S Stirling - A Taint in the Blood

“No, I’ll… take my time,” Peterson said.

“Ah, a man of taste. My renfields are waiting to show you to your rooms in the casa grande. If you don’t kill her, she’s yours to take with you when you leave, of course.”

“Very… hospitable of you. But I wouldn’t expect anything else of a Br?z?.”

He bowed slightly and began to lead the girl away. She started to squirm and then try to pull free, but the grip on her upper arm was evidently like a band of steel as she was marched into the darkness.

“The early bird and the choice worm,” Adrienne said absently.

Another whisper of wings, and three more birds soared into the big chamber; a golden eagle, a bald eagle, and a red-tailed hawk. They fluttered to the ground, and were Shadowspawn in human form-Dale Shadowblade, Dmitri Usov and T?kairin Michiko. A moan went through the men and women behind the cage as the three touched fingertips with Adrienne.

“You’re early, but you’re not the first,” she said. “Wilbur Peterson, of all people. I never expected him to actually attend.”

“I thought he’d gone seriously hermit?” Michiko said, stretching luxuriously, rising on the balls of her feet with her fingers linked high over her head. “God, but I love flying.”

“He hasn’t left his nest for thirty years!” Adrienne confirmed.

“Peterson is another ancient fossil of the type we will have to deal with,” Dmitri snorted. “An obstacle to the progressive forces.”

“Oh, now, Dmitri Pavlovich, we have to be tolerant and inclusive,” Adrienne said unctuously.

Then she laughed like a cruel girl-child and clapped her hands together. “Oh! I forgot! We don’t! All we have to be is evil and ruthless, hein?”

“Da,” Dmitri said. “And I also like flying. But it leaves one with an appetite. Is all in order?”

“All according to plan so far,” Adrienne said. “Have a little snack, and we’ll talk later as everyone mills-and-swills, eh?”

Dale was looking at the cage. “Not bad. I always was partial to Mexican. Mind if we make a mess?”

“Of course not, within reason. Pick a pair each and go crazy. I can always have a few extras sent up from San Simeon if we run short; the place is like a perpetual revolving larder with those tour buses.”

Adrienne made a flicking gesture with her hand, and Mendoza and his men left; one of them stumbled a little, and another helped him along. Michiko giggled and walked towards the unlatched door of the cage, her nude body moving cat-graceful with a mocking sway of the hips.

“Paco, Paco,” she said, her voice silvery. “Adrienne says you’ve been very naughty. But I’m naughty too sometimes. Let’s play a little game. It’s called, you die now.”

The coyote was fully conscious again, but he had missed the last twenty minutes. Ellen saw his eyes bulge as Michiko let herself fall forward… and landed on paws. The animal was a Himalayan snow leopard, smoke-gray with black rosettes on its silky fur, even then beautiful enough to make the breath catch. The long tail swung a little as the great paws placed themselves with smooth precision, and the fangs showed bone-white as it snarled, a high-pitched half-yowl that echoed from the roof. Paco turned and ran, bounced into a wall of people who thrust him back and then faced around into the leopard’s leap.

He screamed once as he went down beneath the beast, and then again, and again and again on a rising squealing note of unbearable agony. A spray of blood flicked across the faces of the other prisoners, and there were wet ripping noises. The metallic scent was suddenly, shockingly intense.

Ellen shut her eyes for an instant, but lights still flashed across her vision; her mouth was paper-dry, a ringing sounding in her ears above the rending sounds. Monica suddenly buried her face against Ellen’s shoulder and clutched her, and they leaned against each other for support.

Oh, God, I’m going to lose it. I’m going to wet myself. I’m going to puke all over Jean-Charles’ dress… God what a thing to think about… I want to close my eyes and I can’t keep them shut.

They fluttered unwillingly open. An Amur tiger and a great black wolf were slinking forward through the gate in the wire fence, ears laid back, teeth showing as their heads swung back and forth to scent their prey. Michiko was in human form again, crouched over Paco with her face buried in the blood that welled from his torn throat, turning her pale neck and breasts crimson. It coated her face in a glistening bright-red sheet when she turned it upward, laughing.

“Let’s pick one and play a bit longer, boys,” she said to the two beasts; they halted on either side of her, and she rested a hand on each ruff as she crouched. “That one. She’s in milk. We could have a fascinating mix of tastes.”

“And now we should depart, my sweet ones,” Adrienne said as the three predators stalked forward, dividing to cut the chosen victim out of the mass. “The next few will be arriving corporeally, or at least by ground.”

Adrienne walked out; Ellen followed as best she could, feeling her knees buckling and helping Monica along as she staggered, gulping at the cleaner air. Theresa Villegas was outside, and nodded to Adrienne as they passed. One of the policemen began to swing the door shut behind them, and then something cannoned into it.

Ellen jerked back involuntarily. It was a woman, naked but for the panties still snagged around one ankle, red lines scored across her back. She fell forward half-out of the door, her eyes wide with agony and disbelief. Her fingers clawed into the concrete, bleeding as well where the nails tore. She shrieked and twisted to clutch at the doorframe as something grabbed her from behind; Theresa stepped forward and used the toe of her polished shoe to pry the hands loose. A savage jerk pulled her back into the room, and the policeman closed the door, standing for a moment blank-eyed with his hand on the latch.

“I will direct the guests when they are ready to come up to the casa, Do?a,” Theresa said with a prim smile. “Enjoy your evening.”

“Thank you, Theresa. You’ve been invaluable.”

The rhythmic pulsing screams of agony and bestial snarling and silvery laughter died away as they walked down the brick pathway between the crackling torches.

“It’s natural,” Monica started mumbling to herself. “We’re mice. It’s natural. That’s what we’re for. It’s always been what we’re for.”

No it is fucking well not what we are for! Ellen screamed mentally. No, no, no! “Oh, yes it is,” Adrienne said, and put a hand on the small of her back.

Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! “But I will touch you,” she purred. “Oh, yes, I will.”

She stopped, took Ellen’s chin between thumb and forefinger.

“Your mind is like a raw wound right now,” she said. “Shall I feed, and make you feel better?”

“Yes, please,” Ellen said tightly.

No! You made me feel this way, you keep it! “Now there’s a contradiction. Yes-yes on your lips, no-no in part of your mind. But you smell right for feeding, very right indeed.”

An arm went around her bare shoulders under the shawl. Adrienne’s head nuzzled her jaw up, and teeth touched her throat above the jeweled collar.

Ellen whimpered again. I want the bite. But I’m… somehow I’m betraying them…

“If it’s any consolation, you have no say in this whatsoever,” Adrienne said, the breath warm against her skin. “I’d have bitten you anyway after you were primed like that. Irresistible!”

The sting was slight, but it made her skin ripple all the way to her feet and back. The clamminess left her, and the twisting knot in her stomach. The horror faded; the sights and sounds and smells were still there in the eye of her mind, but now they turned to an immense soft sadness like the memory of a great tragedy long ago. That faded in turn to a feeling like reading melancholy poetry. She sighed and let her head rest against the Shadowspawn’s, putting a hand to the other’s throat. Feeling the burring vibration of the growl, and the pulse of the swallows as they took her blood.