1: Blood Price
The territories in the Scarlet City weren’t obvious from the outside, weren’t signposted in any way except the occasional mark of obnoxiously vibrant graffiti glowing in the neon lights. But the locals knew. The North side of the city, from the algae farms to the hospital, was Taipay territory, and the South side belonged to the Bees. There were no strictly enforced rules, exactly – a Bee could visit a ‘Pay friend and expect not to get harassed so long as they stuck to the main streets and didn’t look like they were going to cause problems – but bringing a large group of the wrong blood into somebody else’s part of the city was asking for trouble. Nobody wanted war. The ‘Pays and the Bees preferred not to fight each other. That was a good way for a lot of people to get hurt, with little profit.
The central line, East gate to West gate, was in the hands of the Abbies, which meant it was neutral territory, since the Abbies went where they wanted and had no inclination to keep the lesser bloods off their streets. After all, what was the point of being the strongest if you didn’t have anybody weaker to lord it over? Everyone knew that no matter who you ran into in the fancy shops and nightclubs of Central Line, the place belonged to the Abbies. Yes, even the Capitol Building.
The Zeroes, of course, had no significant area to call their own, although they did hold onto a few bars and side streets with a constant, jealous vigilance, relying on sheer numbers to keep the stronger bloods out of their safe havens. Zero havens were one of the few places that most Abbies wouldn’t dare go, although the average Abby would insist that it was because they had no interest in hanging out with filthy riffraff. Not because they were scared.
There were a few other places where Abbies weren’t welcome, such as the small but active bar on River Street known only as the Hive. And that was the difficulty that Lissa was having.
“I told you,” she insisted to the bouncer, lifting her chin to look him squarely in the eye. “I’m a Bee.”
“I’ve seen you on the screens, girl,” he replied with a sneer. “In that high class joint. Abby through and through.”
“That wasn’t me. Taira is my twin sister. She’s an Abby, yes.”
“Then you are, too. Twins – ”
“Fraternal twins. The fact that we look so much alike is coincidence.”
The bouncer, tall and solid and with freshly sharpened teeth, like he thought that would impress anyone, looked her up and down. “I’m gonna need some proof, girlie.”
“You’ve seen my ID.”
“ID can be faked.”
Lissa sighed. But it was comply or go home, unless she wanted to bribe the man, and she certainly wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of a bribe or of turning her away. So she lifted her long, dark hair up off her neck and stepped forward.
She hadn’t even bothered to wear a necklace today, half expecting this. They always got in the way.
The bouncer put one hand on her waist, the other cradling the back of her skull, and pulled her gently forward. She felt his hot breath on her ear, his lips on her neck.
His teeth.
The showy sharpened teeth scraped cleanly, at least. There was barely any pain as the incisors sliced away skin and his tongue lapped a moment at the exposed flesh beneath before he fixed his lips firmly to the side of her neck and sucked.
He knew she was telling the truth, of course, the bastard. If he’d actually thought she was an Abby, he’d never have insisted on the test; too dangerous. For a moment, Lissa wished that she was like her sister, that the blood he was gulping down (far more than he needed for a test, of course) would curdle in his stomach and leave him pale and trembling and puking his guts up on the steps of the club. It’d serve him right.
But she wasn’t, and her blood was perfectly palatable to him, Bee to Bee, and with one last lick to clean the wound, he let her go. She pulled a tissue from her bag to catch any fresh blood, but the wound was already scabbing over.
“Satisfied?” She asked.
“Very,” he grinned, licking his teeth.
“I don’t suppose that reciprocation is on the table.”
“I’m the bouncer, sweetheart, not your boyfriend. Enjoy the club.”
She swept her hair over the wound and brushed past him, intending to do so. She’d paid a blood price for it, after all.
Benny was in the corner, waiting for her, having claimed a table. It wasn’t the worst table in the joint, but he had taken care to get one of the less popular ones, a table that nobody was likely to want to fight him for.
