The Cat Burglar - 6. Band of Brothers

Henri Delacour had skillfully crafted a trap, and Mother happily triggered it. Counting on her greed for glory and prestige, he provoked her, with an inconsequential issue, to launch an ill-advised attack on his clan.

With one smart move, he wiped out most of her veteran soldiers, nullified her reputation, and eliminated her as a viable competitor. In the end, he was in such a perfect position, that he could even let the survivors go instead of killing them and/or raiding the Night Clan’s compound, pretending to be generous and conciliatory.

If one cared to take a closer look though, they might have discovered the deviousness behind this scheme, but who would care to do this?

At the compound, the remaining clan members mourned the fallen, scrambling to find their bearings, while Mother put the full responsibility for the disaster on Simone. She even blamed her for Konstantin’s demotion, claiming had he been legate, he would have led them to a glorious victory. Consequently, her first action was naming Konstantin Legate once again, and Emil his second.

No one was surprised when she ordered the guards to clear out the rooms of those who didn’t come back and bring everything of value to her to fill up what had been lost of course. It showed what a truly despicable woman she was, and the mood in the house was at an all-time low.

I expected Warren to hate Mother for blaming his sire for the failed attack. Once again it became obvious what a naïve idiot I was. It took him only a couple of days before he was Mother’s new pet.

The rest of us remained in limbo as we waited for Caspian to react to the fight he had expressively forbidden. I used this time to roam the city unsupervised for once and to do something I probably shouldn’t have done. I contacted my brothers.

As I couldn’t simply wander into my old home as if nothing had happened, I needed some kind of plan.

It helped that a few days before, I sort of teleported by accident. Not like Konstantin, but when I slipped into the other plane, I came come out at another spot not far away from my entrance point, but still. This meant I could enter outside the house and emerge inside. I tested it several times in my room. Being on the other plane took a lot of energy from me, and it felt extremely wrong, which meant I couldn’t linger. One time I had an actual panic attack and barely made it back. I learned to limit my time there.

Probably out of habit, I entered the hall as if I’d used the front door. The first thing I noticed was my leather jacket still hanging on the left hook of the coat rack as if I’d never been gone. Staring at my brothers’ manifested hope for my return, a fat tear rolled down my face. I instantly forgave them for putting my picture on the damned shrine.

The kitchen was meticulously clean. Nathan’s doing, of course. I remembered a conversation we once had.

A kitchen is nothing but a special kind of lab. Imagine you leaned your elbow into a puddle of acid.

‘But that’s fucking orange juice!’

Using vulgar words doesn’t support your argument, Kavan. I know you understand exactly what I meant. Stupidity doesn’t suit you.

The den looked strangely unused. The gaming systems were neatly stacked under the TV set, the controllers in a box beside them. Carefully, I ventured upstairs. The door to my room— my former room —was closed. When I opened it, I found stale air, and an almost empty room with cardboard boxes piled against one of the walls.

I had been following them around secretly and watched their routine often enough to know that Nathan still worked for the university. Rylan quit law school and went to the police academy. Nathan usually came home late from the lab. Rylan worked the day shift at the moment, which meant he came home at about the same time.

I had decided to approach Ry first. He wouldn’t recite scientific papers about the impossibility of vampirism, but only yell at me.

He always went to his room and showered as soon as he got home. As I didn’t know for sure that no one had followed me and was listening in, I thought the bathroom would be a good spot to hide our voices and meet. How should I do this? Pop out of the shadows and say “Hi Ry” with a short wave? I still didn’t know what to do, when someone entered the house and came running upstairs. Rylan stumbled inside and fell on his knees in the shower. Without looking, he turned the tap and hot water pelted down on him. His clothes were soaked in seconds. I stared at him speechlessly. It took a while until I understood he was crying; his wailing, loud sobs muffled by the water.

I didn’t think. Instinctively, I went to him and kneeled down beside him, my hand on his shoulder. “Ry....”

At first, he only stared at me wide-eyed, then he jerked away from me. “Kavan?” Suddenly he tackled me and punched me. “Where were you, asshole? We thought you were dead!”

“I am dead.”

He didn’t react. I didn’t think he heard me over the running water. He continued punch-hugging me, and I let him. He had every right to be furious at me.

In the past, I would have never been able to get the upper hand; he’d been always stronger than me. With my new features, I easily pushed him away from me after a while and turned him onto his stomach. Holding his arms by the wrists across his back, trying not to hurt him, I switched the water off.

“I-I’ll explain everything, but you have to calm down first. Promise.” I held him down easily, even though he struggled against me. Eventually, he seemed to give in.

