Consequences (Blood of Pharaohs Book 1) Read online

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  The smell of alcohol mixed with stale perfume and cannabis assaulted their senses as Nikki and Vince walked into a nightclub in South Padre Island, Texas. Vince, as the designated flyer, flew the two of them everywhere, and it only took him a few minutes to find a club full of college kids. Energized with pulsating music, flashing colored lights, and young teenagers who were supposedly twenty-one or older, the nightclub was a popular Friday night hangout for uninhibited high school and college kids who used their weekends to see which ones could get the drunkest the quickest without passing out. There were a lot of unconscious bodies on the floor still clutching their beer bottles.

  “This is a mistake. Let’s get out of here,” Nikki said, turning around to leave.

  Vince grabbed her by the arm. “We haven’t eaten in days; where better to find a meal? This is where all the college kids in a 120-mile radius come to party.”

  Nikki pulled back. “I’m not interested in alcohol-soaked blood from a no-tit teenager.”

  “You’re only seeing the kiddie pool. Let’s go in the back room where the older kids play.”

  “Fine. But I’m not staying long,” Nikki insisted. “We need to report in to our sire.”

  “We’ll just be here long enough to replenish, and maybe pinch a butt... or two.”

  Nikki rolled her eyes. Sometimes Vince acted like a pimply-faced pubescent boy in a room full of horny women.

  There were no tables available on the restaurant side of the club, so Vince walked up to a booth in the far back and introduced himself to the couple eating hamburgers. He shook hands with them, maintaining skin contact until their eyes churned under his influence. A moment later, they quickly jumped up and offered their booth to him. He smiled and suggested that they go have sex somewhere.

  As the couple passed by Nikki, she grabbed the young man’s hand and advised him to wear a condom.

  “You are such an old woman sometimes,” Vince chided as they sat down.

  “And you are a loose cannon. They weren’t in love, and I could tell that he wouldn’t be able to afford child support. I didn’t take their… your fun away, I simply protected the girl.”

  Vince rolled his eyes as he shoved the plate with the half-eaten hamburger on it, to the side. You’re always protecting the girl. How about having sex with one occasionally? Maybe you’ll be in a better mood then.

  Nikki shook her head. “You know I can hear your thoughts, right?

  “Why do you think I thought it, dumbass?”

  The haggard waitress, with a strand of hair falling from her bun, came up and began collecting the dishes. She handed the plates to the busboy. Turning back to the them, she asked, “What can I get you?”

  “Single malt whiskey, if you have it,” Nikki said.

  The waitress put her hand on her pudgy hip and looked at her as if she were crazy. “We’ve got whiskey, but we don’t count how many malts it has in it.”

  Vince threw his head back and laughed.

  Nikki scowled at him and then turned her gaze back to the waitress. “Fine, just bring me a shot of whiskey.”

  “How about you, sugar?” she asked Vince.

  “I’ll have the same, sweetness,” Vince said, winking at the woman.

  She blushed as she went to fill their order.

  “I’m going to get laid tonight,” Vince said, watching the waitress’s large butt roll as she walked away.

  Shaking her head at him, Nikki asserted, “You get laid every night. Now focus. We need to figure out why our sire sent our so-called brothers to distract us.”

  “Yeah, that was strange. I didn’t smell his marker on any of them, did you?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Nikki answered. “I know that immortal was lying.”

  “Why lie about something like that? Especially when he had nothing to gain by it.”

  “Do you think our father told him to say that?” Nikki asked. “I mean, Ludovico would know that we’d kill them. He’s the one who sent us after them.”

  “But like you said, if they were his, he never would have allowed them to drain a human female to death. And especially not three on one like that.”

  The waitress walked up with their drinks and set them on the table, along with a bowl of peanuts. Vince paid for the drinks and then gave her a twenty-dollar tip and a swat on the butt. She giggled as she stuffed the bill in her bra and sauntered off. Vince took a sip of the whiskey and sneered at its taste. “Anyway, no one falls under his aegis without receiving the speech about protecting the purity of his women.”

