Consumed (6 page)

“How many are there?”

“Four, in total. It’s a little group of Kejas who like to dabble in trafficking. Each of the bastards will have an entire squad from the legion tracking them. Hopefully that’s enough.”

A little while later, we discovered that, to everyone’s utter fucking dismay, it wasn’t enough. Each of the suppliers had done as Sam had suspected and gone to ground. Their apartments were empty, and it was clear that they had left in a hurry. The vampires from their small nest – who made their dislike of the group of four very clear – claimed to have no knowledge of where they were or how to reach them. They promised to get in touch with Sam and Jared if the group made contact.

Back at The Hollow, Sam threw a series of energy balls at the sea, and it was clear then why Jared had wanted to discuss the issue outside – he’d sensed that she was on the verge of exploding.

“Either they found out what happened to the brothel, or the owner warned them to lie low,” growled Sam, pacing.

“She could have killed them,” suggested Harvey. “She wouldn’t want any witnesses, right?”

“Considering what her gift is,” began Ava, “I doubt that she’ll be worrying about that. It will have made her overconfident.”

I’d been thinking the same thing. “She’s likely to think she’ll never be caught, or she probably wouldn’t have opened the brothel in the first place.”

Chico sighed. “So what now?”

“Now we place our trust in the researchers.” Jared didn’t move his eyes from a severely pissed Sam as he spoke. “They’re going to search through what records they have on Pagori lines, find the names of vampires who have a gift that allows them to be untraceable.”

“You could put bounties over the heads of the suppliers,” proposed Paige. “You could even make a statement over V-Tube about the brothel. It will quickly go viral.” V-Tube was the vampiric version of YouTube and was often used as a way for Sam and Jared to post messages.

Sam paused in her pacing. “That could work.”

“It proved effective when you wanted Paige found,” Imani chipped in. “She’d managed to maintain a low profile for a long time until then.”

Beside Imani, Butch nodded. “If nothing else, it will make the suppliers panic even further, could rob them of any allies they have.”

Sam turned to Jared, a smile forming on her face. “I like this idea.”

Jared took her hand. “Then let’s do it.”

CHAPTER FOUR

(Ava)

Hoping to catch Sam before she started work the next evening, I headed to the beach house a little after dusk. It was Jared who opened the door, his hazel eyes widening in surprise. “Ava,” he greeted simply. “Come on in.”

“Thanks.” I’d been inside many times before, and I was totally jealous. The place was bright, relaxing, and homey. And it had great eye candy. Honestly, Jared was like the personification of sex. But I preferred Salem’s rough, hard looks to Jared’s pretty face.

Taking in my wide smile, he groaned. He looked exhausted. “You’re a dusk person, aren’t you?” I just giggled, which made him groan again. “You know where to find her.” He disappeared into the kitchen while I went into the living area, where Sam sat on the floor, cursing at the T.V.

“Evening,” I sang.

Without turning, she held up her finger. “One sec, Ava. Give me one sec.” She was playing on her PlayStation; she was literally addicted to the thing.

“Ooh, can I play?”

Suddenly, Jared was between us, having moved in vampire speed. “No. No. No. The last time that happened, the pair of you were on it for two hours.” He handed me a cola-flavoured NST and pointed to the sofa. “Over there. And stop smiling. It’s too early for chirpiness.”

“Killjoy.” I went to sit beside Sam’s snake, Dexter. As I greeted him and lightly stroked his white scales, they turned a brilliant blue. Dexter had been a gift from Antonio’s Sire, who had the ability to make his pictures come to life. After Wes drew a snake on Sam’s arm, it instantly became a tattoo that could become a live snake. He was a mix of a rattlesnake, the black mamba, spitting cobra, and a garter snake – a breed Wes had termed ‘Strikers’, and I badly wanted one. Dexter’s colouring actually changed with his mood. To go from white to brilliant blue meant he had gone from relaxed to happy.

Jared sighed tiredly at his mate, who was again cursing at the T.V. “Baby, get off the damn thing! You haven’t even touched your breakfast!” Actually, to be fair, it looked like she’d nibbled on her toast and possibly had one swig of her NST. “
Sam
…”

“Fine.” Ending the game, she turned to face us and shot me a bright smile, though it was strained. She was calmer than last night, more composed, but she was still seething inside. “Evening, Ava. Please tell me you’re here to accept my offer.”

I returned her smile. “Actually, I am.”

Her expression smug, she pointed at Jared. “Ha. Told you.”

