Page 70 of Call of the Blood

Maria answered quickly. There was a quick agreement about where he would meet her team, and she would personally be joining. His prerogative until then was following this vampire to see if he found any of the others.

So, he stalked. The vampire started off, and he followed intently, creeping through the shadows of the city, his steps silent.

It was thirty minutes later when he checked his phone. Maria and her people were in the area and would wait for him to say more. She was also missing someone on her team, something she was trying to rectify. He replied that he was still following the target. He’d tell them to come to him once he saw at least one more of their slippery vampires.

Twenty minutes went by, and he finally saw it.

A woman. Then a second. Both vampires. There had been three, and he frowned as he realized both of the women had red hair. They could have been sisters at a distance.

He sent Maria the text that he had all three of them and moved back, meeting her on a nearby rooftop where they could all monitor. The vampires had stopped on a corner, just talking or perhaps having a soft argument as one of them got heated.

“Well, there they are,” she said in a whisper they wouldn’t hear.

“There they are,” he confirmed. “I want them alive. Do you have holding cells?”

“Of course I do,” Maria said, scoffing. “We also brought the right van for their transport.”

“Thank you. They’ve acted strange since I got here. I don’t like them. I want to know everything. And if they prove salvageable as vampires, you can keep them or shuffle them off to vampires who can take them in.”

“You’re going to give them a chance like that?” Maria seemed surprised. “I was willing, but I was expecting it to be a conversation for us to have about it. I was expecting you to give resistance to that sort of idea.”

“They seem uneducated,” he confessed. “They’re not feeding properly, even though they have at least a few kills under their belts. They’re starved. What we know for certain is that he killed recently, but he’s gaunt, which means he should be feeding regularly, not just binging on a body once a week or, worse, a month.”

“But someone went and cleaned up where they hid a previous kill like a professional,” Maria countered.

“Exactly.”

“Oh, that is strange.” Maria looked at her vampires. “Take them alive. Unharmed. And you, make a call to Home that we’ll need fresh blood available for young vampires that haven’t been feeding properly. Perhaps if we take care of them, they’ll open up. See us as potential allies or a group they should trust and not… They might be terrified…” Maria sighed.

“I think that’s why they’ve been running. Not understanding what their senses would be telling them, maybe wondering what happened to themselves.” Alexius shrugged. “Let’s take them in and see.”

He moved, and Maria’s professionals knew how to circle around their targets with him. He could hear the transport van she had mentioned turning a corner. When the vampires turned to head inside, still having their hushed argument, Alexius was able to follow behind them, Maria ten steps back from him, ready to step in diplomatically if necessary. Windows slid open, a backdoor opened and closed quickly but silently. The vampires had no idea they had been caught, so focused on their own argument.

“He said he would bring us beds, at least sleeping bags! We’re still here! Why aren’t we at home?” the angriest of the women asked.

“He’s trusting us⁠—”

“It’s beginning to feel like he abandoned us!” she yelled in return.

“Keep your voices down, or humans will come here,” Alexius said, interrupting the argument. Whatever they’d been arguing about could be explained to him and Maria once they were back at the nest. As all three vampires turned toward him, eyes wide, fear immediately capturing them, he continued. “For your own safety, you all need to come with us. We’re also vampires. We’ve been trying to find you to discuss what your situation is. There’s a vampire in charge of this city who has been trying to reach out to you.”

“Us?” the male said, looking around as Maria’s vampires revealed themselves.

“Don’t run. Don’t fight. You’ll lose,” Alexius said, trying to be gentle. They were young vampires abandoned but not the same as the situation in Alaska. It wasn’t the easiest for him, trying to soften everything so these three didn’t try to bolt.

“We have blood,” Maria said behind him, stepping in when it was obvious that he wasn’t the one they would want to trust. “Safely sourced, bagged so there’s no need to endanger a human and leave bodies around.”

“Beds?” the loudest said, her desperation clear.

“You’ll have rooms. We’re just going to need to hear your stories. We need to know how this happened.”

“How can we trust you?” The smaller, quieter woman was trying to hide behind and between the others, but with everyone on all sides, she was confused as to who to look at, who to watch her back from.

“You don’t have an option anymore. I’m Maria, a ruler of the vampires, and in charge of all vampires in Los Angeles and most of California. You’ll come with me, and I’ll treat you right while we learn from each other… or your night ends here.”

Alexius turned slowly toward her, the soft, sisterly steel in her voice and the small curve of a friendly smile. It was her blood-red eyes that gave away the truth.

She meant that.