  “True. It mean’s certain death to defile and kill a human female in our sire’s territory.”

  “And if they do, we will hunt them down and kill them,” Vince rephrased.

  “Yeah, pretty much what I just said,” Nikki quipped. After the frown Vince had on his face when he drank his whiskey, Nikki downed hers with one gulp. It didn’t help; the inferior quality still left a bad taste. She grabbed a handful of peanuts and popped them into her mouth, hoping the salt would remove the taste. The blood of a vampire changed their metabolism so that they no longer needed to eat or drink to survive, and to some vampires, food could even be repulsive. Only blood, preferably human, rich in iron and other nutrients, would sustain a vampire and satisfy their hunger. But that’s not to say that some immortals didn’t enjoy certain foods, as with Nikki and the peanuts. She carried them into battle with her during the Civil War, and toward the end of the war, that’s all she had to eat, save for the occasional Yankee if she were lucky.

  “And why couldn’t I hear their thoughts?” she asked, spitting bits of peanut across the table. “None of them had the fifth element, so I should have been able to hear them.”

  Vince shook his head. “This whole thing shouts conspiracy, if you ask me.”

  “Yeah, well, no surprise there. Your middle name is conspiracy. I’m going to take a leak. Order me another drink, will you?” Nikki said as she stood up. “And make it Vodka this time.”

  “I got a feeling it won’t be any better, but I’ll try one, too,” Vince said.

  Nikki walked around the restaurant and then into the women’s restroom, pausing momentarily when she thought she heard a familiar female laugh. She smelled the air, but whoever had laughed wasn’t an immortal. She shrugged it off and went inside a stall. Immortals didn’t have the same normal bodily functions that humans do, so they didn’t need to relieve themselves as often. But a restroom in a busy restaurant provided a vampire with a wealth of smells that could mean the difference between life and death. Nikki didn’t need to use the facilities, but she did need to check out her surroundings as a precaution. She hated surprises.

  She listened to the ambient conversations from around the restaurant, most of which were silly schoolgirl chatter that she loathed. “Oh, I hope he kisses me tonight.” “Do you think this color nail polish goes with my eyes?” He focused in on one voice that sounded worried. “She should be here by now. You don’t think anything happened to her, do you?” The voice sounded familiar, but she stopped talking before Nikki could hone in on her voice. She took another deep breath, tasting the smells on her tongue, relieved when she still didn’t smell another immortal. She could relax and take her time with her meal. First, she had to find the worried girl. Perhaps she would benefit from her relaxing bite. Smiling, she walked out of the restroom and surveyed the restaurant.

  Nikki saw Vince standing next to several women, one whom he was about to touch, and she knew that Vince had found his meal. He had picked the prettiest one. The girl reminded Nikki of someone. She looked closer and gasped, “It’s Lilah! Vince, no!” she shouted, rushing over and grabbing Vince’s hand before he could touch her.

  “What the hell, Nikki?”

  Nikki pushed him back and looked at the women. Three women in their mid-to-late twenties, holding mixed drinks in their perfectly manicured hands, were staring at her. Obviously, they came from money; they were wearing the latest Paris fashions, even if
it was casual dress at the bar. All but one, who stood out in her American blue jeans and royal blue flowered blouse. The girl peeked up at her from under her cowgirl hat, and Nikki’s heart thumped erratically.

  “Damn it, Nikki. I was going to let you pick first,” Vince thought in his mind.

  “Ladies, my apologies,” Nikki said, not taking her eyes off of the petite blonde in blue jeans. “But we had something urgent come up.”

  “We did?” Vince asked.

  They were momentarily distracted when someone dropped a glass and it shattered on the floor. Nikki and Vince stood at attention, ready to grab their weapon at the slightest provocation. They calmed down after some giggling teenagers began helping the waitress pick up the shards of glass.