“I said that you’d refuse the offer and go back to your brother,” he explained to me. “Not because I didn’t think you had it in you to join the legion, but because I know what it’s like to be really close to your sibling. I’d hate to leave Evan behind.”

Ah, well that really did explain it. “I called Cristiano last night and told him I’d decided to stay. He admitted he’ll miss having me around, but he wants me to be happy more than anything else. He said if this makes me happy, I have his support.”

Sam smiled at Jared. “See, he’s not all bad.”

Jared snorted, and I had to laugh. It was true that Cristiano got some perverse joy out of pissing people off – me being the only exception – and he’d certainly pissed off Jared by flirting with Sam. She didn’t realise that Cristiano wasn’t just dicking around; he really did care about her. But Jared saw that, and he hated it.

Sam took a swig of her NST. “What made you decide to stay?”

“Going on the assignment, seeing what kind of fucked up shit goes on in the world, made me realise just how important the legion is. I want to be part of that. And it’s always fun to watch you work, Sam. No one does interrogations quite like you.”

She bowed. “Why, thank you.”

Jared gave her an indulgent smile. “I can agree with Ava on that one.”

“Have you heard anything about the survivors yet?” I asked them before taking a gulp of my NST.

“Mary Jane phoned half an hour ago,” replied Sam. Mary Jane, who had been a nurse in her human life, liked to act as one at The Hollow. “Denny, Stuart, Reuben, and Max have all recovered. The survivors are looking better after being on a drip of blood. They’re healing and not as gaunt, but they’re flitting in and of consciousness. They can move a bit and sometimes they even talk. But they can’t get up, and they’re not making sense. Like someone who has a fever.”

I had to wonder if the survivors even realised they were no longer in the brothel. “Maybe they’re not fighting for consciousness because they’re worried they’re still in that place. This all has to seem dream-like for them.”

“You could be right.” Sam drank the last of her NST and reached for her toast. “Enough on that topic or I’m going to lose my shit again. Let’s talk about you and Salem.”

“Um, let’s not.”

Sam stared at Jared, who narrowed his eyes. I had the feeling they were communicating telepathically. “Fine.” He stomped out of the room, throwing over his shoulder, “You’ve got five minutes.”

When Sam looked at me expectantly, I shrugged. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Not even about the kiss a week ago?”

I gawked. “How do you know about that?”

She smiled. “I have my sources. And really, Ava, you know nothing remains secret on this island for long.”

Fair point. “He totally sprung it on me. As I was walking out of the restrooms, his hand shot out from the shadows, grabbed me and pulled me to him. Then he was kissing me.”

“Very Salem. He speaks more with actions than with words. So there’s nothing more to report? No more kisses?” I shook my head. “That’s funny. When he came to my office last night, he smelt of two things: soap, and you.”

“All right, fine.” I told her everything that had happened in the past couple of nights.

Sam’s smile got increasingly wider as I spoke. “Salem certainly knows how to knock a girl’s equilibrium. Determined little sod, isn’t he?”

“Hmm. Well maybe he could go knock another girl’s equilibrium and leave me in peace.”

She cocked her head. “Is that really what you want?”

“He pulls faces at me all the time.”

“Because you drive him insane.”

“He’s bossy and controlling.”

“But you’re no pushover.”

“He picks me up by my t-shirts!”

“And it’s absolutely hilarious every time,” she chuckled. “This is the way I see it: you can keep on saying no, keep rejecting him, and insist he back off. Eventually, he probably will. Blokes and their egos never cope well with rejection, do they? Then he’ll give you the space to move on. But it also means that
he’ll
move on.

“You’ll have to watch him with someone else. And it’s not like you’ll be able to leave. Being part of the legion is a life-long position. Maybe he’ll go back to one of the humans I’ve seen him with in the past” – oh, he’d been with some of the women here, had he? – “or maybe it’ll be one of the new female squad members. Will you be able to handle that?”

“Yes.”

“Correction, will you be able to handle that without causing grievous bodily harm to both him and his girlfriend?”

“No.”

Sam shrugged. “They’re the only two options open to you. You can give him a chance instead of making him pay for what other blokes have done to you, or you can stick to your guns and then watch him with someone else. It’s all a matter of which you prefer.”

Strolling back into the room, Jared glanced at his watch. “Baby, we have to go or we’re going to be late.” Sam’s eyes lit up. At my inquisitive look, he explained. “We’re holding the first round of try-outs for Sam’s new female squad. They’re probably starting to enter the arena as we speak. Sebastian found us twenty potential members.”

“Ooh, can I watch?”

