Vampire Food

Chapter 1

Chapter 1One year later…

Rue Yarrow walked through his garden. The flowers stretched to meet his fingers as he moved his hand near them. A little trickle of energy fell like golden drops and melted into their petals. They should be asleep—flowers and men alike—but Rue couldn’t sleep.

He feared he’d never sleep again. Not for more than a few minutes at a time, at least. The moment his eyes closed, the darkness took form and slicing pain engulfed him.

He might be able to keep a plant alive with minimal effort, but he was fading.

Gertrude forced him to speak a few sentences every day, forced him to eat, and he hated her for it. He would have melted away into nothingness if it hadn’t been for her. And now she was forcing him to move out. She claimed she wasn’t, but he could see what was happening.

For a year, he’d lived with her. It might not have been great, but he trusted her not to harm him. Both because she was a shifter and because she was female. Females could do their fair share of damage. He hadn’t always been given to men, though it was most common, and a female’s bite was as vicious as a male’s. But with a female, he only had to worry about the bite, not the rest.

Now she’d gotten him a house of his own. He had yet to spend time there, and Gertrude claimed he could still sleep in her house. She said sleep, but she had to know he didn’t sleep.

The small room she’d placed him in on the horrible night when they’d first arrived had become his safe haven. There was nothing but a bed and a dresser, and he appreciated that he could see all of it without having to look around.

She was trying to push him out now, though. It was so he’d have a garden; she claimed. Magic users grew apathetic if they didn’t use their magic, and she feared it was what was happening.

It wasn’t like there had been any plants in the hellhole he’d been in before he came here, he could have taken care of.

He moved on, his lips quirking as a pink flower with a million petals swung in his direction. He dropped to his knees and drizzled it with energy as he caressed the soft leaves. A beautiful pink.

A small gasp sounded from the shadows, and Rue jumped.

As panic gripped his throat, he struggled to get up. Then he noted Chaton standing with his claws buried in the tree trunk. He winced. Poor tree. A copper beech, he noted.

Chaton had arrived with him, and he lived with Namir, who’d also been in the blood bar. Namir was always snarling, and Chaton was always jumping and trying to keep away from him. He should offer Chaton the house, so he could get away.

“Hello.” He kept his voice low. He didn’t know if Chaton had better hearing than him. He wasn’t able to shift, but he had some animal traits.

Chaton nodded and sheathed his claws. “I’ve never seen…” He nodded at the flower. Rue didn’t think he meant he’d never seen a pink flower. People with magic were rare, and as he’d understood it, most of them had powerful abilities. Like being able to form fire and such. Rue’s skill was useless.

“It’s beautiful.”

Rue blinked at him. Beautiful?

“Like liquid sunlight.”

He’d always thought of it as drizzled gold, but he guessed sunlight made sense too. He nodded and the silence stretched.

“This is your house now?”

Rue nodded again, and Chaton took a step closer. Tension crept into Rue. Chaton must’ve noticed because he froze, and Rue almost apologized.

“I have a…eh…I tried to grow cat nip. I figured it would make…eh…Namir a little happier, but I can’t get it to grow.”

“Oh…” Rue was quiet for several seconds. He’d never planted anything in his entire life. He’d never lived anywhere with a garden before now. Looking around, he took in the overgrown garden beds. He could decide what grew there, not only to help the plants that already did.

“If I order new seeds, would you help me?” Chaton winced, his gaze on the ground. Rue guessed they were about the same age. He’d turned thirty-three a couple of months before, and he guessed Chaton was in his early thirties too. But the similarities ended there. Rue was dark-haired, pale-skinned, and fine-limbed. Chaton was tall and muscular, though still graceful in a feline way. His hair was fair, and his skin a warm gold. They both jumped at their own shadows and screamed if they happened to fall asleep, though. Size and hair color weren’t a factor.

“You can order seeds?”

Chaton nodded. “Online, and it arrives at the gate in a day or two.”

Rue didn’t have any money. “You have money?”

Chaton grimaced. “I helped Gertrude put papers into envelopes for a couple of hours. She paid me as she would if I’d worked in any of the community-owned businesses in town.”

Rue blinked at him. She’d asked Chaton? They lived together, and Rue could’ve put papers into envelopes. He didn’t need to be around any people to do it. She’d hinted a couple of weeks ago that everyone living in the settlement did guard duty, and maybe it was time he did his part. He’d gone into full-blown panic, and she’d shushed him and told him it could wait for a bit longer.

He sighed, ice slithering through him. Maybe he should leave? If he moved into town, no one would force him to do guard duty. On the other hand, if he moved into town, he’d have to get a job and pay rent, and there was no way he could afford a house with a garden.

“I don’t have any money.”

