The Bite That Binds (Deep In Your Veins 2)

Jared’s hands framed my face, searching my expression. “What is it, baby? Bad dream?”

“No, I woke up to this horrible pain. I was hurting all over, but I couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t move.”

He crushed me to him, kissing my temple. “You sure you weren’t dreaming?”

“It wasn’t a dream.”

His voice was like a blade. “Was it the same pain you felt when the brothers hurt you?”

I nodded. “Do you think Antonio’s researchers will find out anything?”

“If there’s something worth finding out, those guys will find it.” The confidence in his voice made me breathe better. If they were so good that Jared relaxed at the mere thought of them, they had to be extremely capable.

“What do you think the brothers did to me?” My voice was quiet, almost vulnerable.

Jared squeezed me tightly. “I swear I’ll find out what they did, and I’ll get them to fix it.”

“I know.”

It was only an hour or so after breakfast that I, Jared, Denny, Max, Harvey, and Jude were stood outside the block of apartments where Janine Peterson lived – or had lived – with her boyfriend. Ten minutes before, Antonio had informed us that the boyfriend had returned from whatever trip he had been on. Jared had teleported us all there, and now it was time to get some answers.

Jude was obviously raring to get those answers, but Jared and I had instructed her not to interrupt our interrogation. Providing she didn’t interfere, the boyfriend would be all hers once we were done questioning him.

As we ascended the graffiti-covered stairs, we past many drugged humans – some of whom were injecting themselves right there, right then. Although I wasn’t a Keja, I – like all vampires – had an otherworldly lure that made humans take notice. And they did take notice of each and every one of us. I was pretty sure that if Jude and I had been on our own, we would have been attacked − not that our attackers would have gotten very far, of course. The ‘fuck off’ looks that Jared and the squad were wearing hadn’t been ignored. Wise of the humans.

Finally outside the apartment number on Janine’s driver’s license, we didn’t bother knocking. Nor did we force our way inside. The last thing we needed was to have a door we couldn’t lock behind us, as that would allow others to glimpse inside. There would be much worth seeing tonight, and although it was unlikely that any human – particularly a drugged one – would have been believed if they had reported what they witnessed, it was always important to be careful.

One thing that science fiction had got right was that there were indeed human government divisions that fully believed vampires existed, and these divisions were absolutely intent on getting hold of one. Maybe they even had caught a vampire at some point, but if they had, they weren’t content with just the one. They investigated each and every report that even had a hint of vampirism to it, no matter how small or how ridiculous, in the hope that it might lead them somewhere. It was best to not help them out with that.

Seeing that the hallway was totally clear, Denny reduced himself to mush and slipped under the door. When the door opened enough to allow us all to enter, we then locked it behind us. Instantly we found ourselves in a small, cluttered living area that stunk heavily of smoke, sweat, stale food, and the distinctive scent of cannabis. Refraining from balking had been a challenge for every one of us.

At the sound of a toilet flushing, our heads whipped around to our left. One of the three doors further down the hallway opened, and out stepped a tall, gangly guy with dark unkempt hair and skin almost as pale as mine. Upon seeing us, he – Leon, I remembered Janine calling him – froze.

The movement might not have registered to a human before it was too late, but it was like slow motion to a vampire when Leon reached behind him and retrieved a gun from the waistband of his jeans. He had barely had a chance to aim it at us when Harvey used his telekinesis to snatch the weapon and pull it to him.

Leon’s eyes widened to saucers. To his credit, he didn’t freeze with fear like others might have done. But before he could take more than one step backwards – I assumed he wanted to head for his bedroom where there was most likely another gun – Denny had sprayed yellowy-green ooze out of his thumbs and smallest fingers, trapping him. Denny then used the sticky ooze to bounce Leon from the hallway to the ragged sofa. At Jared’s command, Denny didn’t release the human from the grip of the ooze.

Jared and I stood in front of the sofa, looking down at him. My voice was deceptively pleasant. “You must be Leon. Glad you’re finally back.” The poor bugger looked like he might piss himself. I hoped not. The place smelled foul enough as it was. “I’ll bet you’re wishing you’d stayed away a little longer though, eh?”

He swallowed hard. “Whatever it is you’re looking for, I didn’t take it.”

That statement was sort of the equivalent of a child suddenly saying ‘Mummy, I didn’t do anything with your scissors’, and then you turn to find your curtains have been chopped up. “So Janine was telling the truth. You like to take what isn’t yours to take.”

“J-Janine?”

“Yes, we had an interesting conversation with her. She’s a lovely girl. I noticed that she was pregnant. How long does she have left before the birth?”

“A month or so,” he lied easily.

In my experience, most thieves were, in fact, good liars. I supposed they had to be. “How sweet.”

“Look, I haven’t done any jobs for months now. I’ve been trying to get myself clean.”

“Tell me, are you a kleptomaniac, or are you just one of those people who are lazy and greedy and have a sense of entitlement?”

His brow crinkled. “Kleptomaniac?”

“A kleptomaniac is someone who is addicted to thieving. They get the same kind of high from it that a drug addict would get from cocaine.”

His face scrunched up into a defensive expression. “It’s not like the people I steal – stole – from can’t easily replace what I took.”

“And that’s how you justify it to yourself, is it? Tell me, how do you justify helping unborn babies being stolen from their mothers?”

His mouth bobbed open and closed like a landed fish. Eventually, he shrugged, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Jared snickered, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure there’s much point in you playing dumb. We know about the criminal organisation. We know about the Scouts, the Deliverers, and the Medics. But there’s more, isn’t there, Leon? So much more. What we really want are names. Janine was quite informative, but she was unable to give us any names. She seemed to think that you, however, might just be able to.”