“I know you won’t believe a word of what I’m going to tell you now.” He grunted angrily. I tightened my grip on his wrists. “Just listen.” I turned him a little so he could see my face. Then I told him an abridged version of my story, being fully aware that he wouldn’t believe it. I didn’t lessen my hold on him until I had finished.

Rylan’s whole body was shaking. With flaring nostrils, he roared, “Bullshit! Bullshit! Nathan is dying, and you come here after more than two years, telling me some outlandish story of vampires and werewolves?”

I almost let him go. “Nathan is dying?”

“He’s in the ER right now fighting for his life.”

“What happened? An accident in the lab?”

Suddenly Rylan’s fury was gone, he slumped down on the bathroom floor. “He needs a bone marrow transplant. My blood isn’t compatible.” After a short moment, he struggled to sit up, and I allowed it. He instantly pushed me. “You need to go to the clinic a.s.a.p. and get tested.”

“That’s not possible.”

He grabbed me by my shoulders. “What do you mean, that’s not possible?”

“I just told you. I’m a vampire now.”

He visibly composed himself. “Kavan, whatever your reasons were to ghost us, they are irrelevant right now. Nathan is dying, do you get this? You need to get tested. You might be his only chance of survival.”

I looked him in the eyes. “I know you don’t believe me. Hell, if I were you I wouldn’t believe me, but I have proof.”

I could see he thought I was totally crazy. “Show me your proof.”

I lifted a hand and extended a claw. His eyes widened. Then I opened my mouth and showed him my fangs. I grabbed his fingers and put them around my teeth. “Pull.” He did and of course, they didn’t budge.

For good measure, I cut myself deeply with a claw and showed him the healing wound.

He blinked. “That’s not possible. It’s a trick.”

“No, it’s not.” Then it hit me. I was a vampire. I could transform humans—sick humans. “I can save Nathan!” I jumped to my feet. “I could turn him. A vampire doesn’t get sick.” For a short moment, I thought of Joseph, the missionary with the god complex, but this was something entirely else. This was my brother. I needed to talk to Konstantin. And Doc.

Rylan touched the light pink line on my arm that was left from the cut. “You’re crazy.”

“I need to talk my sire.”

“Kavan, I don’t know what happened to you, but you must have lost your mind.”

“No, he hasn’t.” Konstantin stepped into the glaring bathroom light in a dark suit, the handle of his sword gleaming over his shoulder, looking like the dark version of a picture book vampire, if there were any vampires in picture books that is.

Rylan squinted his eyes, lowering himself into a fighting stance. “Who are you?”

“I am Konstantin Navarro, and I am Kavan’s sire.”

Rylan looked at me. “Did you bring your entire freak circus?” Then he stepped forward, pointing his finger at the door. “Get out, immediately!” He turned to me. “Both of you.”

I felt devastated. Konstantin, however, wasn’t impressed by my brother’s reaction. In a short moment, the sleek man turned into a monster. His braids flew as he crouched low, claws and fangs extended, golden striations flickering in his dark eyes while he growled and hissed.

Wide-eyed, my brother pressed himself against the wet tiles, his hands lifted in a feeble attempt to defend himself against a furious vampire.

In the blink of a moment, the monster was gone, and Konstantin glared at Rylan. “Do you believe your brother now?”

Rylan sank to the floor with shaking limbs. He nodded weakly.

Then Konstantin turned to me. “And you. I explained extensively all the possible ramifications for you, your family, and me, and why you could never, ever contact your brothers. We’re probably already in hot water with Caspian, and you just ignore one of our cardinal rules. Why?”

I felt horrible. He was right in everything he’d said. How could I explain this to him? “I toyed with the idea for a long time. I watched them.”

“And have been warned to not contact them time and time again.”

I took his hand. “Konstantin. They are my brothers, I missed them. I wanted to wait, but it seemed to be too good an opportunity.” I squeezed his hand. “Kon, Nathan is dying.”

“I know, I listened to your conversation.”

“We are allowed to turn dying humans. Konstantin, please help me save my brother. Please.”

Konstantin pulled me forward, and our foreheads touched. “If we’re doing this, turning him, I’m not sure we will survive this, Kavan. I heard Caspian is furious about the fight, the possible exposure of our world to humans that it could entail. He won’t be in a forgiving mood if he ever has any doubts this happened according to the rules.” Then he released me; he’d come to a decision. “We need Doc for this.” He took his phone out, called Doc, and explained the situation to him. Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

After pulling down the blinds, we settled around the kitchen table.

Doc sat across from a slightly dazed Rylan. “Tell me everything you know.”