Chaton frowned. “I’ll pay for the seeds.”

“Yes, but I also want seeds.” Did he? He didn’t know when he’d last wanted anything and stared at Chaton in surprise as he realized that yes, he did want seeds. He didn’t know what kind, but he wanted to put something in the ground and tend to it until it flourished. “I’ll talk to Gertrude.”

He walked through the garden and took aim at Gertrude’s house. He believed she was at home, she had been when he’d gone out, but she was often on a run, so if he wanted to catch her, he’d better hurry.

“So you’ll help me?”

He jumped as Chaton called after him but nodded. He didn’t know anything about seeds, or catnip, but how hard could it be?

Gertrude stopped whatever she was doing when he stepped in through the front door. He never used the front door. It drew too much attention. The guest room he’d lived in for the past year was in the basement, and he walked through the laundry room and out through the garage. Gertrude didn’t have a car. He didn’t know if anyone did. Maybe they parked outside the wall because he’d never seen any vehicles here. The insight startled him. He’d lived here for a year and hadn’t once found it strange there were no cars.

“Rue? Are you okay?” Her teeth lengthened as she spoke, and he shuddered. They looked nothing like vampire teeth, but sharp teeth of any kind made him uneasy.

“I need money.”

She stared, huffed, only to then chuckle. “You do?” He wouldn’t call the smile motherly perhaps, but close, and this despite Gertrude only being a few years older than him.

“Chaton is buying seeds.”

Her brows creased. “You need money because Chaton is buying seeds?”

“He told me he put papers into envelopes, and you paid him. I can put papers into envelopes.”

She wiped her face off any expression and studied him for a heartbeat too long. “You talked to Chaton?”

He nodded. He hadn’t spoken as much as he had today in several years.

“Had a real conversation, the two of you?”

“We’re not imbeciles. We are capable of communication.” And snapping.

“Oh, sweetness, I know.” She sounded far too delighted. “It’s only neither of you talks. Normally, I mean. Namir snarls and splutters all the time, not the most pleasant person to be around, but at least he talks. And Zeeve is doing pretty well with the wolves.”

“I didn’t know it was a competition.” He could snarl too. Namir didn’t have exclusive rights to being an ass.

She grinned. Weird woman. “So let me get this straight. You want seeds.” The way she emphasized the word want made Rue hesitant. Would she force him to do something he didn’t want to? The blood in his veins froze. Would she force him to do guard duty or go to a gathering? He was aware the meetings were another of those things everyone living here had to attend, and he didn’t.

She must’ve seen something in his eyes because all her joy died, and she shook her head. “No. Whatever you are thinking, no. You order whatever seeds you want, Rue. Go to Chaton and buy the whole f*****g selection if you want. I’ll pay, and next time I need to send out invitations, you put them in envelopes and double-check the addresses, okay?”

He nodded, but now he was exhausted. Whatever energy he’d had trickled into the floor, and his legs threatened to fold. He stumbled toward the stairs leading down to the guest room.

* * * *

Noah looked at the dead woman in the bathroom stall and cursed. Her throat had been torn open, and there was no doubt in his mind it had been done by a vampire. Blood had turned her long blond hair into clumped-up stripes, and for some reason, he kept staring at the purple highlights. He couldn’t remember seeing her in the bar. He believed he would have noticed purple hair. Maybe.

“Empty.” Asher’s voice sounded from within the men’s room. They had locked the doors after the last customer had left the bar and did their normal check to make sure no one was hidden or passed out in a corner somewhere.

“Not empty.”

Asher cursed, and it didn’t take long before he appeared behind Noah. “Oh, fuck.”

“I don’t think they did.” Vampires’ sense of smell was not as developed as a shifter’s, but it was better than humans’, and he couldn’t detect any scent of s*x or arousal. The soap scent was strong, and there had been several people wearing perfume in here, so he might miss it if it happened some time ago. But since no one had sounded an alarm, he didn’t think the woman had been in here long.

“What do we do?” Asher brushed against him, and he almost jumped at the touch, having been so focused on the body.

“Did you see any vampires here today?” It was mostly humans who visited the bar, and on Saturdays they came in part to enjoy a night out, and in part to watch him and Asher work. Vampires were alluring. He didn’t see the allure, but he guessed it wouldn’t serve him to. Nature was smarter than to make them drawn to the only species they couldn’t feed from. Or they could feed, but there was no nutrition in the blood.

“No, which means no one else did either.”

A setup. How lovely. The human police would take one look at them and see murderers. They always did, which was why many of them chose to live in communities. It didn’t help against prejudice, but at least it was harder for mobs to get in and take their heads off in some strange crusade for vengeance. Noah had seen it before. Rebecca, his maker, had been killed by a group of humans for a crime she didn’t commit. She wasn’t the first, and she wouldn’t be the last to suffer that fate.

