The wind hit when I stepped outside, a storm rolling in. I rubbed my arms. There were eyes on me right then. I knew it. I might never be able to say how I did, but I did. Maybe it came from six months of becoming accustomed to this kind of thing. There were vampires watching, and while it was mostly the big men in charge who bit me, any of them could take a turn.
Bethany put an arm around me. “If they kill you, I’ll miss you.”
That shouldn’t have made me laugh, but it did. “Thanks. I’m not sure I’ll miss you at all.”
“That’s what I’ll miss most—when your mouth shows up, and it’s like you’re not on the brink of death. Then I can see who you were before all of this screwed you up.”
We made it to the mansion—which had been Caesar’s house before he died—currently the home of one of the silent vampires and his paramour, Andrea, who never stopped talking. Or drinking. Or, like tonight, making a huge mess. She was alone in the house, singing when we got inside. I stared at Charlotte, hoping we could share an eye roll, but all I saw was longing in her eyes. This was what she wanted. When it came down to it, she might think about leaving, but she never would.
Not when there was the possibility some vampire would see her and give her this.
Of course, I had no idea how any of this worked for Andrea, when her vampire, whose name I didn’t even know, couldn’t speak. His muteness wasn’t even a problem for the vampires. If anything, they seemed to consider the mute ones even more powerful.
We’d started to clean, picking up the discarded bottles of wine and liquor, when Andrea appeared. “Thank you, ladies.” She always spoke with a singsong quality, like she wasn’t sure if she should be singing or talking and decided on something in the middle to handle both possibilities. “Guess things got a little out of control.”
“Oh, don’t worry, we’ve got this.” Charlotte must have been trying to sound breezy while she walked quickly into the kitchen to start scrubbing in there. Bethany didn’t say a word, heading upstairs to face that mess, and I took it upon myself to keep grabbing bottles. How many had they polished off?They’re really taking day drinking to a new level.
Andrea strolled toward me. “I’ve always wanted to talk to you, Maci. Ever since that display the night The Five were changed. I thought maybe you could use a friend, but then I thought…my man might not like that.”
Every time I talked to the paramours, I disliked them more. It was impressive, really. I lived constantly surrounded by people I hated with varying degrees of disgust. I’d thought living on my own when my mother came and went was hard, but now I’d take my own company any day of the week.
“How do you know what he likes? He doesn’t talk.” We were supposed to be polite to the paramours, and I tried. I really did. I guessed I just failed.Whoops.
She put her hands on her hips. “If no one told you there is a way to understand what a man wants that has nothing to do with the ability to speak, then they have failed you, girl.”
Andrea was beautiful. If they did make her a vampire, she’d certainly fill Bethany’s beauty dream. Blonde hair cut in a bob that wasn’t fashionable, that looked more like it belonged to a flapper girl in the nineteen twenties, I wondered if she’d cultivated the old-fashioned look purposefully. After all, she was dating a vampire. Living with him. He couldn’t talk. Who knew when he’d been human? How long ago was that? To want sex, he was probably a hundred years old at least. So… he was alive before there were airplanes, probably. Or maybe just as they were being invented.
It was so strange to think about it. The vampire versions of my guys were going to live to see so many changes they couldn’t even imagine when they were humans. Life would just keep moving.
And they would stay vampires.
“I understand how that works. What do you do when he’s not feeding on you and fucking you?”
She smiled brightly at me. “Oh, how I wish they’d wake up wanting sex and one of them would make you a paramour. I’d love to have you around. We could go shopping together. Spa days. Parties. You find them attractive, but you already know that. It could be fun.” Her face fell. “But they might not find you that way anymore, even if they could. You look like death. Such a shame what they’ve done to you. I mean, not my guy. He only feeds off me, and only once or twice a week at that. They are going to drain you dry.”
I was pretty sure that was the idea. “Are you going to have his baby and become a vampire?”
“That’s the plan.” She leaned over to whisper to me. “So the sex will stop at that point. Then I can be this gorgeous forever.”
If these were the women being made vampires, I hoped I never ran into any, ever. “I’ll get this cleaned for you and get out of your hair.”
“I heard they’re all brutal. That the number of unsuspecting humans they’re having to find to bring in there to keep them fed is beyond belief. They’re traveling hours to find people no one will miss. They were sweet guys, weren’t they? That’s what I heard. We lived a distance from here, but talk about a complete shift. They’re everything the elders hoped they would be. Oh, and as for silent vampires, so far, it seems Tanner doesn’t talk. Not one word. Not at all. They’re so excited about it. The silent ones are always extraordinarily deadly.”
I nodded and left her where she stood. I didn’t need to let her throw her vitriol at me anymore. Passive aggressive nonsense had never been my style, not even when I’d been able to go to high school. She could choke on it in her own head, as far as I was concerned.
I didn’t have any illusions they’d wake up and be vegetarian vampires. They were going to kill people. A lot of them. Probably me, before this was done. Tanner was silent. The one who had loved music, who had sung to us with his guitar. He’d lost his voice. Life was so fucking cruel.
* * *
I’d no sooner leftAndrea’s than I saw her gliding, silent vampire enter to greet her. I had so many questions about exactly how that worked without speech, but speaking to Andrea was too much punishment. She wanted to be a vampire, to give birth to a vampire, and be beautiful forever. Spa days aside—I’d never had one—I didn’t want anything to do with her life.
Fredrick stepped in front of my path toward home. Charlotte and Bethany took one look at him and scampered away. That was the general rule with him. No one got near him, not even those who wanted to be like him.
I swallowed. “Need something?”
He grabbed my wrist and bit hard. I closed my eyes. I’d had a pretty good day. Only three other bites. The numbness moved through me. Finally, he dropped his mouth. “It won’t be long now until you’ll see how much worse they made it on you by not killing you all those months ago. They’re going to tear you to shreds.”
“They might.” I smiled at him. What did I care? “But you’ll always know that, in that moment, they bested you. Even when you win, and I’m dead…when they were human, they beat you.”