Page 17 of Silent Stalker
Ben handed over the first of the bottles, and while loath to sit up, I did it anyway, opting to drink the blood properly rather than use the straw. “Goes down faster this way so I can get to the good stuff.”
“I will go back to tending the rescues. Expect a few hours for the first update. Right now, they’re struggling to handle drinking blood from the bottle.”
“They are? But they had no problems earlier.”
“I am why,” Emerick admitted. “I took over when you had given them enough blood. It didn’t take as much as normal because of their poor conditions. Take your time, Ben. If we can’t identify them until tomorrow night, that is fine. Assign them a guard and offer blood during the day. I dislike using the basement, but that would be for the best until we are certain they’re sane.”
Damn. “How bad is it for them, really?”
“Right now, they’re mad from the need to drink. The blood we’ve given has helped. Luca is in the best shape, but a lot of that is due to which stake you gave him. It does much of the work, although he was healthier than the others. They are no longer at risk of death, but it will be testy for a few hours until the bloodlust calms.”
“Can Luca’s brood master help?” I asked.
“No. If anything, it could create a dangerous situation. While the Picknard brood is strong enough, the brood master, Weston, is a younger vampire, and the younger ones have trouble resisting resonating bloodlust.”
“Resonating bloodlust? You mean he or others in his brood might succumb to this bloodlust because Luca is suffering from it?”
I had so much left to learn about vampires, and I worried I wouldn’t have enough time to figure everything else out before I made a critical error.
“Precisely. I am old enough where I can ignore the pull. It also helps I’m feeding more than most vampires right now.”
Ben placed the other bottles nearby before saying, “Typically, this would be a very dangerous situation, but you are impervious to bloodlust from the looks of it, and Emerick is experienced, so he’s very unlikely to succumb to it. I would not have tried it. I would have staked one to their final death and tried to save two, because the third would have meant we all would have fallen. Three may cause me to suffer from bloodlust.”
The insanity of my second life amazed me—and made me wonder about both of the vampires, who handled the situation as though it was no different from milk being spilled on the floor. “What do you mean I’m impervious?”
“You drank down many crazed miscreants, many of whom were long gone to bloodlust and hunting anyone who moved. Most vampires won’t risk drinking blood from such a vampire, as it could result in the same madness spreading,” Ben explained. “You also had no reaction to how they drank. You treated them like you did every other vampire you’ve hunted. How were you, Emerick?”
“I was not bothered, but my master taught me at a young age to resist helpless prey, fresh blood, and the crazed. We will have to test her bloodlust risk later, but for now, we will assume three is Pepper’s limit.” Emerick waited until I’d emptied my first bottle before plucking it out of my hand and reaching over the side of the couch to set it on the floor. “You best flee, Ben. After three bottles and a round with my wrist, she’s going to pass out, and I’m going to be yawning through my conversation with Picknard.”
“I’ll bring a bottle back for you. Which type?”
“Whatever the lowest grade we have. Leave the better bloods for the rescues. She tends to only want a little after a large feeding, but she takes her time about it. I’ll take my sips before sunrise.”
“If you think I’m going to rush dessert, you’re mistaken.”
Ben left and returned a moment later with a bottle for Emerick before heading off to deal with the rescued vampires.
“Is it fine if I sleep this off?”
“It is. While you drink, I’ll call Picknard.” Emerick retrieved his phone from his inner suit pocket and turned his attention to the screen. Ben had put the straw on top of one of the bottles, and without him to witness my childishness, I snagged it, popped the cork onto the nearby coffee table, and opted to take my time with the Wagyu rather than guzzle it.
Emerick chuckled, rested one of his arms on me, and connected the call with his free hand, holding the phone to his ear. “Hello, Weston. It’s Emerick. I’ve news regarding Luca. Before you worry, he is in one of my safehouses, although it will be a few days before I bring him to your home. He is being tended to by Giovanni. My wife was on a hunt and found him in a state of bloodlust. He’d been released with two other vampires who were also swayed by bloodlust. No, no, there were no fatalities. Luca was not staked. My presence was enough to cut through the thirst enough he remembered himself. The other two were staked, but they will recover. My wife’s quite skilled, and she controls when she kills, I assure you. They came to minimal harm, and she helped break the bloodlust with some assistance on my part. I did take control of Luca for a short period of time. He was in a state where it would have been dangerous not to.”
I made myself comfortable on Emerick and the loveseat, careful not to spill any of the Wagyu.
“We haven’t questioned him yet. He is not in a very talkative state, although he did speak a little. We’ll need to. There were two teenagers who were attacked. My wife rescued them, but the police have been involved. A necessity, unfortunately. I’ll do what I can to smooth things over for your vampire. Considering no one should die from the incident, it should be a trivial matter.”
I would need to learn what Emerick considered to be trivial.
For him, smoothing over feathers after two teens had been violently attacked might be trivial, but for everyone else, it would be an invitation to be staked or tossed into prison for life. Perhaps trivial in his mind meant possible. For most, possible and trivial meant two entirely different things.
I’d tumbled into a whole new world with an interesting man, one destined to vex me most steps of the way.
“Ah, no worries, Weston. My wife’s fine and came to no real harm during the scuffle. She decided to break her nose on Luca’s hand for reasons I cannot fathom, but I have learned not to question the strange ways of women. She’s having her breakfast right now, and her nose shall be precisely as it was this morning soon enough. Outside of that small incident, Luca was no problem to rein in. I do not believe he was imprisoned for as long as the two vampires released with him, and he had enough of a mind about him to use some common sense. Not much, but some. They were hunting in a pack, driven by instinct and starvation, so some violence is to be expected. A more delicate question for you. Would you like my brood to handle the questioning and legalities? It might be for the best, as my wife is of good standing with law enforcement right now. She does not kill innocent vampires or victims, and she has quickly developed a good reputation for having sufficient proof of wrongdoing. As she could not find sufficient proof of wrongdoing and had noticed their odd behavior, it will be considered. She loves nothing more than staking miscreants and escorting them to their final death—and she loves nothing more than securing justice for the wronged. Even those with a dislike of preternaturals tend to hesitate when she will not strike.”
I wondered what game Emerick played, as I had done some serious thinking about going for the kill, ultimately allowing the stakes to decide the fate of the vampires who’d attacked the teens. I would need to ask how I’d managed to gain that sort of reputation despite only having surfaced for a short time before dropping off the radar again.
I still wondered about what Emerick had done to remove traitors from his midst while I had gone into hiding with a bunch of bats.
