Garrett, stuck inside because of the coming dark, was bored out of his mind. He’d taken to an exercise routine as a way to kill some of the time he had on his hands. After stretching, the dhampir would use the five floors of the Barracks as his track. He began on the ground floor, running the considerable length of the hall, going up two flights of stairs and repeating. At that level he would go down a flight, traverse the hall. Taking steps two at a time he would run up two, across, up one more and then all the way to the bottom to start over again. And while he could have used his impressive half-breed speed, he forced himself to run as a normal human would. He found that the choppier, slower steps actually gave him more of a workout than running at full speed through the halls and up the stairs.

When he first started this regime, he simply had to dodge the few humans standing about in the halls and on the stairs, and any trash or furniture left lying about. Each time he did it however, more of a crowd of the humans gathered along his path to watch. They seemed either perplexed or entertained by this constant concern with endurance.

He could see their point. What was the use of staying healthy if it only made them a more desirable meal to the vampires who ruled their lives?

When Garrett had finished with his run for the night he moved down into the basement level. In his wanderings, he had found what at one point had been a walk-in cooler complete with hanging racks for sides of beef and such. It was empty now, but for a few moldering bags of what had been dry beans. Over the course of a couple of days he had cleaned it out and swept the floor. It had come in handy many days, for a variety of exercises.

He stepped into the room and swung the door shut behind him, as much to keep his audience to a minimum as to keep the temperature low. Workouts in a cooler environment were easier for him than those conducted in the heat.

Using little effort, Garrett hopped up, catching the middle most hanging bar. The momentum of his jump carried his feet forward, and he drew his knees up, pulling his feet between the bar and his head. The dhampir wrapped his ankles around the supports for his impromptu pull up bar.

The next ten minutes were spent doing inverted sit ups. His chest and abdomen burned from fighting against gravity for so long through the exercise. Despite such discomfort, he pushed himself further, determined not to fall into the poor shape he had been in when restricted to the Cathedral.

He was into his seventh set when the door slammed shut. Garrett pulled up snatching at the bar and peering around his right thigh to see his visitor. His heart stopped cold.

A vampire stood just inside the door.

“So you’re the lil’ shit tha’s supposed to oust Meirakat, eh?” His accent was heavy, and unidentifiable.

Dark hair fell in uneven locks around a square face. That face was the smooth angelic look that legendary vampires were noted for. Like Garrett, the man’s eyes were green. Combined with the shade of his skin and hair, such a color made him look wild and animalistic.

Garrett extricated himself from the exercise bar in short order, sure that he’d been found out and was about to be assassinated. He hit the ground in a defensive crouch, calling a spell close to cuff.

“Le’s see what you can do, ya lil’ dhampir faggot.”

And yet the vampire didn’t rush him. His claws were still sheathed and through the grinning lips, Garrett could see that his teeth were still retracted. That was the only thing that kept Garrett from striking first.

“You Mikael?”

“Ya’ figured tha out on yer own didja?” Nothing in his expression turned friendly. “Persona’ly, I got no faith in you pulling this lil’ coup off. From wha’ Lorna’s tole me, I’m nah impressed.”

“What do you want then?”

“I’m here ta’ be practiced on. Lorna’s indisposed at the mo, so it falls ta me to prep ya for the big show. Show me yer na what ya really are.” The vampire took a step forward when Garrett did nothing. “Whattar ya waitin’ fer. Impress me!”

Garrett drew himself up, trying to get his stalled mind to pull up the spell he had wanted to try next. Mikael lost patience, clearing the space between them, backhanding him. Garrett stumbled sideways into the wall.

“Ya better think faster on yer feet than that. Ye do that in court and they’ll do this an’ worse to ya! Get up!” Once more, when Garrett didn’t respond in Mikael’s desired time, Mikael descended on him. This time the vampire lifted him roughly to his feet.

“Get off me!” Garrett snarled, hitting the vampire in the gut with a defensive spell that knocked his assailant back ten feet.