After listening intently, he took Ry’s and my hands into his, smiling warmly at us. “This can end very badly.” Then he shrugged. “Let’s do it. I have contacts at the hospital. I’ll call them immediately.”

While Doc was on the phone, Ry turned to me. “Have you been l-living in the city since you be-became a vampire?”

I knew he wouldn’t understand why I hadn’t contacted them, but I didn’t want to lie to him. “ I-er…we—”

“For once he obeyed the rules,” Konstantin grumbled.

Rylan frowned. “But Kavan—”

Konstantin smiled warily. “And then he didn’t.”

Rylan rolled his eyes. “Of course.” And for the first time, he grinned at me as if I were still his brother.

Doc came back into the room. “My friend Ana confirmed the diagnosis.” Then he caught my gaze. “Time is of the essence. Your brother won’t hold out much longer. We have to act quickly.

“Ana knows what we are planning. She agreed to have Nathan transferred to a private room, officially to die, so no one will interrupt us. She’ll tell the nursing staff that his family is on the way to say goodbye.”

We piled in Rylan’s car, and he drove to the hospital. The elevator took us to the fifth floor. Room seven was where the hospital allowed patients to die in peace and for their relatives and friends to say goodbye to them.

A nurse with a solemn expression came immediately over when he saw us entering the ward. After asking for our names, he was just about to show us to Nathan’s room when a young woman with short, dark hair in a white lab coat came from a room behind the nurses’ station. “Sebastian!” She ushered us forward into the room. After she closed the door, she whispered, “His strength is fading fast. I have everything prepared. As soon as he passes over, I will examine him and confirm his death, date, and time. For appearances, you should stay with his body for at least thirty minutes, then I will have an orderly bring him to the basement. He will put him in the refrigeration unit. I’m going to wait for you there. You still know the way?”

“Of course.”

She squeezed his arm and nodded at us. “Good luck.”

On the way to the hospital, Doc had explained that we needed a declaration of consent from Nathan before we could proceed with the conversion. Caspian was very strict with this rule. Ry and I knew it would be nearly impossible to persuade Nathan. He wouldn’t believe us, and probably would react the same as Rylan, if not worse.

Even though I felt bad, I asked, “Can’t we forge his signature?”

“Definitely not! Caspian would know, and he would kill him on the spot just to set an example.”

Konstantin immediately supported Doc. “Lying is not an option. He would know; never underestimate Caspian.”

“Shit.” But we had to try.

Nathan was in the only bed. The walls were painted in calming light green. The blinds were drawn. There weren’t any machines connected to him, apart from an ECG. A few comfortable chairs were lined up on one of the walls. This was a room meant to say goodbye, either to the world or a beloved person.

Rylan grabbed one of the chairs and set it down it beside the bed and took Nathan’s left hand in his. “Hey, Nate.”

After a while, Nathan opened his eyes and attempted a glare. “Don’t call me that.” I grinned. He still hated the shortening of his name.

Rylan waved for me to come to his side. “Look who I found.”

Hesitatingly, I walked over to them. “Hey, Nathan.”

At first, he ignored me. Then he whispered, “Kavan.”

Encouraged, I went around the bed and took his other hand. “Hey, big brother.”

His gaze found me eventually, even though he had problems with focusing. He smiled at me. “Too late, always too late.”

I fell to my knees, pressing his hand against my forehead. “Maybe not, Nathan. Maybe not.”

Rylan laid his hand on Nathan’s shoulder, making him look at him. “Nathan, listen. There’s a-a doctor.”

Our brother smiled wistfully. “Too late for another doctor, Ry.” His head sank to the side. Desperately, Rylan called out, “Doc!”

Doc came to the bed and took Nathan’s face in both of his hands. “Nathan. You have to listen to me. I can save you.”

Nathan exhaled. “I don’t think so.”

Doc closed his hands around Nathan’s face and shook him. “I can do it!”

Nathan opened his eyes and looked at him for a very short moment and hope shone in his eyes. “How?”

“By turning you into a vampire.”

Nathan looked at Doc and then he giggled. I’m sure I never heard my brother giggle in my entire life. Then he said, “Okay.”

We knew he thought we were crazy, and he didn’t believe us for one second, but Doc expertly pulled a clipboard with a single sheet of paper from his bag and a pen. “You just have to sign this paper.”

Nathan smiled broadly. “Sure.”

Doc pressed the pen into his hand, held the clipboard, and guided Nathan’s hand to the right spot. Nathan signed the fucking declaration of consent with a slightly shaky hand before the pen slipped from his grip and hit the floor.

