Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4)

Natalia grabbed the gift and returned to Uris office. He was back to reading his book as if he had no interest in her reaction

“This wasn't in there yesterday,” she said. “I went over the whole car.”

“Then it must not have been in there yesterday,” he said, turning a page.

She peeled off the wrapping to reveal another plain brown box. It was about nine inches long and four inches wide.

"Why didn't you give it to me yesterday?”

“I didn't have it yesterday.”

She opened the box. Nestled in a tan glove was a knife.

“Don’t touch them. Put on the glove,” Uri said

He hadn't even looked up from his reading, but acted as if he knew exactly what she was going to do.

“Them?”

She gently pulled out the glove and the one knife seemed to splinter apart into many knives. There was just the one glove. She slid it onto her right hand. The fit was snug. The color seemed to melt into her skin. It was hard to detect even by her.

"Oh... my... word,” she said while she stared and realized what she was staring at. “This is a set of throwing knives.”

She picked up one of the knives. It was so thin it could almost disappear when viewed from an edge.

“It looks like one knife was sliced into many slivers,” she said.

"We'll do special lessons on how to throw them,” he said, rising from his seat. “These are very expensive. You'll have to earn the right to wear them.”

“Wear them?"

“I'm always wearing my knives.”

"How many are here?”

She carefully put the one back and fingered through them.

“Twelve,” he said.

“Ten, eleven... twelve,” she said, verifying the count.

“Leave them here in my office. The glove you can keep in your purse.”

"Okay."

"One more thing...”

"Yes?"

“No one knows you have those. Don't tell anyone.”

"Okay. I won't tell anyone.”

She was used to keeping secrets with him.

Natalia found she had to sit down while she stared at the knives.

“I never thought I would get a set of these,” she said in awe.

“You're doing well. With two kills under your belt, you almost earned them.”

He leaned over and brushed her cheek with his.

“How did you get them without anyone knowing? I thought... You weren't even able to get my necklace that has the hidden knife without the Council knowing.”

“I didn't order them. I was given them to give to you as a gift.”

“By whom?”

“That will remain a secret for a while,” he said with a smiled. “I'm glad you like them.”

“I'm speechless.”

He took the box from her and closed the lid. She thought he would put them in a desk drawer, but she heard the dial and knew there was a small safe built into his desk.

She took the glove off and put it in a pocket.

“Tomorrow, let's take a drive in your car,” he said. “You can drive.”

“Me? But I don't have my license yet.”

"You have the learners permit license don't you?”

“I-I can drive with that?”

“As long as I'm with you or some other licensed driver. But for now, only if I'm with you.”

Natalia smiled big.

"How am I going to sleep tonight?”

Mag stepped in. She didn't look happy.

“We're not getting a shipment.”

Uri rose from his desk with a frown.

"Why not?” he said.

“There's none to be had,” she said, throwing up her hands.

She spun on her heels and left.

"Sanguine tea?” Natalia said.

Uri nodded while he tapped his phone and put it on speaker.

"Morals, what's up with the sanguine tea supply?”

“You're not the first one to call me. I've been dealing with this for days. We had a month of surplus to handle this sort of situation. We're finding the kegs empty.”

“Empty?”

“Someone's drained them. The worst though is that the supply of cow blood has dried up. Our supplier from the stockyards said they can sell it for a higher price elsewhere. They're not talking to us anymore, so we don't know to who or for what price.”

“Does the Council know?”

“Yes, they're all aware and say their working on it. Q five. Tea stocks are non-existent,” Morals said. "Okay. We'll get by. We have no choice.”

“Later.”

The call ended.

Natalia looked at him.

“What was..."

“Later,” he said with raised eyebrows.

She knew his tone and didn't ask any other questions. However, she knew Moralis had said something in code, but she didn't know was “Q five’ meant.

At dinner, there was no sanguine tea.

"Am I going to go into withdrawal?” she said.

“No, but you might feel like you have the flu after a few days. Even at two months, Victoria is giving off some toxins that your body isn't used to.”

Mag passed through from the kitchen heading to the front door. Natalia could tell she opened it before the person at the door had a chance to ring the bell.

Natalia only heard low whispered words, so she knew it was a Viperian. The door closed, and Mag came back carrying a gallon jug of black liquid.

“Sherri sent this,” Mag said.

"Sanguine tea?” Natalia said.

"Yes. It will get us through the rest of the week.”

Uri motioned Mag over to him. He took the jug and removed the cap. He took a sniff.

“Sanguine tea,” he said, then he poured some in a glass for Natalia. “We'll have to send our thanks.” "With her baby born, she doesn't need any,” Mag said.

Uri handed her back the jug, and she left.

“That was nice of her,” Natalia said.

