Cat Adams - Blood Song

anybody. I listened to the calm, feminine voice saying, “You have reached Gwendolyn Talbert. If you

have cal ed on a professional matter, I regret that I am no longer seeing patients. If this is a personal

cal , please leave your name and number after the tone.”

I waited for the beep. Taking a deep breath, I spoke as clearly and calmly as I could manage. “Gwen,

it’s me … um, Celia Graves. Um, something’s happened. I need to talk to someone. I know you’re

retired, but I don’t trust anyone else. If you can’t see me, can you at least give me a name? Somebody

you trust? Please?”

God I sounded pathetic. Desperate. Then again, I was. I left the office number and hung up. I would

have left the new cel number, if only I’d written it down somewhere to remember it.

While I was making useless cal s, I left a message for El Jefe. I needed to find out everything I could

about abominations and brush up on any successful techniques hunters had used to find the daytime

lairs of master vampires. I wasn’t sure if he was back from Chicago, so I decided to start doing a little

research on my own.

But first, I had one more cal to make.

I had Dawna get me the number from the Internet. I hadn’t been sure she’d be home. Stil , I

recognized Vanessa’s voice when she picked up the phone on the third ring.

I tried to break it to her gently. I was rewarded by a stream of expletives screamed at top volume

—loud enough that I had to move the receiver away from my ear the length of my arm. She fol owed

this by blaming me for his death, then weeping hysterical y and hanging up on me. Bob didn’t have any

other living relatives, so I didn’t know who else to cal . But it seemed wrong. He’d been a good man.

Not perfect, but who is? He deserved to have somebody more than just me to mourn him. Maybe there

was someone. I hadn’t realized they’d gotten divorced until the screaming voice in my ear informed me

of it in no uncertain terms. Did he have a new girlfriend? I had no way of knowing. I sure as hel wasn’t

going to cal Vanessa again.

Maybe in a day or two, when things settled down, I’d put some effort into looking into it. But first, I

wanted to take care of the crisis du jour.

I braced myself and sprinted from the curb to the front doors of the university library. Since most of the

building’s front facade is glass, I wasn’t real y safe until I’d gotten halfway down the stairs down to the

basement.

I’d always considered it a nuisance that they’d put the paranormal section down there, al by itself,

behind every known kind of protection. Now I wasn’t sorry. Being in the basement meant that I would be

able to have a windowless study room to work in.

Halfway down the stairs I hit a magical barrier I couldn’t see and nearly lost my footing. I had to grab

onto the handrail and steady myself for a minute before I could move forward. When I did it felt … odd

… like I was forcing my way through a wal of Jel -O. Tiny sparks exploded against my skin. None of

them were strong, but there were a lot of them. The sensation was similar to that of being in a room

with too much static electricity. I couldn’t move backward at al and moving forward was slow. It didn’t

get better until I stepped off of the staircase. When I did, the change in pressure made my ears pop

and my nostrils twitch.

I recognized the staff member behind the reserved desk. Anna had been in charge of the Paranormal

and Metaphysical Desk for over a decade. She’d helped me with research for many a project, and

could recite where every book or artifact was from memory. A soft-spoken woman of “a certain age,”

she had iron gray hair and warm brown eyes hidden behind thick-lensed glasses. I’d always admired

her drol sense of humor, and knew she had enough mage talent to be able to handle any studentrelated accidents that might occur due to mishandling of the merchandise. I didn’t doubt that it was her

spel I’d passed through a moment before.

“Stop right there.” Her voice rang with authority. She rose, leaning both hands on the counter. “You

have no business coming here.”

Anger rose up in a wave. How dare she? “It’s ful daylight, Anna.” I didn’t bother to keep the scorn

from my voice. “I’m not a bat.”

“If you were a bat,” she answered coldly, “you wouldn’t have made it through the wards. But that

doesn’t mean you aren’t dangerous. In fact, it makes you more so. Because you’re stil human enough

to pass through unhindered.”

I felt a surge of rage that sent the blood pounding through my veins. My vision narrowed, focusing on

the pulse throbbing at the base of her stringy neck; the adrenaline-laced scent of her fear rose to my

nostrils like the bouquet of a fine wine. I could almost taste—

I closed my eyes, shutting out the image of her pulse. Slowly, careful y, I fought to rein in my temper by

control ing my breathing, panting through an open mouth so that the scents wouldn’t overwhelm me. It

didn’t feel close to nightfal , but my brain was tel ing me, Time to go hunting.

I am not a vampire. I am not a fucking bat . I will not do this.

It took time. It wasn’t easy and it probably wasn’t pretty, but I fought down the beast within me. When I

opened my eyes, I was myself again.

Silence dragged on for long moments as Anna stared at me. When she final y spoke, her voice was

soft and careful. It was the same tone you use to talk to people standing on a ledge, or wild animals you

don’t want to spook. “I shouldn’t have threatened you, Celia. That was stupid. But you don’t belong

here. You don’t belong anywhere in public. It isn’t safe. There are too many people. Too much

temptation.”

Her expression was so serious, so pained, that I knew there was personal history behind her

reaction. I knew I should care. But God help me, I didn’t. Not real y. Al I cared about was getting away

from her and finding out what I could do to fix this. There had to be something. When it comes to

metaphysics, there are very few absolutes. There’s almost always something you can do. It may be

difficult to the point of being damned near impossible—but almost nothing was actual y undoable, with

enough power, time, and money.

“I need to know about abominations, Anna.” I said it quietly, and while I couldn’t quite manage not to

lisp, I did my absolute best to stifle the part of me that wanted to rage at the injustice of the situation. “I

need to know how to fix this.”

“You can’t.” Her whispered words were just a bare breath of air. Normal y I wouldn’t have heard them.

I closed my eyes against her pain. I didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to know. I had enough problems

of my own. “Please. I have to try.”

I heard her chair scrape back as she moved away from the desk. “I suppose you do.” The words

shook, just a little. But from the sound of it, her fear was being overcome by a combination of sorrow

and determination. “But you don’t have to do it here. And I wil not al ow you to endanger the other

students and staff.”

“So, what? What do I do?”

“Go to your office. I’ve already scanned and e-mailed copies of everything we’ve got to Dr. Reynolds,

Professor Landingham, and a police detective.” Duh. Why was I surprised that everyone had the same