Kira rode the Chicago Transit Green Line as if it were her first time. This was such a familiar route to her along the Loop, but now, everything about it was different. The multitudes of scents were overpowering, even more dominating than the roar of the transit car as it bulleted along the tracks. Aside from the harsher aromas of alcohol, urine, body odor, perfumes, and bad breath, the scents lingering on the car were also like fingerprints of emotions.
Of course, she could also smell traces of blood, either dotting the transit car or lingering on some of the people who entered and exited on their way to their next location. She'd recently fed again, so that scent didn't arouse hunger in her as much as acknowledgment. Blood was a part of her life now, no more a choice than her deciding not to breathe when she'd been human. In some ways, Kira couldn't believe how short a time had passed since she'd first woken up as a vampire. It felt far longer, much like the time since she'd first met Mencheres. Calendars, dates, and clocks were just not an accurate way to measure some things.
The voice announced that the Clinton Street stop was next. Kira shouldered her purse and stood, not needing to hold on to the back of the chair or the pole for balance. When the car stopped, she got off, headed now for the familiar streets that led to Tina's apartment.
So many times before, Kira had walked this part of West Loop after dark with her attention focused on any all eys opening up to her side, or extended patches of darkness where streetlights didn't penetrate. Or for the sound of footsteps following her too closely.
Now she strode down the streets without looking anywhere but straight ahead, her steps brisk and confident. No patches of darkness, weapons, all eys, or lurking strangers could do her harm anymore. Everyone along these streets had heartbeats, making them vulnerable to her, not the other way around, should they choose to cross her path with malicious intent.
She made it to Tina's building just a little faster than she would have under normal circumstances. Couldn't attract unwanted attention by streaking up the streets with supernatural speed, after all. She used her key to get inside, then chose the stairs instead of the elevators to avoid any of Tina's neighbors who might happen to recognize her if she rode up with them. Kira already knew her identity had been leaked to news stations in the past several days. The last she called Tina, her sister had hung up without speaking. She didn't think Tina was angry with her. She assumed Tina's phone line was monitored, which meant her cell probably was, too. Kira didn't bother calling her brother; he almost never had a working number.
The stairwel was empty, allowing Kira to move at what was fast becoming a more natural speed to her. She reached the fourteenth level in mere minutes, brushing her hair behind her ear reflexively before entering the floor. Once outside Tina's apartment, however, she paused.
Two heartbeats were inside, not one. Kira inhaled near the door, but she couldn't distinguish anything overly helpful. She'd never caught her sister's scent as a vampire though the heavier citrus fragrance around the entrance probably belonged to Tina. Who was in there with her sister? And would whoever it was present a problem?
She couldn't afford to walk away now. She'd risked too much to come here. Kira knocked, again smoothing her hair to the side as she waited. First she heard footsteps, a heartbeat right on the other side of the door, and then a gasp before the door opened.
Tina stood on the other side, still blond and petite like always, but with a healthier glow to her complexion than the last time she'd seen her. Kira smiled. Mencheres's blood had brought her little sister back, and she now had the treatments for Tina's disease running all through her veins.
"Hey," Kira said. "Can I come in?"
Tina's blue eyes were wide, and her scent - yes, it was that citrus blend Kira had caught a whiff of outside the door, like oranges and cloves - soured ever so slightly even as her pulse sped up.
"Is everything okay?" Kira asked, tensing. Was a cop in the apartment with Tina? Good Lord, had they sent someone over after Kira called the last time?
"Kira?" Tina said tentatively, as if she didn't quite believe who she was seeing.
"Who is it, T?" her brother's voice called out from inside the apartment.
"Rick's here?" Kira asked, shaking her head. "Oh, Tina, you didn't let him move in, did you?"
" 'S it?" Her brother appeared behind Tina's shoulder. His eyes were red and from the crease on his cheek, he looked like he'd just woken up.
"Kira, holy fuck!" he said, his eyes bulging when he saw her. "You're in big trouble, man. Like, huge," Rick finished.