  “Yes, we did,” Nikki replied, returning her gaze to the blonde girl. She pulled out her billfold and handed the bartender a couple hundred dollars. “We must go. Please, enjoy your next drinks on us.”

  “That isn’t necessary,” the blonde said, her doe eyes gazing into her dark brown ones.

  Yes, it is, lovely Lilah Rose. “No, but it is our pleasure,” Nikki replied, barely able to control her need to touch her, to hold her, to kiss her.

  The girl thought to herself, “She looks so familiar, do I know her?”

  “Yes, you do. Oh, uh, I mean, no, you don’t, uh…” Nikki stammered, tripping over her tongue.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, wondering if she was drunk or crazy. It’s always the gorgeous ones who are crazy.

  Nikki snorted and quickly tried to cover it up with a cough as she took a step closer.

  Vince looked from Nikki to the blonde and then back again. “Oh, shit,” he muttered, realizing who she was. “Come on, Niko. Like you said, we have to leave.” Vince jerked on Nikki’s arm and pulled her back. “Next time, ladies,” he said as he pushed his sister toward the exit.

  Nikki looked back at her; memorizing her twinkling green eyes, her freckled face, and her red lips, before she allowed Vince to pull her out the door.

  Chapter Two

  November 4, 2016

  Natchez, Mississippi

  Ludovico da Polenta’s main office in Natchez, Mississippi, didn’t reflect his vast wealth. It didn’t need to. Natchez was his working office designed in the Southern tradition of dark mahogany and oak. If he wanted to impress someone, which he rarely did, he’d use his Miami office designed in steel and glass. He hated that office.

  Ludovico was born in sixth-century Italy and turned at the tender age of nineteen. He was the first vampire to arrive in the New World, hundreds of years before the pilgrims. He fled Italy over a dispute with a rich baron immortal who took exception to him sleeping with his wife. The honorable thing would have been to take responsibility and be executed, but during that century, he was not a man of honor. He used his ability to manipulate air, which allowed him to travel from country to country, when a storm blew him into a clump of trees in what is now known as Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. A Pueblo Indian saved his life. It was just before sunup when Ludovico offered a trade of silver for shelter. The Indian had traded with other tribes that traded with French explorers, and although he had no use for silver, he knew that other tribes might. He welcomed Ludovico into their community dwelling deep inside an overhanging cliff. The pueblos were made of adobe bricks, stone, and wooden poles, with several hundred rooms, some of them under several feet of stone. Ludovico used his compulsion to make himself a member of the village, allowing him to live comfortably for many years… until he was caught feeding off of one of the women.

  Again he ran, this time to the South, where he worked as a trader along the Mississippi River, after drinking a trader dry and taking his supplies. He began building his empire by turning local Indians and settlers, expanding his territory as he sired human after human, most of them against their will. He embraced the Southern traditions, including owning several large plantations in Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi. At one time, the fifteen-hundred-year-old vampire had control of all the Southern states up to the Virginias, but when the South lost the War Between the States, he downsized his region to include the East and West South Central states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. His friend and fellow Confederate sympathizer, Cristaldo DiFonzo, an Italian from the old country, controlled Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Together they were an unstoppable force in the immortal world.

  Even 151 years later, Ludovico still maintained that the South would rise again. He may have given up some of his territory, but he kept his renowned political influence and was a legend to be feared. No immortal crossed into his region or moved from his aegis without his permission. Although he ruled his territory with a brutal iron fist, when it came to the women, he was always a perfect Southern gentleman.

  Before the war, Ludovico attended the Christmas Cotillion in Savannah, Georgia, the first year it was held, and fell in love with a seventeen-year-old debutante, Beulah Collinsworth. The Southern Belle spoke her mind, which was unusual in the 1800s, but that was what attracted Ludovico to her. He loved a strong woman who could keep him surprised and interested, even as she batted her eyelashes and said fiddle-dee-dee. He married her on her twenty-second birthday, and gave her anything she ever wanted, except for the one thing he couldn’t provide. Children. One day they had an intense argument over it and that was when Beulah found out he was a vampire. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he didn’t seem to age, she wouldn’t have believed him. It took a long time for him to woo her back into his arms. It was Beulah who showed him how to be honorable again.

