Blood on the Record

In the vampire underground beneath Los Angeles, pure blood is currency.

Run out of it, and you turn to ash on the spot.

I am the daughter of a vampire prince. I should have had an endless supply.

But no matter how many high-grade blood donors I fed on each month, every time I woke up, the countdown on my neck showed five minutes left to live.

To stay alive, I had to race to the black market and work like a mule.

Shining shoes, scrubbing blood vats, anything for a ration of cheap plasma. Before long I was too weak to stand the light.

And yet my fiancé Adrian stood by me the whole time, spending his tiny savings on blood packs to keep me going.

"Ivy, even if you turn into a dried-up husk every single day, you're the one for me."

I was so moved, so in love. The day he was promoted to CEO of the consortium, I went home early to surprise him.

Instead I overheard him talking with a friend.

"Adrian, you've been siphoning your fiancée's pure blood every day to feed that half-vampire Tina. Don't you ever worry she'll die?"

"Last time I saw her, the prince's own daughter was down in the sewers groveling to the Hyena gang for ages, all for one mouthful of bottom-grade plasma. Even I felt bad for her."

He only swirled the red wine in his glass without a care.

"Tina has a blood phobia. Seeing Ivy all rosy and healthy makes her panic. What else can I do?"

"I know what I'm doing. I won't let Ivy actually turn to ash."

The blood in my veins ran cold.

I turned around and called the Vampire Elder Council.

"This is Ivy. I'm reporting Adrian for stealing a massive amount of my pure blood. Under the Blood Code, that's enough to put him on the sun rack."

1

The other end of the line burst into laughter.

Enforcement officer Carl whistled and shouted to someone away from the phone.

"Hey, come look, it's the crazy lady with five minutes of blood a day. She's having another episode!"

My fingers shook, nails digging into my phone case.

"Carl, I am Prince Arthur's daughter, Ivy. Start a bloodline verification right now!"

"Verify my foot!"

Carl spat on the floor.

"Everyone in the underground knows you've got severe blood-addiction delusions."

"CEO Adrian already filed your psychiatric assessment from St. Mary's with the Council!"

"If CEO Adrian weren't kind enough to support a lowlife vat-scrubber like you, you'd have been tossed in the incinerator long ago!"

My chest heaved with rage, and a sour, coppery taste rose in my throat.

"That assessment was forged by Adrian!"

"He drains my blood every night with a shadow siphon circle. Go check his private vault!"

Carl sighed, his voice full of pity.

"Miss Ivy, enough, okay?"

"CEO Adrian took an advance on his new CEO bonus just to buy you cheap plasma to keep you alive."

"Have a little consideration for a good man who's never given up on you. Take your meds and go to bed."

The line went dead. The dial tone stung my ears.

From behind the study door came Tina's honeyed laughter.

I pressed myself into the corner by the wall and peered through the crack.

Tina was wearing my silk robe and straddling Adrian's lap.

She lifted her wrist and pushed the hologram from her smart band right in front of his eyes.

"Adrian, look at my Instagram dashboard. All my followers say I'm glowing!"

"My band says I have ten point eight billion drops of pure blood in me right now. My blood phobia is completely cured!"

"All thanks to that idiot making blood for me every day like a dumb old cow."

Adrian was holding a glass of red wine. He pushed Tina off his lap.

He pulled out a tissue and wiped the spot on his collar she had touched.

"Tina, know your place."

"I take Ivy's blood to treat your illness, not so you can show off."

"Next week Ivy and I are having our Embrace wedding at the Blood Cathedral. Don't come to the estate anymore."

Tina pouted and reached up to hook her arm around his neck.

"What does that sewer-stinking corpse have that I don't?"

Just then the encrypted phone on Adrian's desk rang.

He answered it. Carl's respectful report came through the speaker.

"CEO Adrian, Miss Ivy just called the Council to report you for blood theft. I brushed her off, as you instructed."

"She's very unstable right now and she's somewhere near the estate. Be careful."

Adrian shot to his feet. His wine glass hit the Persian rug.

He turned his head and stared straight at the closed mahogany door of the study.

Footsteps came closer and closer to the crack in the door.

There was nowhere left to run.

I lifted my foot, kicked the door open, and charged into the study.