Konstantin stepped in front of the door and guarded it. Rylan and I held Nathan’s hand while Doc bent over him, struck, and sucked. He flinched briefly when the first blood hit his tongue. After that, he drained him with large gulps.

Nathan’s heartbeat became slower and slower until it stopped entirely, and a continuous tone sounded from the ECG machine as soon as he flat-lined.

Doc wiped his mouth clean with a tissue and pushed it into his pants pocket. Konstantin stepped away from the door just in time before a nurse and Ana barged inside.

Rylan and I dropped Nathan’s hands and stepped away from the bed, so Ana could examine him.

Seeing Nathan’s pale, lifeless body was shocking. There was no guarantee he would awake. We didn’t need to pretend our devastation.

After Ana confirmed his death and logged the date and time of death, Rylan had to sign several papers. We stayed with Nathan for a while before we hurried to the car, where we waited anxiously.

Rylan looked at Konstantin. “I guess something can still go wrong?”

I already knew many things could go wrong during the change, but I trusted Doc.

“I don’t want to lie to you, Rylan. There are several things that could go wrong, but I can assure you, your brother is in the best possible hands.

Rylan asked, “Won’t they miss his body?”

“Ana took care of it. She will replace him with a John Doe’s body waiting to be cremated.”

“I hope no one will notice it.” Rylan squinted into the darkness, trying to detect people lurking about.

I whispered to Konstantin in a very low voice, so Ry couldn’t hear us. ”Who is this Ana person? Can we trust her?”

“She is a very old friend of Doc’s.”

“Very old?”

“She’s a witch.” I gulped. It was good Ry couldn’t hear us talking.

We sat in silence until Konstantin’s phone rang. “Doc.” He listened briefly. “Okay, we’ll be over shortly.” “Did it work?” I blurted.

Konstantin put his phone away. “Everything went well. Nathan is semi-conscious. Ana and Doc put him into a wheelchair. We have to drive to the back parking lot.” He looked at Ry. “Do you know where it is?”

“Yes, yes.”

I put my hand on my brother’s arm. “Slow down, Ry. We don’t want to call anyone’s attention.” From then on, he drove at a moderate speed around the hospital to the back lot. Doc and Ana were already waiting for us. Konstantin opened the door, I got out of the car, and Doc and I maneuvered Nathan into the back seat of the car and slipped in beside him, and adjusted the seat belt around him.

Konstantin opened the driver’s door. “We need to borrow your car, Rylan.” He moved for him to get out of the car. “We’ll drop you off at your house before we drive home. Doc needs Nathan in his lab so he can hook him up with a blood transfusion.”

Rylan turned in his seat. “I’ve made a decision. I want to become a vampire.”

I looked at Konstantin and Doc. Finally, Konstantin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “That’s not possible.”

I wanted to argue, but he lifted his hand and stopped me. “It’s not your decision to make, Rylan.”

“I’ll sign the letter of consent right here, right now.”

I looked pleadingly at Doc, but he shook his head. “We explained the rules, Rylan. Kavan isn’t allowed to contact you by any means. We’re already walking on a narrow path here. We have to think of an airtight explanation for why I turned Nathan, or Caspian will have us all killed.”

“But Konstantin said all you need is my consent.”

“If you were a donor, for example, and had known of our existence before—”

“—and weren’t Kavan’s brother,” Konstantin added.

“I won’t accept this. My brothers are all I have left. My mother has been murdered, my father pissed off to wherever. I can’t...” he whispered in a small voice. “Please don’t force me to live without them.”

Pain ripped through my body, my throat closed up. “Konstantin....”

“I’m sorry, my childe. If we change him, we’d put you and Nathan in grave danger, it’s not possible.”

We drove Rylan back home silently.

Before I could say goodbye, the door of the car slammed closed. Then Rylan turned to us, tears running down his face. “I don’t want this life anymore. It has lost its worth.”

“What does he mean?” I whispered. Konstantin and Doc didn’t answer my question.

Emil made sure no one in the house noticed us when we brought Nathan to Doc’s baby vamp ward, where he set him up with a blood transfusion. He had filled several bags in advance.

While Nathan was lying sedated in Doc’s ward, and I watched the slowly emptying blood bag, I couldn’t forget Rylan’s words.

A day later, we were in Doc’s lab with the flow bench on maximum. “He’s going to kill himself. I know that.”

Doc and Konstantin looked at each other. “He was shocked. Maybe he’ll calm down again.” Doc didn’t sound exactly confident though.

Then I had an idea. “What about suicide?”

“What do you mean? We already said he might calm down soon.” Konstantin frowned.

