Kindred Part 4

I woke up with a dry throat and an empty stomach. Sex was definitely the last thing on my mind. I wanted a good meal first. And I wanted to know what had happened to my friends, and if I could see my family soon. So many thoughts and uncertanties were swirling around in my head, that I almost had a migraine.

Not seeing Oyoko around, I decided to get up and go ask Brice if she could get something to eat-or rather-drink. After tripping over the genkan yet again, I hobbled out of the room and knocked on Brice's door.

Brice appeared behind me silently. "Come on. Let's get you drunk."

"Huh? It isn't even afternoon yet!"

Brice grinned toothily. "You won't be drinking alcohol." Brice put his arm around my waist, and we walked to the living room, where Oyoko, Darian and Rick were sitting on the leather furniture. There was a smell of something burning that I couldn't place until I looked more closely at Darian. He had several blackened burn marks on his arms.

"Omigod! Are you okay?" I asked immediately, going over to him. "Do you need some ice?"

Darian chuckled. "Look closely." He held up his arm and I could see that the burns seemed to be small foreign letters-resembling Russian or Greek-grouped in tiny links that wound around his arms in little chains.

I wrinkled my nose, not understanding why anyone, human or not, would do that to themselves. "Did it hurt?"

Darian smirked and glanced at the others. "There are a hell of a lot of worse things." He put the glowing red stylus he had been using to brand himself with in a can of water to cool it.

"We should go. We all know how picky Oyoko is." Rick said. Oyoko didn't respond, so I didn't know if he teasing her, or simply stating a fact. We all left the apartment the same way we went in, using the elevator.

"Can you draw in your bites?" asked Brice. I bared my bites and flexed my jaw, pushed them with my tounge, and even tried wiggled them with my finger, but they wouldn't budge. Brice put an arm around me in reassurance. "Don't worry about it. Just keep your mouth closed on the street, and don't say anything, okay?"

"Okay." I clenched my jaw, steeling myself against the spoken word. "But what about my friends and my fam-"

"Don't speak!" hissed Oyoko, baring her own bites at me before getting herself under control and sheathing the sharp little weapons in her gums. "We aren't the kind of killers you see on t.v.! I don't want to have to kill for you!"

Brice and Rick gave her a harsh look, but Oyoko just walked ahead, head high. I kept my mouth closed, even though I wanted to ask about why we could walk in sunlight. We walked through the complicated maze of old buildings until we came out on a side street that was connected to the busy main road. There were sidewalks on either side of the street, quite typical of the large, bustling college town, with students walking to class. I followed Brice and the others to a nearby bus stop. I raised my eyebrow.

Brice shrugged. "I never liked the hassle of a car. And with the bus system, there's no need for one."

Three hundred years old? And no car? I thought to myself, but of course I couldn't say anything. After around five minutes, the bus came, and we all got on, taking seats in the back. I crouched down in my seat, hoping I wouldn't be recognized by anyone I knew on the bus. I focused all my attention on where we were going. I thought that maybe we'd be going to some underground club like in the movies, but I should have realized by then that the Kindred were not your ordinary vampires. The bus drove past the university campus to the business district, several blocks of thirteen story buildings for banks, lawyers offices, and government operations.

Brice motioned for us to get off in front of The Historic Frankwater Building, a skyscraper that now housed several upscale businesses. I thought that we'd be going to a smaller building, but my Kindred made a beeline for the Frankwater. I hesitated, wondering why we would be going to such an open place for a drink.

"Come on." Oyoko huffed at me as soon as I stopped on the granite steps to the building. "It isn't safe to stop here."

So we are in danger here, I thought, following my group silently inside. The Frankwater Building was impressive. The first floor was all gray granite floors and marble columns that went twelve feet up. I couldn't allow myself to get too distracted before Brice and the rest made a beeline for the security desk. A lone security guard was sitting there, watching us with guarded eyes.

"Yes? Can I help you?" asked the guard. His words were meant to be gruff, but they came out in a squeak. He's human! I thought. I had the urge to run away, but somehow Darien knew what I was thinking and grabbed my arm. The guard's eyes grew wide, looking like he wanted to help me, but he didn't say anything. Just let his eyes water a little bit as he stared at me and Darien.

"Richard?!" asked Brice loudly, getting the guard's attention by slamming his hands down on the desk. "Let them know we're here."

"Y-yes sir." stammered the guard. He picked up the desk phone and made a hit the speed dial. "Yes...Five are on their way." The guard lowered his head and didn't stop us from taking the elevator.

As soon as the door closed, Darien was onto me. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Showing fear like that? He probably thought you were a human!"

