Something flickered in Icarus's eyes. He banked the fire quickly, but I'd already filed the vulnerability away in my arsenal.
"We can't leave to meet Saga until daybreak," he snapped. "It'll be a two-day walk. On the way you'll be expected to contribute to food and water stores. You threaten any of my people, you so much as look at one of them the wrong way and I don't care who the f**k your mother was, I'll end you with my bare hands."
"And do I receive the same rights should one of your people threaten me?”
"No," he said simply. "But you're welcome to go back to the Fortress if you're concerned about your safety. From the looks of you--" his gaze scraped down my frame--"you were well taken care of there."
The insult flashed like neon. To these half-starved rebels my healthy color and lack of protruding ribs were the hallmarks of a traitor. I'd never convince them I wasn't a willing blood mate to the Troika's inner circle.
"Fair enough." I held out my hand to shake on it. Icarus offered his left hand. It was then that I noticed how his right arm was atrophied and curled up against his side like a broken wing. Still, his handclasp was strong and confident, like a man who didn't let a few injuries get in the way of his strength.
"Now that that's settled," the Chatelaine stepped forward. "I've brought along a pint of blood for you, Dare, and some milk for Rabbit. I'm afraid it's all I could spare."
The vampire smiled for the first time since we arrived. Where her fangs should have been there were two empty spaces. I gasped, realizing she was a eunuch."Were you a servant?" I blurted.
Dare froze and raised her chin. "I'm no one's slave, whore." She ran her tongue over the twin voids. "I removed them myself."
My mouth fell open. "Why?"
"Because fangs are symbols of corruption and greed."
"But without them you can't heal as fast or live as long--"
"The strength I lost is offset by being able to stand proudly in the sun with my human comrades."
I had no idea how to respond to the fervor in her tone. I'd known many vampire servants over the years who'd had their fangs forcibly removed to keep them weaker than their masters. The idea of someone doing that to themselves was unfathomable.
Dismissing me, Dare bowed and kissed the Chatelaine's fingers before taking the gifts from her. "Thank you, Sister." She tossed the small bladder of milk at a lanky boy--the one the Chatelaine called "Rabbit"-- who looked no older than twelve. He had a mop of black hair on his head and was so thin, his collarbones jutted from his chest like twin blades. He shot the Sister a dimpled grin that lit up the dark room and scuttled away into the corner with Dare to feast on the meager buffet.
"I must be off now," the sister said. "Six--" At my frown, she corrected herself "--I mean, Carmina ... it's been a pleasure." She pressed something into my hand.
I uncurled my fingers and looked down at the red disk with a black lotus in the center—the symbol of the Sisterhood.
“For luck,” she whispered with a flash of a dimple.
I watched her walk away with a sense of dread and shock. How had all this happened so fast?
"Well?" Icarus said. He held his good hand toward the door. "You coming in?"
I looked at the red door and remembered the last words my mother said to me as the Troika army closed in. Never stop fighting, Carmina. Red means life.
She'd whispered them to me two seconds before the bullet slammed into her chest.
Her eyes had gone wide. "RUN!"
At the time, she'd been warning me to find one of the Sister of Crimson's convents before the Troika found me. But it had been too late for both of us back then. My mother died on her way to the Fortress for questioning, and I'd been captured before I'd stumbled tear-blinded and terrified from the burnt out shell of a building in Old New York.
In the seventeen years since that bloody night, my mother's face, her scent had blurred and disappeared from my memory. But not her voice.
I'd been raised by my mother's enemies. Trained to serve vampires. To be the model human. To spread the Troika's gospel of blood and glory. To be their whore.
Icarus raised his eyebrow in challenge when I hesitated on the threshold. I blew out a breath, placed the Chatelaine’s good luck totem around my neck, and put one foot in front of the other. Dare closed the red door behind me. My heart hammered in time with the bolts slamming home.
Red means life.
Four.
Dawn. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen a sunrise. After years living among the vampires, I'd forgotten the sting to the corneas, the warmth on my face, the way sunlight made the world explode in a riot of color.
Streaks of pink and yellow slashed across the horizon. But closer to our small band, the colors were deep purples and blues. Branches arched like charred bones overhead. Occasionally a puff of white steam emerged from one of our yawning mouths.
I huddled into the threadbare cloak I'd been issued. The shoes the Chatelaine had given me the night before weren't so comfortable when tested by the rocks and crags of what remained of the old highway. Back in the day, the highway had been the main artery into the city, but now it was nothing more than rubble overgrown with thick vines and the carcasses of dead trees.
This was our second day on the road. I'd spent the first day trying to keep my head down and listen to the hushed conversations of my companions. No one spoke to me, but they accepted my presence--almost like I was a dog they tolerated instead of a person.
That suited me just fine. Gave me time to think about what had happened and plan for what was coming. According to the stories Dare told Rabbit to keep him entertained, Saga was a legend among the rebels. In the before times, back when humans ran things, there had been these buildings called "libraries," which were filled with books people could borrow for free. Apparently Saga used to be in charge of one of these libraries.
Now he led an army of starving children.
"Yo, Six," Rabbit called.
I looked behind me to see him jogging to catch up with me. My steps slowed to accommodate him.
When he reached me, his breath puffed out in small clouds of white. A voice cleared nearby and I looked up to see Dare glaring at the boy for speaking to me. I ignored her and smiled at the kid.
"Is it true you're AB neg?"
I tripped over my feet as much from the shock as the thick vine that seemed to come out of nowhere. "Who told you that?"
Rabbit jerked his head toward Dare, who was suddenly very interested in her shoes.