Breach (The Blood Bargain) (17 page)

“Thanks. Sammie I-”

“I’m not mad at you by the way.” “What?”  I murmured, eyes wide.

“About Ben,” she replied with a shrug, “I’m not.  Really.  I mean like, I understand you not wanting to get in the middle of it.  Ben has always been the way he is, Candice isn’t the first pretty thing to grab his eye since I’ve known him.”  I found myself deflating as she talked, how could she be so nonchalant about this whole thing?

“Well I’m still sorry, I was a horrible friend to both of you.”

“Nah...Don’t worry about it.”

“Why do you stay with him then?”  I blurted out before I could think about it.  To me he was an utter relationship scumbag.   Don’t get me wrong, I respected the hell out of him in a fight, just would never date him. Ever. I couldn’t wrap my mind around why a pretty girl-and she really was, all those freckles and high cheekbones made her look like a model from the nineteen nineties for some sort of mineral makeup-like Samantha would put up with his womanizing.

“I guess our world creates new standards for the perfect guy.  I remember I used to be all about who had the best clothes or coolest attitude.  Whoever could quote Niche or speak French, some sign of enlightenment.”  Her face fell. “Now I just want someone who can keep me alive.”  Tucking her wavy hair behind her ears she continued.

“Ben’s that kind of guy.  The one who pummels everything in his wake.  He’s big, loud and usually crude but I feel safe when he’s there.  He’s always been good to me when we’re together.”

“Surely there are other guys who would treat you better, Sammie you’re awesome and to put up with him is-
” She shook her head, cutting me off.

“I prefer to deal with the devil I know rather than the unknown.  Ben may have a wandering eye but he’s still a good person overall.  Not everyone came through the outbreak intact.  I’d rather have him flee and return to me than end up with someone who screams at night or won't let me in emotionally for fear of death, mine or his.  Worse yet, one who crumbles in the face of fear.  I don’t want to be
Lanni.”

“That’s only happened once.”  Almost nine years ago, I wanted to tack on.
Lanni Williams was murdered by her boyfriend when I was fifteen.  The story was he had a meltdown and bashed her head in thinking she was a deadhead, he had still been waving a hammer around and rambling nonsense when the other house members found him.  Rather than relinquish the weapon, he struck his own head until he had been unable to lift the hammer.  Died from the injuries not long after.  Despite the fact that he had murdered her, they had been buried together.  A tragedy of few resources for corpse cleanup and no surviving family members to complain about it.

“Well we only die once don’t we?” She frowned, realizing the falsity of her statement.

“For good...I mean.”

“You can’t let your own fear of what might happen cause you to live a life that is less than what you deserve.  The only person who should be pro
tecting you is you.”

“
Liv I’m a nurse, not a fighter.  I heal, I help, I don’t hurt.”  I frowned.

“Really, we’re fine.  Can we move on now?”

“Sure.”  I guess there was no point trying to help someone who didn’t want to help themselves.  She stood as though to leave, then paused.

“
Liv...those files.  We need a real doctor.  Bad.  I’m doing the best I can, so is Rebecca, it’s just we’re nurses.  Nurses with limited supplies at that.  If we have to remove a spleen or do a C-section...”  Sammie trailed off with a frown.  “Tommen didn’t teach us everything we need to know.”

“Where are we going to get a doctor?”  She threw her hands up in frustration.

“Hey, that’s why you’re on the council not me.  I don’t have to think about it.”  I knew she was trying to make light of a potentially fatal situation.  Without proper medical staff our little colony of five hundred might quickly dwindle down to twenty five trying to keep their sanity.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be an ass.  Just thinking out loud.”

“Are you going to the spring festival?”

“Course.”

“With Cole or?”  She trailed off in that prompting way I remembered from high school.

“What do you mean or?”

“Well...”  She slowly turned around, her eyes carrying that glow of fresh gossip.  “I had lunch with Ben today and he said he ran into Rylie who mentioned he was going this year because you told him to so I was kind of thinking maybe sort of you liked him or whatever?  Did Cole do something wrong?  I mean, I think Rylie is cute too but in like a dark and dangerous kind of way, that seems more your type anyway.”

Opening and closing my mouth like a fish I tried to come up with a way to reply to that. On one hand I was shocked it got around town that quickly, on the other I was shocked she managed to spit all that out in one breath.  Either way I guess I was just plain shocked.

“I’m going with Cole. Rylie is...”  I frowned, not wanting to give away my plan.  “I just asked if he was...”

“Hey!  I don’t judge you. Believe me, I’m the last person to do that.”  She laughed.  “See you at the party next week!”

With that she was gone, leaving me thoroughly addled.

If she had heard, which meant Ben had probably gum flapped to most of his crew, which meant the wall teams were yakking it up.  Which meant...Cole would have heard this.  Oh man he was going to be pissed off.

I groaned, dropping my head to my desk I banged it on the stack of files in front of me. Why can’t anything ever be simple?  Why does everyone in a small town act like a bunch of old ladies at bridge?

Stupid me, no wonder he looked at me like that when I grabbed his arm.  I guess I did come off as...forward.  Taking a deep breath I tried to control my stress, one emergency at a time.  That was what I needed to focus on.  When Cole came my way snorting and stomping like a raging bull I would grab him by the horns.  Until then, I needed to focus on crops.

No, not crops.  I spread the files out on the desk in front of me, lining up straight angles of the manila folders like they were ancient alien relics of untold power.  Files did in many ways seem foreign to me, especially in the candlelight.  Seemed like they should be replaced with parchment, ball point pen swapped out for an ink quill and blotter.

Opening the center one labeled inventory I read down the lines of medical items with fancy names I didn’t know.  Very few of them had double digit quantities.  Last year we’d get medical supplies from Lake City in exchange for crops, but after the attack on the fall caravan a spring trade run was not expected.  We were, in a sense, on our own.

