Blood Martinis: The Gypsy Vampire's Curse

Ch. 15 ... The Levelling

“What did you do?”Vincent shouted, just now walking into the bar.

“Where've you been?”Kate yelled across the mob of people surrounding her, looking fierce.

“Out for a walk,”Vincent said.“Does it really matter right now? What did you do?”

“I'm afraid I'll do it again, if I say,”she said,“just help me.”Just then, one man broke a bottle on the counter and took a run at her with it. She narrowly missed it, by accidentally stepping into a woman's right hook to the face. The gentleman drew a sword he had sheathed on his back and ran it through Kate's side; skewering her to the wall for the briefest of moments before the lady, kicking her in the ribs, pushed her off of it. The gentleman moved in to take another stab. In one fell swoop Vincent moved between them, grabbed the man's wrist, broke it, and turned the sword inward to run it through the man's leg. Meanwhile, with it held over himself, the kitsune cracked a chair across Kate's head. Vincent looked to the bartender for a bit of help, but he seemed conveniently occupied polishing the glasses. Christian too was standing well out of the way.

“This woman has been marked for death, by order of the King of the Roma,”Vincent shouted to the crowd.

“How is that helping?”Kate screamed from behind him, into his ear.

“Why does he want one of his own dead?”someone yelled back.“She's one of them!”

“She's not,”Vincent said.“You know me. She was my assignment.”

“Then why is she still alive,”another shouted.

“She's useful,”he said.

“How is she a vampire?”another asked.

“I turned her,”he said.“She's my charge. Just calm down.”

“Whatever she is, she's trouble,”a woman spat.

“Yeah, get her out of here,”a man yelled.

Noticing the crowd was pretty much in agreement with this, Vincent grabbed Kate by the arm and moved her toward the stairs before they changed their minds on letting her leave.

Upstairs they packed, quickly.“All I said was that I was Roma,”Kate said in a huff.

“That's not a small thing here,”Vincent responded.

“But you work for the King, so why don't they attack you?”she asked.

“Because they know I don't serve the King willingly,”he said.“Most of us don't.”

After checking out, they moved quickly past the door leading back into the pub, and stepped outside toward the car.

Vincent jumped into the driver's side, but before Kate could get in, she heard her name being called.

“Christian?”she said turning around, but it wasn't Christian who faced her now. It was Dylan.

Before she had time to react, he pulled out a gun.

“What are you doing with him, Kate?”Dylan said, but she didn't answer.“He's a killer.”

“He's not,”she said, defending Vincent.“He hasn't killed anyone.”

“He killed you,”he said.

“I'm not dead, Dylan,”she said.

“But you are,”he said.“And you've been killing people too, haven't you?”

“No,”she said.

“Don't lie to me,”he said.

“You're just looking for a reason to shoot me,”she pointed out,“but I haven't given you one. I haven't done that.”Vincent started the car.

“What about the body in the park?”he asked, accusingly.

“What body?”she responded.

“Or the one at the hotel in Dundalk?”he asked.

Not wanting to believe what she was hearing, she turned to Vincent. Her eyes, questioning. "Did you?"

“I'm not the one pointing a gun at you,”Vincent responded.

She turned back to Dylan.“He was alive when we left him,”she said, unsure if she was telling the truth. “What about everything Kilian does? How can you question me and not him?”

“Why don't you have anything at your apartment?”Dylan asked.

“What?”she asked.

“Your apartment- it looks staged like no one lives there,”he said.“What are you hiding?”

“What about Kilian?”She tried to hold back her words, but couldn't contain them. "He r***d me."

Dylan pulled the trigger. Two shots rang out, and her world went black.

Hearing gunfire, Kilian dropped the shovel and went running with Bennet fast on his heels. By the time they rounded the corner the shots had come from, there was nothing outside except a pool of blood and some vehicles. The blood smelled like Dylan. Stopping to listen, they heard something going on inside what looked to be a nightclub. Drawing their own weapons – Bennet a gun and Kilian a knife – the two went cautiously inside. Once in, everyone stopped to look at them.