Mikael was forced to pick himself off the ground just before the door. He was laughing as he straightened. “So ya do have yer own set of claws then. Good…Le’s try that again. Disguise yer aura, dhampir.”

Defenses were slow to kick in but the incantation finally came to his lips. Sounding as if he was swearing, he spit the words that would serve him in this moment.

Power welled; energy sucked from the air around him as he manipulated it to do his bidding.

On one level Garrett could feel the strain of such a strange and powerful spell. He willed himself to stay cognizant of his surrounding as Mikael circled. Garrett pivoted to keep the vampire at his front, feeling sweat bead up and then run down his exposed skin.

“Not good enough, dhampir. I can still tell wha’ ya are. Are ya really tryin’ at this or have ya gotten by on yer good looks this whole time?”

“Bastard,” Garrett panted.

“Ah, so I am. Been talkin’ to me mum have ya? Doesn’t change facts, however. Hide your aura!”

Despite knowing the consequences, Garrett was goaded by pride and a wounded ego to try what Mikael was ordering of him.

Without letting the first spell slip, Garrett began a second more intricate incantation. This was the hardest spell he’d come across in the Carcarium. It was, from what he understood of it, a shape shifter’s spell. Like Demon Summoning, shape shifting was something that he had never mastered. There wasn’t the same stigma attached to the later, and he’d accomplished it a time or two, but his efforts had geared more towards force spells, fire taming, and other more war oriented talents in his repertoire. They were never spells like this, and never aimed at himself. Changing others was simpler than changing one’s self and Garrett knew it.

He doubted his, or the spell’s, ability to alter the part of him that was dhampir. Yet he had to try it. It was the last thing he’d come up with in order meet his goal of getting into the vampire court and close to Mierakat. If this failed he might as well go back to Denver, there’d be no use in him staying.

The power intertwined with the previous spell, absorbing energy already spent to feed itself. He could feel his entire body tingle, but couldn’t be sure whether it was an effect of the spell or that he was about to suffer a major coronary.

Garrett was only able to hold the spell for about ten seconds. That was enough time however, to note Mikael’s face light up with glee. “Now there’s a glimmer for ya!”

The dhampir didn’t remember hitting the deck, but when consciousness graced him once more, hands were lifting him up off the rough stones.

“Mikael, I said ‘test him’ not ‘kill him’.” Blaine’s angry voice boomed in his left ear.

Stupidly, Garrett raised a hand to his mouth, concerned with the taste of blood on his tongue. He found a sticky morass dripping off of his chin. It covered his upper and lower lips and chin, and he found it originated from his nose – a sure sign that he had pushed himself way too hard on that spell. Lesser witches trying spells outside their league had suffered aneurisms and died. One of the advantages of him being a dhampir was that he could take a lot more abuse, and therefore be less susceptible to such a bleed out. That didn’t make him feel any better at the moment however.

“Do it again!” Mikael demanded, seeing Garrett conscious.

“Leave him be, Mikael,” Blaine snapped. The human lowered himself into Garrett’s vision. “You’ll have to forgive Mikael, he’s from the school of hard knocks. He thinks every lesson has to be a beating.”

“It’s the only way he’ll be able to pass for human in the timeframe we need!”

“Wh…what’s he …talking about?” Garrett muttered, not so out of it to miss the fear in the young vampire’s voice.

“There’s rumbling of a coup aimed at Lord Klueger.” He saw Blaine glance up at Mikael with a sharp expression. “Coup rumors are popular fodder in the court, sensationalism from minds bored by centuries of long life. About eighty-five percent of them can be immediately discounted. They’re gossip – nothing more. Mikael is a bit of an alarmist.”

“I only saw what happened to your former house, Blaine.” He sniffed. “Ye should be putting more weight into this rumor than I.”