“No, not that! The rules of not contacting family exist to avoid exposing our world. But when Rylan commits suicide and we turn him, there’s no risk of revealing our world.”

Konstantin shook his head. “No, it would be too suspicious, too many coincidences. And we’d need a sire. Whom could we ask to take such a great risk?”

Doc interrupted him. “Kavan could be Rylan’s sire, if you’d help him.”

“You think we should do this?”

“We still have to be careful. Nathan’s death is well-documented. He died of a terminal illness, and no one will question it. The police assume Kavan was murdered by a drug-dealing biker gang, but his body has never been found, officially he’s still a missing person. Considering that his mother was murdered, and his father disappeared somewhere in Asia, it’s undisputable that tragedy struck his family heavily, maybe too much. It could raise some flags among humans and vampires to take a closer look, but he has plausible reasons to seek suicide. This needs careful planning, though, one wrong step, and our second life is over.”

After a short moment, Konstantin reluctantly nodded. “Okay. But we have to wait.”

When I tried to argue, he lifted his hands to placate me. “At least until after the funeral. Burying his brother will bring it home to Rylan that he’s alone now. Devastation will overwhelm him.”

I got my phone out. “I’ll call him.”

Konstantin grabbed my phone. “No! You won’t go anywhere near him. I’ll explain everything to him.”

Doc looked at me. “How would he do it?”

“Something public, maybe caught by one of the numerous cameras in the city.”

Doc tapped his finger against his lips thoughtfully. “It can’t be anything that destroys his body too much, like a train accident.” I flinched. No way Rylan was throwing himself in front of a train.

“It’s always strenuous if the new vampire has to heal large portions of their body. The conversion could fail.”

“Would you stop it? Ry won’t squish his body! Jesus.”

Konstantin leaned back in his chair. “He’ll jump from the Castle Bridge. There are multiple cameras installed as it’s popular for suicides.” He raised his eyebrows in question. Doc and I nodded.

“Will he be turned before or after he jumps? Before would be safer.” I looked at Doc.

“No, a vampire would detect he wasn’t human when he jumped, should they ever see the video.”

It wasn’t difficult for Rylan to act distraught. He was so anxious and distracted about the new ‘life’ that awaited him, that his boss sent him home for a few days.

One night, he trudged along the sidewalk of the bridge, making sure several cameras caught him. Then he stopped and watched the river, tears running down his face. Then he climbed onto the railing of Castle Bridge. We had talked about the best place to jump. Konstantin and I waited for him on the trellises.

I would have given him an Oscar for his acting performance. First, he balanced on the small metal frame and looked down. By then, the cameras near him must have filmed him, and the police should be on the way. He sobbed, rubbed his eyes, yelled at the sky, then he slipped and barely caught himself again. When sirens could be heard in the distance, he looked down once more and jumped. Konstantin caught him before he could fall the entire way down. I quickly pulled off a shoe and slung it to the river bank; with luck the police would find it.

Then Konstantin cursed. Rylan had hit his head when he jumped and was bleeding heavily. “He’s unconscious; the wound looks serious. Kavan, you have to turn him now.”

I was shocked. I thought we’d do this at home or in the car, and suddenly I had to make my brother a vampire.

Konstantin rubbed my arm. “But first, hide us.”

He led me through the procedure with a calm voice. Konstantin had explained to me what I had to do so many times one could have woken me in the middle of the night erm...day, and I would have been able to recite his lectures by heart.

When I first tasted Ry’s blood it tasted weird, but oh so good. With Konstantin hovering close by, I drained Ry until his heart stopped beating. I lifted his head, opened his mouth, slashed my wrists with my teeth, and filled his mouth with my blood. The first moments were agonizing. Would he swallow? Would he wake? Would he come back to us? Suddenly, he opened his mouth wide and gasped. His eyes were still closed. When he opened them, the brown was tinged with red. When it was done, we had to hurry. Konstantin sedated him by injecting the contents of a syringe Doc had given him. Sometimes a new vampire struggled because of the pain of the change. We climbed slowly down the bridge. Emil waited for us and drove us home.

The next day my brother had made the headlines.

POLICE OFFICER JUMPED FROM CASTLE BRIDGE

We brought Rylan directly to Doc’s lab. Not many clan members ventured there, unless they had turned a human. Doc was always grumpy when someone distracted him from his work. Mother hadn’t been seen there since I was turned.

I had donated several bags of blood over the last couple of weeks in preparation for Ry’s turning.

Doc immediately hooked him up to an IV. My blood, laced with a sedative suitable for vampires, filled Ry’s veins.