Brice looked at Darien, warning him with his eyes. "Shut up. Not another fucking word." he ordered cooly. He put an arm around me. "Don't worry about it Kani, you made a mistake." His voice went from loving to edgy. "Try not to make any others." I wanted to protest and say I didn't even know what was going on half the time, but elevator doors were opening on the thirteenth floor, and I wasn't supposed to be talking anyway.

The doors opened to an ordinary-looking empty hallway, less impressive and more modern than the ground floor. I couldn't hear anything in the hallway, lit dimly by malfunctioning flourescent lights. I followed my group to a warped door with a faded sign that read "under construction" in sloppy hand-writing. Brice opened it without hesitation, revealing a room that looked like it was being remodeled. Someone had taken a sledgehammer and knocked out a piece of the west wall, and the aged wooden floor was being replaced with sensible looking office carpet. The room was littered with fallen ceiling tiles and soaked insulation.

I looked at the hole in the west wall, but it just led to the hallway outside. I looked above at the ceiling, and figured that we were going to jump up there and go to the room above, but I was wrong. Again.

"Way too obvious." Rick said, knowing wha I was thinking. "You have to give us more credit than that!"

Brice walked over to the area of the floor that was still wooden, and tapped his feet five times. Then he jumped up, and crashed through the floor. Before I could scream after him, Oyoko was there covering my mouth.

"No words, remember? Whatever you see or hear, don't open your mouth until we reach our destination." She commanded me, looking me at me in warning. I nodded, and she let me go. Rick had already followed Brice into the hole, and now Darian was jumping down. I looked down into it, and could see they had merely jumped down into another hallway. Brice was alright, already walking out of my view of him from above. I jumped down after Darian, and quickly moved out of the way so Oyoko could follow.

We were standing in a waiting room, complete with a receptionist's desk, and a receptionist. There weren't any doors that I could see, so I suspected they were hidden. Before my mouth could drop open in disbelief, Brice was addressing the receptionist.

"Good morning. We are here for breakfast." said Brice curteously.

"This is an office. Not a restaurant. Perhaps you should go to one." said the receptionist curtly. She had a strange accent, a mix of European languages and I thought I detected some underlying Arabic. I suspected she was of Middle Eastern descent because of her dark caramel complection and exotic hazel eyes, luminous with flecks of green.

"And yet, we are here for a drink." Brice replied.

The receptionist narrowed her eyes. "I thought you said you were here for breakfast?"

"Yes. I am here for a meal." Brice grinned infuriatingly.

"Symantics aren't helping you. You are in very real trouble." warned the receptionist coldly. Even though she had no expression on her face, and she was a slight woman who was barely 5 feet tall, there was something about her that made me take her seriously. I actually had to make myself stand still instead of retreating. She wasn't joking. We were in danger. But I had to trust my people to know what to do.

"All I request is something to slake my thirst." Brice held his ground.

"I am warning you-"

"And I am asking you. Respectfully."

The receptionist tilted her head at me. "Another lamb for the slaughter, my son?" she asked Brice. She eyed me like so much meat.

"No. Another book for The Great Hall, mother."

"Are you quite positive? She looks too delicate. Too...tender." I came close to stepping forward and saying something smartass, but Rick quickly pulled me behind him.

"I have learned not to trust my eyes. It is an imperfect medium."

The receptionist nodded and hit a button on her phone. "Five are here. Four you know. One you have yet to meet."

The phone buzzed with static before there was a response. "Noted."

The receptionist stood up and backed away from her desk. The desk quckly slid outwards, revealing a hole in the ground and some steps that spiraled downwards. Oyoko, Rick and Darian went down first, but the receptionist stopped me and Brice from going any further. "You know what must be done, Brice." she said to him seriously.

"Yes. Will Jord be available?" There was a little tremor in his voice, as if he was afraid of the answer.

"I'll ask for her personally. I think it's time someone put a stop to your ambition."

"I have no ambition. I simply surround myself with those who are like myself."

"I have yet to find someone like you, Brice." she shook her head at him. "Go and drink." He went down the stairs, and I tried to follow him, but the receptionist touched my shoulder. She couldn't have touched me with nothing more than her forefinger, but she stopped me. I knew she could have killed me with no more than a touch. I could feel her strength, and somehow I knew her strength. I stopped in my tracks. "Welcome. I hope your visit will be longer than I anticipate." And with those words, she stepped aside and let me follow Brice down the stairs.

I ran down the steps so fast, I tripped on the bottom step and fell on my knees, to the sarcastic applause of Oyoko. "Bravo. Next time maybe you could flop over a little. Make it more interesting." she smirked. I flicked her off. She shrugged.

