His hand flexed on the table, craving the silkiness of her skin.
Stay where you are.
Jonas reached deep and centered himself, surveying the bar. Haven consisted of eight tables and they were all full now. Silence had descended like cloth as soon as he walked inside and now, one by one, the vampires in attendance placed hands over their dead hearts. Pledging fealty to Jonas that he didn’t ask for, nor did he expect. He was only glad they knew he was there to help, not intimidate or make this life even harder.
The High Order did more than enough of that for everyone.
A chair scraped back and a young man stood, twisting a ball cap in his hands. Several of the vampires patted him on the back as he crossed the tavern toward Jonas. Just before he took a seat on the opposite side of the table, Jonas noticed one of his legs was a prosthesis, though his limp was minimal.
“Hello.” He nodded. “I’m Jonas.”
“Dobby,” said the vampire, hanging his hat on the back of the chair. “They said you could help, but I have to be honest, man, ain’t sure nothing is going to help. I’ve passed this place my whole life and it’s always looked like it’s under construction. Now I’m in here drinking blood.” He choked on a breath. “I guess it beats pigeons.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Jonas said, briskly. “I’ll suggest some next steps and then I’ll answer any questions you might have.”
There was always the urge to commiserate with the freshly Silenced, to share his own confusing experience, but Jonas never allowed himself to do it. They were in a darker, harsher world now and giving them a shoulder to cry on only gave them false expectations of the life. It was hard, lonely and eternal.
His mind drifted back to Ginny in the car and he could feel the imprint of her body pressed to his side, so trusting. God but she made life far less lonely.
Can’t have her.
Jonas shoved an unsteady hand into his coat and took out a leather pouch, placing it on the table and sliding it toward Dobby.
“There are three rules you must obey, if you want to go on living.”
Dobby looked down at his dead chest. “This is living?”
The manager set a rocks glass of blood in front of Jonas and while he thanked the vampire, he made no move to pick it up, even though a sip might have helped him swallow the urge to apologize to Dobby for what he was going through. To tell him while it didn’t get easier, it could become purposeful.
“Rule one: No relationships with humans. Two: No drinking from humans. Three: No killing humans. Break one of them, you risk breaking all three. Break them and the High Order will be alerted to come dole out your punishment.”
Dobby buried his head in his hands.
Jonas closed his eyes briefly, brutally aware of his own hypocrisy, seeing as he had a human waiting for him in the alleyway, not a hundred yards from where he sat. All the more reason to see her safe and remove himself from her perfect orbit. “You need to leave town as soon as possible, I’m afraid. At first, being around your loved ones might seem manageable, but you’ll either grow tired of only having your thirst half-quenched and drink from them. Or you’ll convince yourself you’re doing them a favor by Silencing them, too, the way someone did to you. It’s not a favor. Eternal life might sound appealing, but it’s—”
“Daunting.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” Especially when he couldn’t be with the one he needed beyond measure. “There is a constant sense of backpedaling when you wake up, over and over again, but never age. Never hit milestones or…” Realizing he’d gone off track, Jonas reached across the table and tapped the leather pouch. “There is enough cash here to get you started. I’ve included contact information for several cities in the US and Mexico.”
“Does it have to be a city?” Dobby asked woodenly.
“It’s easier to blend in.” Jonas gestured to the interior of Haven. “In each of those cities, I’ve established a place just like this. You can consult the managers in regards to the local blood sources and ask about job openings. Do not take chances with the sun and do not accelerate if there’s a chance you’ll be seen. And we’re seen everywhere now at all times, so again, don’t take risks.”
Dobby stared hard at the table. “Why not just break the rules and let the High Order end it? Why live in this miserable, endless cycle?”
“I don’t have an answer for that. Certainly many have gone that route.”
He’d considered it himself many times, after the disappearance of his mate, the death of his parents. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that no one would remain behind to help the Dobbys of the world. And now? Now Jonas wasn’t sure he could court death knowing Ginny was alive and breathing somewhere. Living in a world where she existed made the darkness bearable and unbearable at the same time.
“How can this be allowed?” Dobby croaked, taking Jonas’s glass of blood and draining it, surprising a low chuckle out of Jonas. “How can the High Order punish us for drinking from humans, unless we Silence them, too?”
