Amaury's Hellion (11 page)

***

France, 1609

Amaury’s struggles to support his family would soon be over. He’d made a decision. The offer he’d received a week earlier was as good as any he would ever get. And for all he knew, the man who’d introduced himself only by his first name, Hervé, would pay for something Amaury wouldn’t even need to deliver. He only half believed the story anyway.

The moonlight helped him find the path to the small bridge where he’d agreed to meet Hervé. If everything went well, Amaury would be paid well to let the man feed off him nightly, well enough to make sure his wife and his son would have enough to eat and clothes on their backs. Already, he’d received a few
sous
as a token of the man’s honest intent.

It was the love for his family that drove him to this desperate act. So what if some rich man had a fetish and wanted to drink somebody’s blood? If he was willing to pay for it, Amaury was prepared to take the momentary pain and endure it. How bad could it be?

The bridge was drenched in moonlight. Except for the tall shadow of a man, nobody else was around. There had been reports of attacks by wild animals, and not many inhabitants were brave enough to venture out after dark. Nobody would witness what was about to happen.

As Amaury approached the man, he wondered whether he was doing the right thing, but remembering the gaunt looks of his wife and son, he knew he couldn’t go back.

The moment Hervé’s face came into view, he saw the man’s fangs gleam in the moonlight. There was no denying it now: he was a vampire, just as he’d claimed. A cold shiver ran down Amaury’s spine, and the little hairs on the back of his neck rose.

“Faites-le vite.” The quicker this was over, the better.

Amaury held out his hand and felt the cold coins in his palm a second later. The prick of the fangs on his neck was only painful for a split second, then he fell into a state as if he’d had too much wine, a drunken stupor. Not unpleasant.

But when he wanted to pull away from Hervé, he couldn’t. The man wouldn’t let him go, and despite his huge frame, Amaury was no match for the man’s inhuman strength. The vampire’s fangs dug deeper into him, and more blood drained from his body. His vision became blurred, his legs weak, until he collapsed.

Amaury awoke with a thirst the likes of which he’d never known. A thirst for blood. Hervé had tricked him. He hadn’t merely wanted to feed off him—he’d wanted to turn him into a vampire. And he had. To build a community, a family of sorts.

But Amaury had a family, a family of his own, and they needed him. He didn’t listen to Hervé who warned him that he was a danger to them now. Instead, he ran home, ignoring his thirst.

The first person he found upon his return was his son Jean-Philippe. With his tiny bare feet the boy ran toward him, his arms outstretched, wanting to be lifted into his father’s arms.

“Papa!”

 But the moment Amaury clutched his son to his chest, the beast in him took charge, and the thirst overwhelmed him.

Not knowing what he was doing, he sank his fangs into the boy. Moments later the lifeless body of his son lay at his feet, and his wife’s hysteric screams filled the night air.

There was no way back from what he’d done. And as a new vampire, he didn’t know how to save him, how to perhaps turn his son into a vampire too, so at least he could have survived in some capacity.

Only later did he learn how to create a vampire, how he would have had to feed his son his own blood at the very moment where his heart took its last beats.

“Monstre! T’as tué mon fils!” Yes, he’d killed his own son.

His wife’s screams were mixed with tears, her voice hoarse. But the way she looked at him when he came out of his momentary trance, when the beast in him was satisfied by the boy’s blood, those eyes condemned him to hell. Living hell.

“Tu vas sentir toute la douleur du monde, des émotions de chacun, et tu seras infirme pour l’éternité. Jamais tu vas sentir l’amour du nouveau. Jamais.”

What she condemned him to was what he deserved: to sense everybody’s emotions, to feel the pain that would cripple him for eternity with no love ever soothing his heart again.

“Mon dieu, qu-est ce que j’ai fait?” What had he done?

Amaury fell to his knees and wept.

Ten

It was the last staff meeting for the night. Amaury was tired and drained. He could sense Gabriel wasn’t faring much better. Using their powers took a lot out of them.