The room I was now standing in was dimly lit and had the look and feel of the VIP section of a bar. Technically, it was as VIP as it could get. Kindred and humans alike were sitting on lounge chairs, talking, drinking...or being drunk from. Oyoko sat next to a plain-looking woman about my age, and wasted no time, titlting the human's head and stabbing her neck with her bites. The blood gushed out of the woman, but she seemed to be enjoying Oyoko's seemingly frantic feeding, cooing or moaning though her blood was being taken from her. Oyoko was lapping and sucking up as much blood as she could, but she was still making a mess, staining the clothes of both her and her donor with fresh flowing blood.

"Yesterday, that was you and me, Kani." said Brice, noteing my discomfort. He held me close and kissed me on the cheek. "You have to drink something. You'll understand once you do." He led me over to an empty chair and had me sit down. Then he went over to a suited man who was standing by the only door leading out of the room, and they proceeded to have a conversation I couldn't hear. Rick and Darian had already paired up with their donors-two older men who looked to be in their fourties-and were feeding greedily. I looked around and saw other "couples" breaking up. The younger donors were passed out and had to be hauled away. The older donors-who I assume were more experienced-got up unsteadily and walked through the door past Brice and the man in the suit by themselves. I shifted my feet, feeling uncomfortable. The room was filled with the sounds of rabid sucking and moaning, like a porno with just the audio. Oyoko finished in a few minutes and pushed her donor away, but not before tounge kissing her. I turned away in disgust, but Oyoko sat next to me anyway.

"So what do you think?" she asked me, wiping her face clean with some paper towels. It didn't change the fact that her shirt and the top of her jeans were soaked in blood.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." I answered, putting my head between my legs. The smell was getting to me. It smelled so sweet in the room, it was enough to gag me. That sweet chocolate-honey scent was overpowering.

"If you throw up, that's fine. I tossed my cookies myself when I went to my first bar. In Europe, the smell is worse. There are some rooms that have been in use for hundreds of years. There was a bar in Crete found last year that hadn't been used for over a thousand years or more, and there was so much blood found there, the archaelogists decided it was a dungeon." She laughed, and I tried to lose my dinner, but I hadn't had any.

"That's really...too much information." I choked.

"Lighten up. No one gets killed. At least not on purpose. Every now and then a little piglet panics and-" she smirked, flashing her bloodstained bites. "You can imagine what happens next."

Before she make me feel any more miserable, Brice was leading someone over to me. I couldn't believe who it was. "Denny?!" I went over to him and hugged him immediately. "Are you okay? Where are Alice and Berry?"

He shrugged. " We woke up in an alley somewhere and stumbled our way back to campus. I decided to look for you. " He looked at me with those penetrating eyes, and I knew he knew what I was becoming. What I was. "I figured you'd be here. I've been coming here since my freshman year, and when you weren't with us this morning, this is where I knew you'd be." My mouth was wide open in shock. "I never expected Brice to bring you over. He seemed a little too old for you."

"You knew what Brice was, and you didn't say anything?!" I exclaimed,

"I wasn't...myself when we first met, Kani." said Brice, butting in. "As sweet as this chat is, shouldn't you be getting a present from your friend?"

Denny sat down on the lounge chair, and tilted his head to the side submissively. "Denny?! No...I couldn't do that to you!"

"It's all right, Kani. It's been done to me a hundred times before." He pointed to two little scars on his neck that I had always assumed were birth marks or something. Now I knew better. "Just puncture me right where I've been bitten before." I sat down next to him reluctantly. "Go ahead. It'll be good for both of us." I positioned my teeth over his scars, and jumped back and away from him. In the briefest instant, I had felt his blood pound away under his skin.

"That's normal. You're getting more sensitive to touch now. Go ahead." urged Brice.

I sat back and bit into Denny's neck carefully. He moaned immediately, as if he was having an orgasm. The blood spurted out just like I had seen in horror movies. I guess I should have been scared, but my first instinct was to lap up his blood like a kitten. It tasted different than Brice's blood. It didn't have any trace of that weird kettle corn flavor. Just pure sweetness. It was like I was drinking a warm dark-chocolate, caramel-nouget drink mixed in with pixie stick powder. It was a wild, addictive drink, and I couldn't get enough. I couldn't hear anything, or see anything, other than Denny's orgasmic moans, and his blood flowing into my mouth.

Brice pulled me off Denny after a few minutes. "You've had enough."

Denny slumped over to the side, grinning absentmindedly. "More. Take more from me."

I reached for Denny, but Brice stopped me. "Any more and you'll kill him. He'll have to wait several days before he can give blood again as it is."

I made a sound unlike anything I'd ever heard before. Not a hiss, a growl, or a purr, but a combination of all three. "FUCK OFF!" I warned Brice. I wasn't really hearing him. I was hearing Denny's sweet pulse pounding in my ears as loud as a siren. I wanted more. I needed more. And I was prepared to go through Brice to get it.