"Hi, Rick," Kira said in a dry voice. "Joey finally threw you out?" Tina stepped back mutely. Kira walked inside, one sniff revealing that Rick smelled like pot, some other drug, cigarettes, and alcohol. A glance showed he'd set up a bed on Tina's couch. It looked like he'd been there for days. Empty beer cans, an ashtray overflowing with butts, and a couple wadded-up bags of potato chips completed the picture.
Kira wanted to slug him, and not just for trashing Tina's place while he made himself at home.
"You're smoking around Tina? She's got CF, and she just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago after almost dying, but your goddamn nicotine habit is more important than her lungs? You couldn't even go outside to let her breathe some clean air in her own apartment, Rick?"
His face turned mottled red. "You're wanted by the fucking cops, the FBI, and maybe more, but you're going to bitch at me for smoking? Dude, you've got some nerve - "
"Oh be quiet," Kira snapped.
To her surprise, Rick stopped speaking. At once. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. Then his eyes bugged, and his hands started waving around like they were on fire.
Kira spun, expecting to see someone behind her, but no one was there except Tina.
She'd just closed the door and stood staring at her.
"Your eyes . . ." she whispered.
Kira cursed. She'd kept a perfect grip on her emotions the entire way here, but five seconds in her brother's company had her dropping her normal disguise to glare bright green supernatural daggers at him. Now she had to fix this mess.
"Rick, sit down. Find a mental happy place or something," she directed him.
Rick sat on the floor, his frantic motions stilling and an expression of peace settling over his features. Kira found herself being grateful that she hadn't been a vampire when they were growing up and she'd had to babysit him for her father and his new wife. She might have taken horrible advantage of her mind-control skills. Rick had been a handful even as a child.
Then she turned to Tina, who had her eyes closed while a single tear slipped down her cheeks.
"Don't, Kira," Tina said, shaking her head with her eyes still squeezed shut. "Whatever you did to him, don't do it to me. I knew it. I saw that tape on YouTube, and even though I didn't want to believe . . . still, you never would have gotten involved in something like that, then just disappeared. Even if you did, Mom's cross. You wouldn't have let someone rip it off your neck and use it that way if it were only an act. You haven't taken her necklace off since she died, so when I saw that, I knew it had to be reall. . ." Kira's hand closed over the cross at her throat. It had shocked her knowing Mencheres used it to cut into his own throat and feed her his blood, but it never occurred to her that Tina would see that and be able to determine it wasn't twisted role-playing. Tina was right, though. She hadn't taken this necklace off, not since she'd unhooked it from her mother's throat and put it around her own the day before her mom's funeral.
"Tina . . ."
She wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't anticipated telling her sister this soon.
Eventually, yes, but not tonight. Rick, she didn't think she could ever tell.
"The police found a bunch of blood vials in your apartment. They asked me if I'd known you were into vampire role-playing, if I'd ever seen that guy in the video before, or if I knew where you were." Tina's voice cracked. "I told them I didn't know anything, but I did recognize that guy from the hospital the night I came off the vent. The nurses kept going on about how it was a miracle I recovered like that. I've never felt better lately, either.
Then when I saw the tape, him, what happened, and you vanished . . . all of a sudden, I knew why I was better."
Oh God, Tina had thought it all the way through. Kira wrestled with what to do. One flash of her eyes, and Kira could make Tina forget everything, but though with Rick, she didn't have a choice, Tina might be able to handle this.
"I met him by accident," Kira said, trying to sum up the past incredible few weeks in as short a way as possible. "Saw things that let me know he wasn't human, but he couldn't make me forget them like he could with most people. When I told you I had the flu, that wasn't true. He kept me with him, hoping that I'd fall under his power and that he could erase my mind of what I'd seen, but it never happened. Then he let me go, but I felt something so strong for him, I looked for him. That brought me to the club. You saw what happened there."
Tina didn't say anything, but her face went a shade paler. Still, her small frame was straight.
"He set fire to the place? Killed those people?"
"No," Kira said at once. "He was set up by that bastard who ordered my death. I may be away for a while, but I wanted to see you again and tell you . . . well, I didn't intend to tell you this, but I wanted to tell you that you don't need to worry. I'm okay, better than okay, and once this is taken care of, I'll be back in your life just like before." Tina finally met Kira's gaze. Another tear slipped down her cheek. "I've been so scared. I thought you were gone forever because you were something else now. I don't know what all this means, and it's so hard to even believe, but when I heard you bitching at Rick, I knew it was still you inside."