A familiar anger made Jonas’s jaw tighten. “To guarantee our continued existence,” he growled. “Silencing a human doesn’t always work, but the urge…it’s always there inside us. Often, a new vampire can’t help themselves and they go about Silencing in a reckless way, leading to dead humans and vampires left to face the punishment. Far more humans are Silenced, however, than vampires extinguished, leading to higher numbers of our kind. Numbers that learn through example to fear the High Order. Their contradictory rules have led to nothing but a fucked up cycle—and I’m sorry…” Jonas pushed back from the table, annoyed at himself for going off book. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”
“Thank you,” Dobby said, laying a hand on the pouch, visibly uncomfortable showing gratitude. “I’m not sure…what I would have done without you.”
Jonas nodded. “It’s nothing.” He hesitated before standing. “Who was it that Silenced you?”
“I don’t know,” Dobby whispered. “I don’t remember anything after walking home from my shift at the diner.”
In other words, his memories had been wiped.
Tamping down on a second apology—apparently Ginny’s sweet, earnest nature was rubbing off on him—Jonas stood and faced the tavern, waiting for everyone to give him their attention. Most of the faces he recognized, if not from recently, then from the last time he’d been in New York. Some of them seemed to have fared well, others were sullen, their stares empty and trained on nothing. With a heavy gut, he wondered how many locals had been extinguished by the High Order for breaking the rules, their seats now sitting vacant.
“I need to know if anyone has come into contact with someone new in town,” he said, in a clear voice, watching for reactions. “An Elder.”
Murmurings commenced, along with some nervous shifting.
After all, there was no rule against killing each other and no one in Haven was a match for a vampire with the abilities an Elder possessed. Abilities that were earned by living through high stress situations, again and again, year after year. Wars, street battles, deaths of human loved ones, loss of a vampire mate. They each added to the store of energy inside of the being, culminating like a force field ready to be unleashed at a moment’s notice.
In his surveillance of the room, Jonas noticed only one vampire in attendance who didn’t look surprised by his question.
The vampire waited until Jonas made eye contact, then he slowly and meaningfully looked up at the ceiling.
A loud thud overhead had Jonas retreating as quickly as possible to the alley.
Ginny.
Ginny’s skin felt layered with ice without Jonas in the car. Moments ago, she’d been secure and content in his embrace, she now sat shivering in the bottom of a well. Desperate for a distraction, she listened carefully for anything beside her own breathing and the drumming of Tucker’s fingers on the steering wheel.
At least ten minutes had passed when a door opened and closed outside the car, then nothing, save the sound of water dripping, the distant whir of traffic, a plane flying overhead. Tucker turned on the radio and Elias smacked it off, leading to an argument. Mothers were insulted quite offensively.
Jonas had been gone about twenty minutes when a door groaned opened and closed again. She longed to rip off the blindfold and see if Jonas approached—not to mention where he’d been, but she forced her hands to remain at her side.
In the blink of an eye, the energy in the car shifted.
Ginny felt it and sat forward.
“What the hell is going on?” Elias growled.
She ripped off the blindfold, blinking twice into the glare of a streetlamp, before clawing her way toward the door Jonas had exited, pressing her forehead to the cold glass.
There in a moonlit alleyway stood Jonas.
Another vampire joined him. At least, that was one way of putting it.
Was she dreaming? She had to be. No way one of the most terrifying beings Ginny had ever seen was floating down from the rooftop of the building. As if he were strapped into an invisible harness. The skin of his throat and hands was bluish white and streaked with veins, though most of him was hidden beneath a wide brimmed hat and raincoat. A gray braid of hair ticked side to side on his back, reminding Ginny of a metronome. He moved at a sedate pace, expression smug.
Jonas remained entirely still and watched him land.
“Ever the unfazed prince,” Tucker muttered. “We should get out there.”
“Wait,” Elias said. “We wait. It could be a move to draw us away from her.”
A shiver passed down Ginny’s spine. “You think that’s the powerful vampire who’s been moving me in my sleep.”
“The question is, why?” Tucker asked. “Just to enforce the rule about vampire-human relationships or is there another reason? Anything is possible.”
Tucker could say that again. There were so many more possibilities in this world she lived in now. She was ducked down in the back of a car, good vampires protecting her from other evil vampires. And why? She had no clue. But the life she’d once known seemed like nothing more than an uninformed prologue.