“But I don’t!” Blaine snarled. “Klueger is too petty a lord to be deemed worthy of a takeover. No vampire in the court wants the crumbling house and the dusty barracks added to their properties! Stop being paranoid!” Garrett noted that the human was giving orders and admonishment to a vampire. On some level he wondered over that. The only explanation that he could think of was that Blaine held higher station than Mikael before his turning, and the vampire was still influenced by that status. Another vampire with more time in his skin would simply bleed the life from such an upstart and be done with him.

Blaine returned his attention to Garrett. “You gonna stop bleeding sometime tonight?”

Garrett wiped an arm across his lips, trying to nod at the same time.

“C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up.” Blaine looked once more to Mikael. “So did you actually get some benefit out of that – I mean, besides a little sadistic pleasure?”

Mikael nodded. “The las’ spell was the one.” The vampire regarded Garrett critically a moment later. “You gonna be able ta get up to speed on it?”

“First…time’s…always the hardest.” Garrett sucked a labored breath. “Give me two weeks minimum and I’ll be able to use it and sustain it.”

“So you say.”

Garrett managed a grin. “I know my abilities – my learning curve – better than any of you. Two weeks and come back to retest me.”

“Well I dunno if ah’ll be allowed tha’ pleasure. The lord and his cronies r’ becoming suspicious about his two newest members concentrating so much of thar waking hours on the barracks.”

“When you can, then.” Garrett growled. “I’m not going anywhere until I get my shot at Meirakat.”

“Ye’re either very brave or very stupid, lil’ dhampir.”

“Yeah, well…you’re not the first to tell me that.”

******

Two weeks came and passed, then a month, and then six weeks. Even Blaine seemed to be out of Garrett’s reach for much of that time. Garrett returned to his workout routine, interspersing it with rounds of practicing the shape-shifting spell. Mostly he shifted his form to human, but now and again he would go the opposite direction and shape shift into a full-blooded vampire. He spooked the hell out of Blaine one night. Garrett hadn’t realized there were inherent appearance changes that went along with the shift.

After Blaine had noted it, Garrett had to know for himself what his appearance looked like in the alternate form. He was shocked with how much he didn’t look like himself. His already pale skin had become nearly translucent white, his freckles disappearing all together. His hair turned the color of copper, two to three shades darker than his normal appearance. His eyes became a harder shade of green, resembling the predatory gaze of Mikael.

His stance and frame remained the same however, and he did not gain any vampiric abilities or weaknesses when under the spell’s influence – just as he didn’t lose his dhampir abilities if he transformed himself into a pure human.

Blaine looked deeply shaken by the stunt Garrett had pulled. “Don’t try to use the vampiric cover in the Court or even this House. They know everyone who has been turned within the walls. Unless one of the lords of House claims you as their Second, you will be summarily dispatched, or at the very least run out of the city.”

“What, they don’t like visitors?”

“No.” Blaine’s eyes were hard. “Vampires are highly possessive of what they have, and outsiders are automatically assumed to be out to take a house for their own, to challenge the Lord’s right to rule. They’ll kill to keep their positions.”

“But it’s okay for those within the court to depredate each others’ houses?”

Blaine grinned. “They like to keep it within the family.”

But that had been a week ago. Since, Blaine had been called away for days on end to the court, and it was obvious something big was going on. So long as the vampires didn’t storm the barracks and drag him out by what little hair he had, Garrett refused to assume that his presence was known of.

Though he’d been practicing his spell for nearly two months he was still only up to several hours of solid spell casting regarding his shape shifting. That was not going to do at all. He needed to be able to hold the spell long enough to get through a typical night surrounded by vampires. If he slipped even once at the wrong moment they would discover him.

The transformation spell had the advantage that he didn’t have to wait until the vampire’s returned to see if it was working. With the physical changes apparent he could judge his own ability to hold the spell throughout a given day. It was still taxing, and he couldn’t yet perform the spell for days running.

