“Youwill have to excuse us, but we are not used to vampires talking about romance.”Kai stated bluntly.
Alekspread his hands out. “Ah yes, well, we aren’t all blood junkies like the queenyou spoke of earlier.”
Ifrowned. “Blood junkie?”
Alektook a moment to think before he spoke. “Well, yes you wouldn’t know, wouldyou?”
Kaiput a protective arm around me.
“Knowwhat?” Kai urged him.
“Thequeen and her vampires are all blood junkies. They inject their humans withheroin and then drink their blood. It’s the only way to get high because drugsdon’t work on vampires directly. So they filter it through human blood.”
Kai’shand squeezed my shoulder hard. I felt dizzy with shock at this newinformation.
“Sothat’s why they are draining them? Killing them?”
Alekshrugged. “I don’t know what they do anymore, but that’s what they were up towhen I was around them. They also get high off of human fear. All of thesethings make the blood sweeter, like dessert. They don’t drink for sustenance,they drink to get high. They don’t care about stopping. One vampire can drainfive humans a night to get their fix.”
Ifelt sick.
“Whoknew we were dealing with heroin junkies?” I said aloud.
Kailooked livid. His eyes were yellow and his fingers had transformed into claws.
“ThatVIP bouncer at the club. He must have been no more than twenty-two years old.His entire future is gone. They’ve made him a drug addict and will drain himwhen they please. Why didn’t I know about this?” Kai stood up. The skin on hisarms was growing patches of fur.
Aleklooked on calmly. “Well, your kind have been so preoccupied with finding matesand procreating that they don’t really care what we do.”
Iplaced a reassuring hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I think we should focus on thefact that not all vampires are junkies.” I gestured to Alek.
Aleknodded. “When you are turned into a vampire, you are bled dry by your masterand then filled with their blood. Most times the vampires are too high andgreedy to fill their victims back up with blood and so they just perish, but mymaster wasn’t. I was born of the queen herself, and I was born an addict.”
Itried to contain my shock. Kai and I shared a look. He clearly didn’t likeusing her first name.
“Iopened my eyes to my new immortal life and there was only one thing I cravedmore than blood,” Alek said with a sinister look in his eye.
“Heroin,”Kai finished.
Aleknodded.
“Soevery vampire that is from Lay–the queen’s clan, is a heroin addict? And everyvampire that they turn becomes one too?”
Aleknodded. “And every human that is a user, was led to be so by a vampire with compulsion.They run the entire North American drug trade.”
Ohmy God. Holy hell. I just sat there with my mouth open. Kai recovered beforeme.
“Howdid you escape that life?” Kai asked him sincerely.
Aleksmiled and went over to the desk, returning with a picture frame. He handed itto us.
“Mariam.”
Inthe picture, he was sitting on a park bench with her head in his lap. Shesmiled at the camera while he stroked her hair.
“Iwas trying to escape that lifestyle and leave the queen’s clan. I didn’t likeconstantly being strung out and giving drugs to helpless humans at clubs inorder to get high. But I was addicted. So I ran. I found myself here, in ForestGrove. I saw Mariam coming out of a class that she teaches at the college here.I imagined a life with her. A human life, like the one that was robbed fromme.”
Ismiled. “So she helped you get clean?”