The chairs in the meeting room were arranged so Yvette could see everybody’s face and register them in her mind. Both Amaury and Gabriel stood next to her, off to the side, while Ricky stood at the podium and answered questions after he’d given his standard speech about the incidents.

“That’s just what we need, the police digging around in our past,” one of the employees droned. A collective murmur went through the room.

Ricky held up his hand to ask for silence. “I understand your concerns. Rest assured, we will not release information to the police if they don’t present us with a proper subpoena. As we all know, many of us have less than stellar backgrounds. But we’re past this. We’ve pulled ourselves out of this and have reformed ourselves.”

Amaury noticed that Ricky used the collective
we
. He was an extraordinary speaker, always knowing what the crowd wanted, how he could win them over to his side. Many of Scanguards’ bodyguards were reformed criminals, and while Ricky wasn’t an ex-con, to imply that he was one of them was a smart PR move.

“We’re in this together. One bad apple won’t spoil the entire batch. I believe in you guys. Without you, there would be no Scanguards. Without you, the world would be less safe,” he continued his pep talk. “The company needs you to stay strong and vigilant. If you suspect any wrongdoing, I urge you to come to me.”

Amaury scanned the crowd and tried to filter out the various emotions bouncing around the room. His head was near exploding, but as always he didn’t let on. The emotions which bombarded him were what he expected: fear, dread, anger, disbelief.

“We can’t allow these incidents to rip the company apart. Too many people depend on us. Too many jobs would be lost. We all have families that depend on us. Let’s not let them down.”

“Are there any leads?” a question came from the audience.

Ricky shook his head. “We’re not privy to any information the police deems confidential. We will conduct our own internal investigation though, and for that we rely on your input. Many of you knew both Edmund and Kent. So I have a favor to ask of you: if you think there is anything odd that happened to them before these incidents, anything that might be considered strange, or if you know of any problems they had, please talk to me in confidence. Don’t fear any reprisals. If you feel you want to remain anonymous, I’ll respect your request.”

“Will there be a reward?”

Amaury frowned. Typical, there was always one who wanted to gain from a situation like this. He honed in on the man’s emotions.

“At this point nothing has been decided. But you all know how we work. The company won’t forget your contribution. We’re dependent on each other, and we look out for our own.”

He really had to hand it to Ricky; he could put a positive spin on anything. The men in the crowd looked much more relaxed now than at the beginning of the meeting. A lot of their anxiety was gone, and their emotions had settled down to a quiet simmer. Still, there were a few more hotheads to be dealt with.

“I can’t afford to be drawn into this. I’m on parole,” a big guy shouted out and leapt from his seat. Heads turned to him.

“Well, you’re not the only one,” another from across the room chimed in. “So, shut up.”

“You want a piece of me?” the parolee offered with clenched teeth, fists at the ready.

Ricky brought the crowd under control. “Please, gentlemen. There’s no need to get physical. Can you imagine the paperwork I have to deal with just to fill out the worker’s comp forms? Please. Settle down. None of us can afford to be mixed up in this, but we are. We didn’t choose this, but we have to deal with it. I urge you all to keep a cool head. Our first duty is to our clients. They will be nervous, and rightly so. If one of you loses their calm, our clients will notice. If you want to be pulled off your assignment, you’d better let me know now.”

Ricky gazed into the crowd, but nobody spoke up. “I take it this means we’re all still doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Protect our clients, do our jobs. We’ll get behind this, I promise you. Good night, gentlemen. Be safe.”

Ricky cast Amaury and Gabriel a silent look. Amaury nodded. He’d had sufficient time to delve into the employees’ emotions, but nothing of importance had transpired. All emotions seemed reasonable for the situation. However, there were a few staff members he wanted to take a closer look at.

As the room cleared and the chatter subsided, the vampires congregated in a corner.

“Anything?” Ricky asked.

“I tapped into their memories, but there was nothing that connected any of them to Edmund or Kent. Yes, some of them knew one or even both, but I couldn’t see any incidences that would lead me to believe in foul play. Unless somebody is blocking my access,” Gabriel admitted.

“They can do that?” Amaury asked in surprise. He’d always assumed Gabriel’s gift was infallible.