He frowned.

“She's playing games,” he said.

Despite Uri kept saying Sherri was bad, Natalia wasn't seeing it. Sherri had always shown her kindness, rescued her friend Lisa from the Church, and now the giving of needed sanguine tea. However, she had seen how scheming Sherri was.

That night, Uri listened to Victoria's heart beat, then said goodnight to her in Viperian

"You can practice with her,’ Uri said, speaking Viperian.

“I love that I can hear the words. The language is almost like listening to music with words."

He cuddled up to her. She fell asleep fast, but it felt like only a short time later that she felt him rise. He didn’t head to the bathroom. She checked the clock. It was three am. She rose and headed to the secret quiet room in the closet. He was waiting for her and pulled her in, so he could shut the door.

Natalia waited without a word. A few moments later his phone lit up.

“Uri and Nattie here,” he said.

“Moralis here.”

“Grazie here.”

There was the sound of him yawning.

“You getting any sleep, Graz?" Moralis said.

“Don't ask,” Grazie said.

"What are you finding, Moralis?” Uri said.

“The info we're getting is that big tankers are hauling out the blood. They're heading out of A'ppollo. We followed them to a processing plant that's making it into a blood meal. A pig feed. But the feed is then getting loaded onto ships and heading overseas.”

“That should be a red flag,” Uri said. “The economics doesn't sound right.”

“You don't have to be an economist to see this. We can import blood meal from other sources pretty cheap. Almost as cheap as what we were buy the blood for,” Morals said.

"Someone figured out we're in need of that blood? So they're striking us where it hurts?” Grazie said.

"You're not going to wipe us out by eliminating sanguine tea. We can make it out of just about any blood byproduct, but cow's blood is the best,” Moralis said. “I mean, we could even buy that blood meal and make sanguine tea. It removes a step in our own processing.”

“Well?” Uri said.

"We're having a group contact that factory about buying their product. We'll know more in a few days.”

“By the way, Sherri sent us a gallon of sanguine tea,” Uri said.

“I'm aware of that,” Grazie said. “That was her hand.”

“So what do we do in the meantime?” Uri said.

“We never rely on more than one source, but at the moment, it greatly limits production. I actually created the shortage. On paper that is. When I got wind of our blood supply dwindling, I started under reporting our supply. I'm suspecting other forces are at work here rather than some incidental market change.”

“So?” Uri said.

"We'll manage to “magically’ scrape some up for all the households with pregnancies. Because we're suspecting there may be some sabotage activity, we've opened a new plant.”

“Dare I ask where?" Uri said.

“No,” Morals said. “That is on a need-to-know basis. Don’t worry about Nattie, we have her covered. Make due with the gallon you have, and you'll get more in your secured area at the bank.” “Thanks, Moralis. Anything else?”

“No, that's it. How's the Sherri household, Grazie?”

“It's a bitch,” he said. “Which is probably the real reason her house in a man-free zone. They all escaped.”

Uri chuckled. Natalia almost laughed as well, visualizing Grazie as the only man in a house of women. She could almost hear the chaos.

“Night,” Moralis said and the call ended.

Uri took her hand and led her back to bed.

The next morning, Natalia enjoyed her cup of sanguine tea. She really wanted more, but Mag was being careful with rationing.

“You'll get more during the week,” Uri said in a quiet voice.

“So when do I get to drive? And where are we going? Anywhere particular? Or just around the city?” Uri smiled.

Natalia noted the teasing stance.

“Don’t mess with a woman who's a little low on sanguine tea,” she said in a fake evil voice.

He chuckled.

"Grazie wants us to come over. We'll head out about ten. Give his new household some time to get up and settled.”

“I can imagine with the new baby that their schedules and routines are disrupted,” she said.

“Every new house member disrupts schedules and routines,” he said with a sly grin while he stared at her.

“I disrupted your routine?” she said, pretending to look innocent.

“No more carefree days of parties or running amok,” he said.

She laughed.

“I think you still run amok.”

He picked up his tea mug.

“Not as much as I used to,” he said in a whisper.

He sipped his tea.

“Well, homework, as usual. Get me when you're ready,” she said rising.

While she had been feeling anxious with the addition of driving school and all her homework, she found that she was almost finished with one class.

“These are supposed to be semester long classes. Yeah, I'm doing okay,” she said to herself when she settled into her office.

It was getting close to ten when she found she needed to take a break. She used the bathroom and checked that her mark was covered. Her jeans were getting tight even though Mag had bought some stretchy ones for her.

"Victoria, you're growing way too fast,” she said, checking her profile in the mirror. “I shouldn't be showing at two months, and I already have a pooch. Are you sure there's only one of you in there?” Her ears picked up strained voices

She trotted down the stairs. Mag was in Uris office.