I went to hit Brice, not enough to kill, just enough to make him go away, but he was already ahead of me. I felt my head hit the back of the wall before I even felt his hands around my throat. That brought me out of my bloodlust. I looked at him, shocked that he had actually hurt me. He let me go. "Don't do that." He got up and left the room through the door. Denny had been oblivious to fact that Brice had probably just saved his life, his human eyes glazed over in pleasure, and his body now sprawled over the couch. Some of the Kindred dragged him away through the door.

I felt a prescence near me, and I looked up to see it was Oyoko. She smirked. "Your second drink made you quicker. You wouldn't have even sensed anything before. Ready to go?" she wanted to know. I nodded, wiping some blood away from my chin with the back of my hand. Not that it did any good. I had several blood streaks down the front of my t-shirt, and my collar was soaked. She put an arm around my waist in a sisterly gesture and escorted me through the door.

I was expecting to see another way out of the building, maybe a private elevator or a flight of stairs. Instead, I was walking into a communal showerroom. There were fog-less mirrors on the wall, giving me an unobstructed view of everyone's anatomy. I hid my eyes. "I so did not want to see this!" I turned to face the wall, so i wouldn't have to see anymore nudity, but when I opened my eyes, Oyoko was there wriggling her naked boobs in my face. I shrieked and ran for the door back to the lounge, but not before slipping on a bar of soap. Oyoko caught me before I could fall.

"Enough games, Oyoko." ordered Brice. "Go clean yourself." She nodded solemnly and went to occupy a shower. Brice held me then, protectively. "Go wash up." Brice said to me softly. He didn't give an apology at all, and he didn't ask for one from me. I suppose he decided to let it go, and expected me to do the same. I went to a shower all the way to the end, far away from everyone else, and I proceeded to disrobe. Brice took my clothes from me, and tossed me some soap. I lathered up and washed away all the blood. When I was finished, Brice handed me a towel, and I walked into yet another room.

The next room was similiar to a locker room. Each one of the Kindred had their own un-uniform space. Some had mini-closets built into the walls, others had cubbyholes that held only two sets of street clothes. Most just had a nail on the wall, that held a business suit or some other similar dress. I kept trying to cover myself up with my hands, but everyone was so busy bustling around trying to get dressed that no one was paying my nudity any attention. I felt someone approaching me and turned around to face them.

It was a woman, who looked a few years older than me. She looked African, with her clear dark skin, and cat-like eyes. "Here." she handed me a set of clothes. "We are the same size." Her voice sounded foreign, though I couldn't place her accent. I had a secret moment of shame, for although I was African-American, I knew little about African languages or cultures. "Is something wrong?"

I was startled by her question, for although my face had no change of emotion, she knew exactly what I was thinking. "No. I'm fine. Thank you for the clothes." I knew then that she was very old. Definitely older than Brice. "I'm Kani. Can I ask who you are?"

She started walking away from me with an enigmatic smile on her lips. "You already know." Everyone was quickly moving out of her way, or shrinking back.

My group kept their distance from me until I was properly dressed. "We have to leave." Brice whispered. We left through an exit, and this time I was surprised to find we were walking into yet another reception area. The receptionist, an Irish-looking strawberry blond, looked paler than she should have been.

"Brice..." she whispered. "What is the meaning of Her coming here?" she meant the woman who had spoken to me. Brice merely shrugged as if it was nothing, putting on an act. The receptionist swallowed, pressed a button on her phone, and opened a hidden elevator. My group and I got in, and rode it all the way down to the main floor. Brice was biting his lip hard, probably to keep himself from asking me what the mystery woman had said to me. Rick and Darian were fidgeting, and Oyoko was getting a grey complexion. Brice didn't even bother to sign us out at the front desk, he grabbed my arm and hurried me out the door.

We speed-walked to a restaurant about three blocks away. By now the time was between the breakfast and lunch rushes, so we had the place all to ourselves. We got a booth in the back so no one would hear us. Brice ordered drinks for all us, to give us an excuse for being there. "What did she say to you?" he asked, his voice quavering.

"All she said was that we were the same size. When I asked her her name, she said I already knew it." I told them honestly. The four of them looked at each other, not believing. "What? I wouldn't lie about this! That's what she said to me. That's all she said to me. Now tell me what's going on!"

"Keep your damn voice down." Oyoko told me. "Do you remember the bloodline I told you?"
I thought back to the night before. It was odd, but I could recall every name on the list. I nodded. "The woman who gave you your clothing-I dare not speak her name-is three times removed from your bringer."

I stared at her. That woman had a very long name. Kentakes Shipushikomisa-shak. I wondered if some of it was a title since none of the other names on the list had any. "Who is she?"

"I can't discuss it here." said Brice, looking out for roaming waitresses. "We'll leave now." We left our drinks untouched and walked out into the street.