“We don't want trouble,”yelled the bartender.“This is a safe space for all.”

“That sound a minute ago,”Kilian tapped his ear,“must have been fireworks?”he said sarcastically.

Bennet sniffed the air, then leaned into his brother.“Dylan's here.”

“I know,”Kilian said. He shouted to the bartender,“Where is he?”

“There was some confusion,”the bartender said.“He got violent, and a human put him down.”

“A human?”Kilian spat.

“He's in the back, they're pulling the bullet out of him now,”he continued.“Why don't you pull up a seat and I'll pour you a drink?”

“Where's the girl?”Kilian asked.

“What girl?”the bartender said.

Kilian gave him a look, but he didn't back down. So, he pushed his way through the crowd and went into the back, Bennet following at his heels. When they found Dylan, he was out cold. The bullet had gone through his shoulder. It wouldn't kill him, but it would take a while to heal.

“Where's this human?”Kilian insisted, when he came back out.

“He's one of ours,”the bartender warned.“He was just protecting the patrons.”

“Which patrons?”Kilian asked, but the bartender said nothing.“Where is he?”

“He's gone home,”the bartender said.“He won't be back while you're here.”

“I bet if I tore this place apart, I'd probably find him quick,”Kilian growled.

“There are more of us than you here, werewolf,”the bartender said.

Kilian couldn't tell what he was, but knew he likely wasn't human. As he looked around he realised many people in this club were openly out- not covering their abnormalities with makeup or wigs or prosthetics. There were many non-humans here and, not knowing this area well, it would be difficult to tell who subscribed to what beliefs or if there were any he could convince to fight on his side without a lot of time to talk. There were many conflicts of morality and division. It pervaded every species and race, even superseding loyalties of pack or blood at times. The one thing most were unified by in a pinch, though, was on the thought that outsiders needed to stay outside.“Maybe just a drink,”Kilian said,“and then I'll take my brother to go.”

The bartender nodded and said,“We'll make sure he's ready.”

Brianna was back in the house with Conor, unfortunately, back in his cage. She settled in with a glass of pinot noir next to the lit fireplace. She was cosily snuggled, in her purple silk bathrobe with her knees up, in one of the reclining chairs next to the fire. In the other sat a young woman, with a jerry-rigged collar around her neck. A rope went through a ring attached to the collar, up and over the backrest, and swooped down underneath fastening her legs to those of the chair. Her arms were tied down, one to each knee. It was a peculiar arrangement, but the best Brianna could come up with on the spot.

“So, tell me about your life,”Brianna said to the woman, like a sadomasochistic play out of a therapist with their patient. She was trying, oddly, to figure out her own stance on the vampire-werewolf debate.

The young woman didn't say anything, but still shot her a nasty look.

“We've got all night,”Brianna said.“I haven't been tired in a while, to be honest.”

“Why are you doing this?”the woman asked.

“What brought you here?”Brianna retorted, ignoring her.

“The wolves,”she said.

“But what did you do first? Did you kill someone?”Brianna prodded.

“No,”she said.

“Convince me,”Brianna said.

The woman fell silent. They sat there together, for a long moment, each staring into the fire. Till eventually she spoke,“You're Bennet's… girlfriend?”

“Wife,”Brianna corrected.

“Wi-fie,”the woman sounded it out, patronizingly.

“Do you think we look alike?”she asked.

Brianna noticed the woman's lanky frame, and scraggly blonde hair.“No.”

“You know he visits me,”she said.“Your husband.”

“I know everything he does,”Brianna said.“We don't keep secrets from each other.”

“Did you know he makes me pretend to be you?”she asked.

This piqued Brianna's curiosity, but she didn't want to show it. She looked back to the fire.“There are some things, a husband or wife might do, that don't need repeating,”she said.