  His beautiful, outspoken wife was killed during the Siege of Vicksburg, when one of Ludovico’s factories, used to make rifles for the Confederates, was destroyed by cannon fire. She was in the factory with Ludovico at the time it was shelled. Nicky, as she was called when she disguised herself as a man, and Vince were also there as her bodyguards, a job they resented because it kept them out of the war at times.

  “Beulah! Beulah speak to me!”

  Ludovico looked from his wife’s pale, broken body to Nicky, with pleading eyes. He had never felt so vulnerable, and it infuriated him. He knew the risks of having Nicky revive his wife. The first time Nicky brought someone back from the dead, she had been a very young, naïve vampire with delusions of saving the world. Ludovico knew that sucking the soul back from purgatory caused Nicky to go insane, and she tried to murder the person she had just revived. Nicky had just enough self-control to run away and Ludovico sent Vince to find her and bring her back. But by the time Beulah was hurt, Vince knew that Nicky was a girl, so he decided it would be better not to bring her back right away. It took almost a year for Nicky to come out of it and regain her sanity.

  Ludovico had to take the risk. He might lose Nicky, but his life was inconsequential compared to his wife’s. “Nicky, please, help her.” Ludovico had never said please to anyone before, but if that’s what was needed, he would beg on bended knee.

  Nicky gave Vince a worried look. Vince looked from her to Ludovico, then back again.

  Ludovico knew that Vince protected Nicky from herself when she was senseless and hoped he would do the same this time. Vince had locked Nicky up for months, away from everyone, and brought her wild animals to feed on until she regained her senses and could safely feed from humans. Until she could become a she again.

  “It’s all right, Nicky,” Vince said. “I’ll look out for you.”

  Nicky nodded and took an unnecessary breath, then she knelt in front of Beulah. She pulled out her pocketknife and cut a slit in her palm, placed it on Beulah’s heart and put her other hand on her forehead. She pushed her energy through her bleeding hand and into the woman’s lifeless body, carrying her life essence into Beulah’s bloodstream.

  Ludovico watched as the young vampire pulled his wife’s soul back from the abyss. Beulah jerked and trembled under Nikki’s to
uch. Ludovico could hear his wife’s heart thump once... twice… until finally, after a few minutes, she gasped for breath, her eyes opened wide as she thrashed out her hands.

  “Thank you, thank you, Nikki!” Ludovico cried, grabbing Beulah up in his arms. “Vince, get him out of here and take care of him. Anything you need, anything, let me know.” He flew out of the factory with his wife in his arms never knowing that Nikki was a girl.

  It was Beulah who outed Nikki to Ludovico. The connection and transference of energy between the two revealed Nikki’s soul to her, and she knew all of Nikki’s secrets. Ludovico was beholding to Nikki, so he kept her secret until Nikki was ready to tell him herself, which she did as soon as the war was over and she was sane again.

  A knock on the door brought Ludovico out of his reverie. He was in his office at his main home in Natchez, Mississippi, going over the latest financials and reports. Sitting at his large, mahogany desk, designed to resemble the Resolute Desk in the White House Oval Office, Ludovico bellowed, “What is it?” There were no windows in his office, but there were drapes from floor to ceiling with a long valance connecting them and rows of history books filling the bookcases that lined the walls. The office looked very presidential.

  His personal assistant, Lucy, opened the door. “They are on their way up.”

  “All right, send them in when they arrive,” he instructed.

  “And this just came in,” she said, handing him a folder marked confidential. As she closed the door to the office, she heard him curse in Italian.

  “Hey, gorgeous, ready to run away with me yet?” Vince asked, as he walked up to Lucy’s desk.

  Lucy snarled, her crooked fangs slipping down. Lucy was turned by Ludovico late in life and had gray hair, although the transformation smoothed out her wrinkles. “Pervert.”