“The humans can’t. But any of the vampires might be able to. Not everybody can block me, but some of the vampires might have sufficient powers to at least block me partially or veil their memories so I can’t access them sufficiently. Don’t you have that issue with your power?”

Amaury shook his head and instantly knew he was lying. He’d only recently met the one person whose emotions he could not read, but he was sure it was a fluke. Plus, she was human. “No, I can sense anybody—human or vampire.”

And after the long sessions with the employees, he was completely and utterly drained and exhausted. He desperately needed sex to keep his head from exploding. He glanced at his watch. The nightclubs would still be humming right now. He needed to feed, and he needed to continue his search for Nina.

“Well, good for you.” If Gabriel only knew. Good wasn’t the attribute Amaury associated with his gift. “Anything from your side?”

“I sensed a few people with guilt issues, possibly somebody with feelings of deception and fear, but I can’t pinpoint what about.” He looked at Gabriel. “Your gift is a lot more precise than mine.”

Amaury’s gift was open to interpretation, and this time he couldn’t rely on guesswork. This was too important for all of them. That was why Gabriel’s gift was necessary to complement his.

“We should interview a few of them one on one. Show me the list, Ricky,” he demanded.

Ricky pulled out the staff list and handed it to him. Amaury quickly made notes next to various names.

“Let’s set something up for tomorrow night.”

Ricky looked at the list. “Okay, together with the few from the previous meetings, that’s eleven of them. Yvette?”

Yvette had been quiet during the entire time. Now she cleared her throat. “I’d like to sit in on the interviews with Amaury.”

Amaury raised his eyebrows, but didn’t protest. If she wanted a closer look at the guys he’d picked out, so be it. “Gabriel, it’s the three of us then.” At least with Gabriel there, he and Yvette wouldn’t instantly get into a fight.

“Where’s Quinn?” Yvette suddenly asked.

“Probably outside. He was supposed to make sure everybody left the building. Let’s go,” Gabriel ordered. “It’s time to check in with Zane.”

***

This was the third night in a row Nina was in trouble with a vampire. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this after all. And this was one mean looking dude. His head shorn bald, his body carrying not an ounce of fat, he had her pinned against a wall outside of Scanguards’ downtown offices.

His mouth twisted into a snarl only inches from her face as his arm pressed against her neck, making breathing virtually impossible.

Everything had gone well up to a few minutes ago. She had watched the employees leave the building after the staff meeting. Unfortunately, Benny had bolted before he’d helped her identify his contact. It made Nina think her informant had seen the guy amongst the employees at that moment and decided it was safer to skip. Not that he’d come with her voluntarily in the first place. She’d had to use persuasion of the violent kind to drag him with her.

Obviously the weasel had a better instinct of self preservation than Nina did, otherwise she wouldn’t be the one in the clutches of that bald vampire right now. The silver chain she carried in her jacket pocket was of no use to her now—she wouldn’t be fast enough to wrap it around his neck even if she managed to get free of his grip. And even though she was armed with a stake, it was in her inside pocket and inaccessible at present. She had to play a different strategy.

“Who are you?”

Yes, his voice sounded just as mean as he looked. No doubt about it.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. He was crushing her windpipe.

“Talk!”

Easy for him to say. He wasn’t running out of air. She gasped and lifted her arm to gesture to her neck. A second later he loosened his grip on her neck, but only marginally. Instantly Nina coughed.

“Now talk fast.”

“I was just minding my own business.” If he thought she’d spill the beans this quickly, he’d never met anybody as stubborn as her.

He shook his head. “Not in my territory, you’re not. You’ve been spying on us. Who are you?”

“I was just going for a walk, that’s all.”

He shoved his thigh against her in a display of physical dominance. She wasn’t intimidated this easily, well, at least she wasn’t going to admit it.

 “
Prowling
is the word you’re looking for, I believe.”

From the corner of her eye she scanned her surroundings for passersby, but they were alone. This late at night, the Financial District was deserted. The restaurants were already closed, and there were no nightclubs in the vicinity.