“No. Because if we let you watch, the others will want to watch too and –”

“Please?” Flashing them my brightest, most innocent smile, I vowed, “I won’t tell anyone, I swear. I never went to any try-outs, so it would be fun to see what they’re like.” I could tell they wanted to say no again, so I pouted a little. “
Please
?”

Jared sighed in defeat, shaking his head at me. “How do you do that?”

Sam shared his exasperation, but she was smiling. “No one can resist those kitten eyes.” Rising to her feet with a clear plate in one hand and an empty bottle in the other, she nodded. “All right, you can come. But don’t invite anyone.”

I placed my hand over my heart. “I won’t, I promise. Who are acting as the interviewers?”

“Us and Evan.” That made sense. Evan was not only a commander within the legion, he was also Sam and Jared’s appointed Heir. That meant he would replace them when they were ready to step down – and probably with Alora at his side, since it seemed that Evan had no intention of letting her go.

“We’re holding most of it in the arena. Go get yourself comfortable in the VIP box.”

So that was exactly what I did. The enclosed arena was located a short distance away from the beach house. The interior resembled a large horse paddock, and each wall was marked from A – D, which represented north, east, south, and west. A large seating area surrounded it, featuring a VIP box on the middle tier. I waited there, watching through the glass as the four females already there fidgeted and exchanged nervous looks.

One by one, another sixteen females piled into the arena, forming a line, looking just as anxious as the others. I was able to tell by the coloured tints to their irises – or, in the case of Sventés, the fact that there were no coloured tints – what breed of vampire they were. Nine were Pagoris, six were Kejas, and the final five were Sventés. Some were having whispered conversations, but their eyes continually darted to the door as they nervously waited for the interviewers to enter. Hell, I was nervous for them.

“Ava, it’s a pleasure to see you.”

I’d smelt Sebastian before I heard him. As usual, the tall Keja was wearing an Armani suit that complemented his athletic build. I flashed him a warm smile. “Hey, Seb. How’s it going?”

“All is well, thank you.”

“Come to see how your recruits perform?”

“Of course. Do Sam and Jared know you’re up here?”

I nodded. “I begged them to let me watch.”

His eyes narrowed. “You gave them that pouty ‘don’t hurt me, I’m an innocent kitten’ look, didn’t you?”

I laughed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re implying that I’m manipulative.”

Sebastian opened his mouth to speak again, but then the whispers abruptly died, garnering everyone’s attention. Sam, Jared, and Evan had entered the arena.

It was Sam who spoke first. “I’m sure you all recognise the three of us, so I don’t think we need to introduce ourselves. As Sebastian will have explained to you, our intention is to form a female squad of ten. We already have five. This does not mean that fifteen of you will be going home. It could be that you all leave. It depends on your capabilities and resilience. We can’t afford to be lenient or give chances. We need to be sure that you can handle being part of a squad. It’s not easy. It’s not pretty. You will go on assignments that make you feel sick to your stomach. You will see things that haunt you.”

I could vouch for that.

“You will be trained to kill, and you’ll be required to kill. Because the rest of your squad have to know that someone has their back. If you can’t deal with any of that, you need to leave now.” When no one moved, she gave a nod of approval.

Jared stepped forward. “Something about each of you caught Sebastian’s attention. It could be your combat skills, it could be your strength and endurance, or it could be your individual vampiric gift. It could even be all of them. But if you can’t control your bloodlust, all of that is irrelevant.” He nodded in our direction, and I realised he was giving a signal to someone above the VIP box.

Moments later, gas was being released from the hoses that were protruding from the roof. “Why gas?” I asked Sebastian.

“It’s not gas,” he replied. “It’s a special cocktail.”

I frowned. “Of what?

His grin told me I’d like his answer. “Different scents of blood.”

Ooh, clever.

“This is exactly what happens in battle,” continued Jared, his gaze boring into each of the recruits. “Various blood scents surround you, rousing your bloodlust. It is absolutely essential that you can think clearly through that bloodlust; that you can remain vigilant, focused, and in total control.”

That was when a bare-chested human entered the arena, blood dripping from a bite on his neck. Like that, the females turned restless and appeared to be trying to hold their breath. The human sidled up to Evan, who then commanded each of the girls – one by one – to step forward. I watched closely, wondering if any of them would cave to temptation. Maybe that was why I didn’t sense the vampire behind me until a strong set of arms curled around my shoulders.

“Hmmm. This brings back memories.”

Sebastian glanced my way, sighed at the sight of Salem, and returned his attention to what was happening in the centre of the arena. Apparently he didn’t see the point in trying to send away the obstinate Pagori who was perched on the seat behind me, curving his body over mine.