Then it hit me.

A reason.  A simple yet absolute reason that I had been searching out for months. Something even Caius couldn’t counter.  Something absolute.  A way to get close enough to Lake City to find out what was really happening to
Dimitri.

When the sun fell, and with Yu’s blessing, I was standing in the living room of the large farmhouse I both
loved and hated looking across the crisp white couches at the blood sucking once man who had made me his meal of choice for the last few months.  Curiously, he spoke nothing of those visits-or abductions I suppose-at all during our greeting.  Caius merely descended the stair in his graceful king like fashion dressed in a pressed white button down shirt-half unbuttoned which gave me a peek at what appeared to be a tattoo on his chest-dark grey slacks and black dress shoes that looked simple but probably cost a fortune.  With his long fingered hand, he gestured towards the living room, dark locks cascading over his white shirt at the slight tip of his head.  The ancient vampire led me into the sofa filled room without a word, my nose assaulted by his thick cool water cologne from his proximity.

Draped over the white loveseat his six foot and a hell of a lot of inches frame took up almost the whole furniture piece, limbs draped along the back of the couch and on the arm rest, an open inviting embrace. With legs crossed wide-resting his right ankle over his left knee-I got a peek of designer socks embroidered with little lions between his loafers and cuffed
pants.

Rather than sit next to him, which he clearly was expecting, I took a seat on the couch across from him.  For a brief moment in time, his perfect grace, prim clothes and spectacularly angled features made me feel frumpy in my jeans boots and fleece.  The peasant and her king in the most literal sense.

I fidgeted with my hair while his ice blue eyes bored into my own.  His thick lips parted slightly in an expression that was part smirk, part sneer and a hell of a lot of leer.  A predator who had flipped the mouse on its back.  Apparently Caius wanted me uncomfortable and he had succeeded.  Pulling at the collar on my fleece I pretended I didn’t see his eyes roaming my body in very non friend zone way.

“We need medical supplies.”  I announced into the
silence of his home.

“Procure them from surrounding towns.”  He drawled with a shrug.  “Have you missed me dear Evelyn?”

“And a doctor?”  I bit my tongue before I blurted out the rest of that retort.

“You have medical personnel, teach them.”  Despite my earlier assumptions that I had found an ace in the hole he wasn’t budging at all.  Hell, he seemed downright annoyed I wasn’t talking about his spectacular
pecs, perfect chin and thick dark lashes surrounding his ice blue...

I shook my head to clear it. That was not where I was letting my mind go.  Nope.  No way.

Leaning forward on the couch I started talking with my hands.  “Look we’re your food right?  Property or whatever.  What happens when we all start dying off because we aren’t well cared for?  What happens then?  Any good farmer round these parts will tell you; your lot needs the investment in quality healthcare.”

A deep throaty laugh rang in my ears.  “Not long on your council and you sound like a human politician.”

“I’m not spinning this Caius.  Its survival fact.  Nothing more.”

“I think you just wanted a reason to come see me.  I felt your...heart when I came calling.”  My cheeks flushed.

“I’m taking a team and I’m going north.  The council will agree-”

“I can overrule your council.  All caravans are required to have a
vampiric escort.”

“Wait.  What?”

“It was a mandate put forth five years ago to lessen death rates.”

“All of them?” I froze, a chill running down my spine.

“Yes.” 

“Then what happened to the escort from the missing caravan from Lake City?”  Silence hung in the air between
us, his face unreadable and unmoving as a statue.

“Caius...”

“The female was killed by Antonia.  She was far younger and less experienced than my daughter.”  Caius clicked his tongue against his teeth.  “It is her death that causes my son to tarry in the north.  By the old law he is now Zhang’s property and restitution.”  It was the first time since I had met him that Caius had spoken to me without any undertones or hidden meaning.  For a brief moment, a saw of flash of what he may have been like as a mortal.

“If you two are even...then why the attack?”  The massive vampire let out a huff of frustration.

“Again you assume there is a connection.”

“Most logical explanation.”

“The connection...would be the prior attachment to the female.”

“Antonia killed his girlfriend?”

“His lover, yes.”

“And you didn’t think it was worth mentioning to anyone else that you guys put a
friggin target on the back of everyone who lives here?”

“These are
vampyr
issues, such things matter not to humans.”  He waved my rage away elegantly with his hand.

“Tell that to our dead.”  I mumbled under my breath, my left hand clutching my mother’s angel pendant around my neck.  The tiny weight sharply pressing
into my palm on the wing tips.

I didn’t care, the inconvenient pain helped me think.  It may be his issue but we sure as hell were suffering because of it.  Jeff, Lloyd, the other people in that house...lives lost because of their little tiff.

“So let me take Adam.”  Pleading, I searched his face for any shreds of agreement.

“He is needed here to protect house
Lambros.”

“Well make another one then.”
  I took a deep breath.

“Look. I’m going.  I’m bringing him home,” I didn’t
feel the need to mention the bonded terror I’d been suffering from, “and I’m putting this crap to bed with Lake City.  The trade is crucial to our survival.  We can’t have a war.

We just can’t.  Humanity is too fragile, and by extension, you are too fragile.”

In an instant he was on me.   His heavy weight pinning my body to the couch, his hands tangled in my hair as he held me in place, lips brushing my left ear.

“Watch your tone in my house female.”  I did not struggle as he wrenched my head to the side, pulling me by the hand tangled in my hair.  “Do I appear so fragile to you now?”  His velvet voice
was intoxicatingly close, breath cold against my skin.

“Everyone has an Achilles heel. Blood is yours.  There’s no weakness in acknowledging fact.”  My words came out in ragged gasps, his weight heavy over my body.