"Decide which side you're on,” she heard Uri say.

His voice was terse and demanding.

Mag left the office, retreating to the kitchen. She didn't look happy.

Natalia stepped into Uri's office.

“What's happening?”

“You ready to go?” he said as if Mag hadn't been there.

“Yes,” she said, deciding she would press the issue once they were out of the house.

He shut the door to his office when they left. She grabbed her keys from the hook in the garage. “Be sure to open the garage door before you hit it,” Uri said when she slid into the driver's seat. She rolled her eyes already feeling anxious and excited at the same time.

“I know I have to open the garage door first.”

She tapped the garage door opener that was clipped to the visor.

“It's part of my checklist in my head,” she said, fibbing a little.

She had to adjust mirrors and the seat because Uri had last driven the car.

“You've never backed out of a garage, so careful on your sides,” he said.

She started the car and put it in gear, then realized she had put it in forward, but her foot was still on the brake. She put it in reverse and carefully backed out, checking her mirrors almost every foot. “Excellent,” he said.

Natalia eased the car out of the laneway and onto the street. She felt a thrill driving her own car. “This is a nicer drive than the training cars,” she said. “Better ride.”

“Should be. This is an expensive car,” he said.

“You didn't use our... ah... safe money did you?”

He chuckled.

“No. That's for emergencies.”

“So what's up with Mag?”

“You can speed up a little.”

She was hardly driving fifteen miles an hour. The speed limit of thirty felt too fast to her. She kept her eye on the speedometer.

“The Council is putting pressure on her and the others to keep watch on me... and you.”

“First, I thought everyone watched us. Second, I thought family always protected family.”

“Her alliance needs to be with family, but there is some strain because of the pressures from the Council. Unfortunately, the law can override family alliances. I told her she needed to choose a side and stick with it. I needed to know where she stands.”

“Okay. And if she says she'll be true to you, do you trust her? You already told me we should trust no one."

Natalia navigated a turn to head toward Viperia.

“We are in difficult times,” he said. “We should continue to trust no one. And I mean no one.” “Not even your father or Moralis?”

“Everyone must be handled with care,” he said. “There's a check point in our way, so take a left up here. I'll show you another route.”

Natalia had been listening to the car, but it was telling her to take a right. She took the left that Uri suggested. When she made a stop at a stop sign, a police car passed through the intersection. It soon disappeared.

“Go up to the corner and take a right.”

She followed his instructions.

“Sometimes, I wouldn't even trust the car,” he said. “Look right.”

She looked to find that the barricades of a check point at the end of the street.

“That's the way the car was directing you. The check point isn't where the car said it was.”

“I better know more ways than one to get to Viperia then,” she said.

“Exactly. This way actually passes in front of a police station. They never have a check point around a police station.”

A few moments later, she saw the police station.

“Keep going this way until you hit the Strip, but then take a left. They never put a check point on that road either.”

“I'm getting the picture of where I am,” she said, recognizing the alley where she had left her clothes on the day she had escaped her parents.

She had never gone back to retrieve them and had no desire to even go look.

"You ever get anyone else off the Strip?” she said.

She took the turn onto the Strip. Even though it was a Sunday, sex workers were already out. There seemed to be a steady stream of traffic heading to the Strip.

“You mean for me for sex?”

Yes”

“No. Just you.”

“You had sex before me. Where did you get it?"

He chuckled.

“Not from an Undent on the Strip. I had plenty of Viperian women to choose from.”

She took the next turn, heading toward the gates to Viperia.

“Take a right down at the corner. Let's use another set of gates,” He said

"Okay."

She took the turn.

"How many gates into Viperia are there?”

"Seven."

“I've only been through, what? Three?”

"Yes, three. The seventh was newly created to solve the issue we had with delivery drivers going into Viperia that were scared. We built a receiving dock. Everything into Viperia now goes through there. While it does create a little more work, it solved both the issue of security with what is coming into Viperia and the driver issue.”

Natalia saw the constructions signs and the metal gates that tended to represent the gates into Viperia.

“This one?”

“Yes,” he said.

She made the turn and stopped before the gates, then rolled down the window.

“Open,’ she said in Viperian.

The gates swung inward and she drove through.

“This actually puts us closer to Sherri's neighborhood,” he said

Natalia recognized the street names.

“Take a right, a left, a right, another right, and we're there,” she said.

“You got it,” he said.

Natalia liked that he wasn't constantly telling her what to do, but let her drive and correct herself when she found herself going too fast or too slow. The instructor, Barb, was always telling them what to do or not to do. It was nice just to be able to drive and not have to pay attention to both the road and to what someone was saying.

She pulled up to Sherri's house and parked.