at more length since they are both still on the West Coast trying to prevent a shapeshifter war."

"I'd have thought the negotiations would be done by now, or they'd have picked who to fight and kicked their asses."

"I do not have all the details, but it seems more complex than first explained."

I thought about calling Micah, but it seemed too complicated, especially if I still had to feed the ardeur. Why was I this discouraged? Was it the jet lag? Edna Brady's screams? The fact that two entire families had been wiped out by this new vampire? Or the thought that something we had done to the Mother of All Darkness had weakened Damian's old master enough to allow the new vampires to get a foothold here in Dublin? I kept coming back to that: Somehow this was our fault for not taking charge of things. We'd just wanted to run America and trust the rest of the world's vampires to take care of business. I was beginning to realize how naive that may have been.

"Ma petite, this is not our doing. Do not take on the guilt of it."

"Was I thinking that loud?"

"Yes," Nathaniel said as he went into the bathroom and closed the door. I realized that Nicky, Dev, and Damian were all in the room. There was no way that all of us were going to be able to sleep in one king-size bed.

"They are a bounty, ma petite, not a burden. Please remember that."

"I will, but thanks for the reminde

r."

"Time is growing short here, ma petite. I must sleep and the demon we share must come home to you."

"The ardeur isn't a real demon, Jean-Claude. It isn't even evil, just occasionally inconvenient."

"It is still the power that has earned me the title of incubus, and you that of succubus."

"Fine, but I've dealt with real demons, Jean-Claude, and it's a whole new level of bad."

"That I believe, ma petite, but dawn is almost upon me. Are you prepared for the ardeur to be returned?"

"You fed it well today, right?"

"Oui."

"Then it shouldn't need feeding again that soon. I can control it better than that now."

"Tonight, yes, but I can feel that you have donated too much blood and not eaten enough real food, plus the jet lag and the stress of your job. You underestimate how much energy it all takes."

"I promise that I will eat breakfast tomorrow morning, and I will feed the ardeur without it forcing me to feed it."

"Thank you, ma petite."

"You're welcome. I'm just exhausted. We're all tired."

The four men looked at one another and then at me. "You just need to pick your bedmates so we can all get some sleep," Nathaniel said, smiling.

"Ma petite, they are all handsome, all good lovers, and you are in love with two of them. Do not allow the ugliness of the night to paint this moment as anything less than beautiful."