“Zella was in.”

Noah looked at Asher, who frowned. “Yeah, but it was right when we opened. She wouldn’t kill a human in one of our bars, and someone would’ve noticed the body if it’s been here all night.”

“True.”

“Should we make the body disappear?” Asher looked around the bathroom stall. “There’s a lot of blood. Whoever did it can’t have fed.”

Since her throat was torn open, Noah didn’t think the purpose had been to feed. “Isn’t it strange no one noticed she was gone? How often does a human female go out on her own?”

Asher met his gaze and winced. “You think there will be police cars with sirens and flashing lights any second now?”

It was a possibility. Someone could call it in and say she was attacked by vampires. If they spotted Noah and Asher dragging a corpse out, they’d go directly into lockup.

Asher nodded, as if Noah had spoken out loud. “Let’s clean up the bar first. If no one has arrived when we’re done putting things away, they might not have called the cops.”

“We need to inform Gertrude.”

Wincing, Asher palmed his pocket for his phone. “You want to make the call?”

“No.”

“Me either.” He looked at the body again, then put his phone to his ear. It rang several times, and Noah could only assume she was asleep. It had to be close to half-past three in the morning.

A faint crackling sounded, and Asher walked toward the serving area. “Gertrude, hi. Yeah. There’s a problem…” Asher proceeded to tell her about the dead woman in the bathroom stall and asked what she wanted them to do.

Noah went to wipe the bar. He wanted to head home, not hide a body, or be arrested for something he hadn’t done.

“She’s on her way.” Asher pocketed his phone and sighed.

There had been several attacks since Gertrude stopped the use of blood slaves at the bar. What used to be a blood bar was now an ordinary nightclub. Humans, shifters, and people with magic, if one ever were to stumble through Myrfolk, were welcome inside.

The attacks had been at the community, not in town. And no one had been severely injured. Murder was an escalation, to say the least.

There had been a couple of explosions by the wall, one bad enough for it to crumble, but apart from some scratches, no one had been hurt. There had been rumors spread, and Noah feared the vampires had managed to get part of the human population on their side because there were more and more complaints about the settlement.

It would backfire. Humans wouldn’t only target vampires and shifters from inside the settlement, they would make life hard for all vampires and all shifters. If The Red Thirst or whoever was behind this didn’t realize it, they were stupider than Noah first had assumed.

They owned the land they’d build the community on. No one could force them to leave, but they could do their best to make them feel unwelcome. There was propaganda, but so far, they hadn’t managed to persuade the masses. Heck, their bars and nightclubs were packed with humans every night, but politicians were sharpening their knives.

Gertrude had mumbled something about an extra tax on the water the other day. Something about the community being too far from the city.

He didn’t doubt humans could make life hard for them if they wanted to.

Half an hour later, Gertrude swept into the bar through the back door. “The door was unlocked.”

Noah looked at Asher. Had he opened it to empty the trash or something? As if he could read his mind, he shook his head. f**k. So someone could’ve come and gone without anyone noticing.

Gertrude frowned. “I couldn’t see anyone keeping watch outside, though I guess they’re smarter than standing where they’d be spotted.”

Noah grimaced. If someone was watching, he’d bet his right hand they’d call the cops the moment they moved the body. “Maybe we should call it in.”

Gertrude shook her head. “I bet they’re trying to put us out of business.”

“With a body?” If anything, it would cause even more idiots coming by simply to see where someone had been murdered. People, no matter what species, were morbid fuckers.

“No, it’s gonna make us look bad. Vampires will be feared—more feared. They might force us to close.” She quieted before straightening her back. “I’m gonna shift and walk around.” She kicked off her shoes and grabbed the hem of her pink knitted sweater.

“If people see a tiger in town—”

“I won’t be seen.”

Noah nodded. She was the boss. But shifters weren’t allowed to change shape in town. It was an old law, and a decade or two ago people didn’t use to care, now they did. Several of the wolves had been thrown in lockup for a few days and had to pay a fine.

If Gertrude was thrown in jail, it would be bad. She was their front person, the one who showed up at all happenings and did all the interviews. She was beautiful and smart and had a way to make humans feel safe despite being a tiger—if only they knew. She wasn’t the leader for nothing. But she was fair, so Noah didn’t mind, and he’d never want her job.

Soon a huge tiger stalked between the tables and went to have a sniff in the women’s bathroom before she nudged Asher into letting her out through the back door.

As soon as he’d closed it again, he turned to Noah. “I don’t like this.”

Noah shook his head. Nope. He had the feeling if they made it through this night without being cuffed, it would come back to bite them in the ass later.