Kira felt her own gaze grow moist. "Of course it's still me. It's nothing like the myths, Tina. I don't kill people. I don't hide out in a crypt during the day. You can see that I'm still wearing Mom's cross, so I don't recoil from religious objects, either. Most of what you've heard is wrong, in fact."
Tina still seemed a little dazed, but Kira remembered how overwhelmed she'd first felt, too, and that had been with more proof than Tina had seen.
"Do you have fangs?" Tina asked, looking both fascinated and hesitant.
"Yeah." Kira smiled wryly. "I'm still getting used to them."
"And the guy . . . you and he . . ."
"His name is Mencheres, and I love him," Kira replied softly. "He's amazing. I don't have time to tell you how much, but he really is. You'll meet him soon, I promise." Tina glanced over her shoulder, as if Mencheres would magically appear behind her through the door. "That'll be, ah, a little weird," she said with a catch in her voice. "I mean, you're my sister, so you don't feel like something other even if you are now. But he's all the way other. He even looks like a vampire, with that tall, dark, and hot thing going on.
Does he live in one of those big creepy houses?"
"No, both places of his that I've been to were pretty normal," Kira replied while thinking, aside from the house I haven't seen. The huge triangular one in the Giza Plateau.
Tina's gaze flicked behind Kira. "You can't tell Rick. He loves you, but he rolled over on you as soon as the cops questioned him. Told them everything you've done since you were ten. If he knows about this, he'll go to the police, the news, you name it."
"No, I'm not telling Rick," Kira sighed, following Tina's gaze to her brother. Rick hummed to himself as he sat, looking far more relaxed than she'd seen him without being heavily stoned. "He won't even remember that I came here, either. But you will. If you want to."
Tina's expression was steady even though she was still pale. "I want to. You can trust me."
"I know I can, Tiny-T," Kira said, calling her the nickname she'd used since they were kids. She went to her sister, feeling Tina tremble just a little as she put her arms around her. Then her sister relaxed when nothing more happened except a hug, never knowing that Kira chanted "eggshells" in her mind so she wouldn't inadvertently squeeze too hard.
"I gotta go," she said at last, releasing Tina. "I had to sneak away from Mencheres when he was out on business to come see you. He wouldn't have let me do it any other way, so I have to get back soon. He'll freak if he comes back, and I'm gone." Tina touched her arm. "He keeps you from going out?"
"He's nothing like Pete," Kira said softly, knowing where Tina's worry stemmed from.
"He's just afraid something will happen to me because of that other vampire who's after him. That's why I couldn't leave to see you until he was out. But once things are back to normal, I can go anywhere I want."
"I hope so," Tina said. "Don't call or e-mail. I think the police have my phone and maybe even my e-mails bugged or something, but be careful."
"I will."
Kira went over to Rick, staring at her brother. If only she could help him with his disease as easily as Mencheres had helped Tina.
"You never saw me tonight," she said at last, green flashing from her eyes. "You've been asleep. When you wake up in another few hours, you'll know Tina and I love you and we always will. You'll go to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and you'll get a sponsor, because you realize there's more to life than getting drunk or high. You'll know there's more to you than your addiction, Rick, and that you can beat this. Oh, and you won't smoke in front of Tina again," she finished.
Kira couldn't make her brother get clean and stay clean, but maybe, just maybe, this subconscious directive would set him on the path toward recovery. Ultimately, only Rick could save his own life. All Kira could do was try to give him a boost.
Then she turned, gave Tina a final hug, and walked out of the apartment. She took the stairwel again to go down, counting off the floors and missing Mencheres even though it had only been hours since she'd seen him. The stairwel was silent except for the clatter of her boots against the steps, but after she'd descended about a half dozen floors, tingles in the air brushed like invisible spiderwebs across Kira's skin.
She hesitated just a moment before resuming her pace. Six more floors to go until she reached street level. That spiderweb sensation increased, but Kira squared her shoulders and continued downward, ignoring the EXIT sign on her right that would lead her inside the building's sixth floor.
The vampires smashed into Kira before she reached the fourth floor.