Or, possibly, he had gone for the nicest table and been chased off. Benny wasn’t the most cautious vampire in the city. He was young, with that telltale chubby look and rounded shoulders that vampires made in this era had a tendency to have, unlike her own thinner, sharper figure, and he let his blond hair sit untrimmed and untouched, flopping into his sharp eyes in a way that she was pretty sure was a deliberate strategy to accentuate said youth, but youth wasn’t the problem. People grow out of youth. Lissa got the sense that Benny could be a thousand years old and still the most reckless person in the city.
He grinned up at Lissa as she approached and indicated the drink he’d already ordered for her. Cocky brat. Nevertheless, it was a special occasion; she sat down and raised the glass. “To your freedom.”
He grinned wider and sipped his own. “All uphill now, baby.”
“It has to be. It’s a little difficult to go further downhill than you already are.”
“I’m not the one with the hicky.”
Lissa narrowed her eyes and brushed more hair forward to hide the wound. Two hours out of the protection of his creator, and he was already mouthing off in ways that could get him killed. It was a miracle he’d lived this long. “You realise you can’t hide behind Madame’s skirts any more, right? People won’t find you amusing forever.”
He opened his mouth to make some smart reply, and she held out her hand for his. He had the sense, at least, not to fight her; he just averted his eyes and offered up his own hand, two fingers extended. She brought them to her mouth and used her teeth to carve off a small patch of skin.
She didn’t drink much blood. Certainly not enough to replace what the bouncer had taken. Just a sip, just enough to make a point. There was a sucking order, and unless he could find some poor Zero to bully, he was at the bottom of it until he worked his way up. Without the protection of his creator, he would need to learn to stop stepping on toes very quickly, unless he wanted to be trampled to death.
He was supposed to be learning that over the past fifty years, but some people were slow learners.
He let her drink in silence, without protest, and didn’t meet her eyes again until after she’d released his hand. In a much more subdued and sensible tone, he said, “So. Busy day?”
“Not particularly.” She sipped her drink. Over the sharp tang of blackwater that everyone in the city was long used to was the hint of blackberry, her favourite. “Though you had one, I’m sure.”
“Tell me about it. Tomorrow’s going to be worse. I’m moving, so – ”
“You’re leaving Madame’s place?”
“Too suffocating. I have a little apartment just South of the central line.” Just inside Bee territory, he must mean, as close as possible as he can stay to his Abby creator without being in Abby territory, as safe as he can be without looking like a kept pet. That was probably why he was moving out in the first place. She could be… exhausting. “You never realise how much stuff you have until you need to move it all.”
“I’ll help,” Lissa said, letting pity overwhelm her better judgement.
The relief in Benny’s eyes was sharp and immediate, though he tried to hide it a second later behind a disaffected look and a sip of his drink. “Thanks. It’ll be nice, having my own place.”
“Congratulations.” Lissa downed the rest of her drink. “Downstairs is depressing. Come watch the stars with me.”
“Ooooh, the stars.” He downed his own. “Madame warned me to stay away from girls like you.”
“And I warned you to stay away from girls like Madame, but how well did that work out?” She lead him upstairs, onto the roof, which was just as crowded as downstairs but felt significantly less so with the access to open sky.
Well, not actual open sky. Obviously not. Building a vampire city exposed to sunlight would be a terrible idea, and the Scarlet City was, obviously, built underground. But the rock dome above them was too far away to make out even with Lissa’s keen eyes, and the neon lights hanging high above looked kind of like stars, so it was good enough.
“I can see the real stars again now,” Benny said, out of nowhere.
“You can. Once your surface clearance comes through, I’ll take you hunting.”
“Do you miss the sunlight?”
“What? Why? I can see movies with the sun in them at any time.”
“It was different in real life than in the movies.”
“Was it? I don’t remember.”
“It was better.”
“If you say so.”
Benny made a strange sort of hitching sound next to her. She tore her gaze away from the simulated stars long enough to see the silent tears start running down his cheeks.
Derin Edala 