“It's mostly trivial things,”she said.“He brushes my hair, puts me in your dresses, kisses my neck right here.”She pointed.“And then he chokes me, until I pass out.”

“That's a lie,”Brianna shot back, disgusted.

“He pushes himself against me while he's doing it,”she continued,“so the last thing I feel is his hands and his…”

“Stop it,”Brianna yelled.

“It's okay,”she said.“I've started to like it. Sometimes I even wrap my legs around him to pull him closer.”

“Bennet wouldn't do that,”Brianna said.“He's too kind.”

“He's kind in front of you,”the woman hissed.“That's why he needs me.”

“You're just saying this so I put you back out in the cages,”Brianna said.

“It's warm in here,”she said.“I have no reason to want to go back out there.”

“You want something,”Brianna insisted.“To see me riled, then.”

“Sometimes he waits a while, before choking me,”she continued.“He runs his fingers down my stomach and up my thigh.”

“Stop it,”Brianna shouted, standing from her chair.“I won't hear anymore of this.”She left the room to find tape, and could hear the woman laughing from the other room.

“He likes to put them inside me,”she said, when Brianna returned.

Brianna quickly put the tape over her mouth, and sat back in her chair, annoyed. Every time she looked at the woman, her eyes were squinted and smiling- like she had won. She had won.“Clearly you belong out there,”Brianna said.“You're deranged.”

After finishing her glass of wine, quickly, she marched the woman back out and locked her up. Then, turning around to face more of them, she shouted,“does anyone actually want to come inside? Want to have a pleasant conversation?”Although there were many whistles and cackles, no one spoke up kindly. So she turned her heels, and left them alone for the night in the dark.

Brianna didn't return to the kennel the next morning, or even that afternoon. Conor seemed so different from the others, and yet he too seemed to only want one thing from her. It seemed like it was all a ploy to get her to let him go. He didn't really want to be with her, despite her wanting to be more around him. She was drawn to him. She wondered if it was only because he was forbidden. But in the end, she decided it didn't matter.

More than anything, she didn't want her husband to find out about the affair. It had only been a moment of weakness, and she'd prefer he think that one escaped rather than to know the truth of what happened. The others might talk about what they heard. That was an issue too. One that she wasn't sure how to solve. She could cut out their tongues, but they'd likely grow back from what she'd been told. She could arrange one of those hunts and let them all be killed, but she didn't know any of their contacts who would pay to have a hunt. Also, that would run the risk that one might escape. Regardless, if Conor were gone, no matter what they said – if she didn't substantiate it – it would sound like jealous rumours. She could tell them he was a classmate of hers, and that she had felt sorry for him. Maybe she could admit to letting him go on purpose, to let him go be with his family.

That evening, she returned to the pens. Conor was lying down, but didn't seem to be asleep.“Get up,”she said to him.

“Why? We going back into the shed?”he asked.

“No,”she said. She pushed the pole, wire loop first, through the bars where the door met the lock bar. Obediently, but slowly, he put it around his neck. She walked him out of the maze, directing him by pushing it. She was afraid to say what she was planning, unsure if she would back out. She wanted him to come into the house first, for them to have one last encounter with each other- unchained and honest. For him to ask her to go with him. She knew she would turn him down, but she still wanted to be asked.

They walked up the stairs, and in through the garden side door. She directed him to the bedroom. When they walked in, his back was to her. Methodically, she released the catch on the loop and it loosened just a bit.

“I'm going to let you go,”she said.

“Right now?”he asked.

“Yes, but it's your choice if you stay for a while,”she said. Letting go of the pole, she started unbuttoning her top. He turned around to face her.

Taking the loop off, and dropping the pole to the ground, he walked over to her. He put his hands on her waist and, moving them up to the back of her head, pulled her face into his. Her blouse slipped off, just before he pushed her up again the wall.“You silly girl,”he said, before wrapping his fingers around her neck.