Blood Bound

Chapter 33: The dark fortress

The Sangue's neck twitches a little, like he's clenching his jaw. Unexpectedly his pale eyes show nothing but contempt for Kenji. "Mr. Ricci is surprised yet delighted to have you in his place tonight, Mr. Yamasaki," his voice, though, is sleazy, dripping with sycophantic admiration. "It would be my honor to drive you and your guests to his quarters."

"Thank you, but that's not necessary," Kenji says firmly but politely, beckoning us to hop inside. "Your sloppy services are not required. You can just stand there and call your beloved master and inform him that we're on our way."

We hurry inside and I see through the tinted window the sour look the Sangue is throwing at us as we drive past him. Both Kenji and Sophie smirk at each other. The airport at Seattle is almost at the heart of the Emerald city and despite it being almost 11 o'clock in the evening, it's thumping with life. People walking on the crowded sidewalks, on their way to clubs or any other late-night events. I crane my neck to get a better view of the bright streets and towering sky scrapers.

"You oughta be careful here," Kenji says. "This is vampire territory here. Many of us own these night clubs the people are going to. As you can see, business is thriving, on both accounts," he adds with a smirk.

"And people don't know about it?" I ask, peeling my face away from the dazzling neon lights. "There haven't been, you know, any accidents?"

"You can't prevent all accidents from happening," Kenji sighs. "But since most vampires here belong to Grigori's faction, they're forced to be extra careful. Because if you fuck up, you're putting the entire faction into jeopardy and that's not something the faction leader wants."

"But what do you do if something happens?" I trudge on. "Like, if someone goes feral and kills a human?" My eyes inadvertently glance sideways at Sophie.

"We handle it the discreet way; bribe the police officers and convince them it was just a brutal animal attack. If bribe is not enough, we use our charm."

"And what do you do with the feral vampire?"

"Put him into isolation until he or she regains his or her senses."

"So, there's no punishment for risking your existence?"

"Of course there is," Kenji replies darkly. "I just want to refrain from telling you the details."

Sophie scoffs. "You weren't so gentle with me with all that stuff,"

"Well, you're one of us and you needed to know the consequenses when you joined the faction," Kenji points out, grimacing.

"Well, after everything we've been through, I'm sure that Leia can stomach the gritty details."

My stomach gives me a weird swooping sensation, like I had just missed a step. Truthfully, I've had enough of gore as it is but I'm too flabbergasted that Sophie has confidence in me to mention it.

Kenji shrugs. "Alright," he concedes as he makes a left turn. I notice a tall sign that points to Lower Queen Anne, meaning that we're on our way uptown instead of downtown. "What happens is, the feral vampire is generally bound at the wrists and ankles with silver chains. And then it's exposed to UV-light for quite some time. UV-light is stronger than sunlight due to the radiation, so it's very painful."

Sophie shudders. "I'd rather be impaled and beheaded than be exposed to UV-light or the sun. It's a much quicker death," she mutters.

Kenji nods grimly. "That burning sensation will haunt you for years if you ever get caught in those lights and survive it," he continues. "It takes a vampire weeks to recover from those burns and after the punishment, you'll think twice about going off the handle."