Once again, he calculated what it would take to be able to do it every day for eight to twelve hours a day, and realized that he would have to employ more patience than he’d ever known in order to make his plot come off. At his current rate of improvement it would take three years of constant practice before he could make an appearance to the house of Klueger. And it could take years more to get in Klueger’s good graces and be included in the party attending court.

Such a predicament. He often had to fight a southward slide in his own attitude about the possible wait before he could enact his revenge. Then again – he’d waited so long already, what was five years more?

He was startled out of his chasing thoughts by the sound of the front door slamming shut. The dhampir didn’t get up; didn’t go to investigate. He knew already that such stormy entrances were Blaine’s signature to arrival.

The human stormed into the kitchen without looking about, snatching a loaf of bread from a small basket on the counter. In an animalistic gesture Blaine bit into the loaf and tore off a large chunk before ever turning to take in the room. He paused in his chewing as he noticed Garrett sitting there.

Blaine gravitated towards the table where Garrett sat, chewing and swallowing the previous bite. He managed to get the chunk down as he lit in the seat across from the dhampir.

“You’re still up.”

“I don’t sleep much.” Garrett shrugged.

“How’re things coming?”

“A little slower than I like.”

He relayed his progress and gave the human a run down on how long he’d calculated it would take him to get where he needed to be.

“You may not have that long.” Blaine announced. “Your exercise program has the rest of the population in a buzz.”

“You said none would talk!” Garrett’s gut dropped.

“And normally I would have been right. But, another of the new humans who has been in rotation for the feedings has been talking to his host – jealous little shit. Word made it back to Kleuger. I’m under pressure to explain how a human I ‘purchased’ was not brought before the house for inspection and appraisal.”

“You sure your vampire pals didn’t spill something?” Garrett’s suspicions flared immediately.

“Lorna and Mikael are both loyal to me.”

“To you?” Garrett scoffed. “They’re vampires, and you’re a human slave. Where do you think they’re going to place their trust?” He didn’t give Blaine time to put together an answer. “I’ll tell you where, with the hand that feeds them and gives them shelter.”

Blaine’s craggy face darkened considerably. “Don’t presume to think you know my friends, dhampir. I told you before, I trust them a hell of a lot more than I trust you.”

“Why? That Amazon piece of ass got you wearing rose colored glasses?”

“Fuck you, Garrett, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I?”

“No, you don’t.” Amazingly Blaine seemed to calm rather than get angrier. “I don’t expect you to understand, anyway. You’re here for a job, and I’m trying to tell you that unexpected factors are about to make it a lot more difficult.”

“I’m not going to get nervous over a rumor.” Garrett raised a brow. He was quickly back on the heels of the previous subject. “So what exactly is Lorna to you anyway? Seems a bit more than – casual, from what I’ve seen.”

“She was Klueger’s favorite when I was bought and brought over here.” Blaine tore off a small bite of the loaf and popped it in his mouth. Around the bite he said, “She was in charge of the barracks then. Lorna was at a serious disadvantage, because though Lord Klueger loved the taste of her flesh; her blood, he didn’t trust enough to allow her to get what she needed to keep the rest of his stable healthy.”

“Which is why she wanted to retake the barracks custody after she was turned.”

“Exactly.” He shrugged. “I was just another mouth to feed, another one to watch wither to skin and bones over the course of the years until the vampires would no longer want me. We got along like oil and water when I got here. I didn’t help matters, of course, having come from a position of such privilege with my previous house.”

“So what changed?”

“It just…changed.” Blaine wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Seemed like – one day we were getting on each other’s nerves and the next we were sharing the same bed. I can’t exactly pinpoint when our opinion of each other changed so drastically.”

The grin he afforded Garrett was embarrassed, that emotion didn’t linger long as the expression soured again. “Klueger is known for being self-conscious and suspicious. Somehow he found out about Lorna and me. Lorna says he could see it in her poise around him – after we became lovers.”

“Not married?”

“Slaves don’t marry, they breed. We’re not allowed to commit that way – we’re conditioned against committing that way.”

Blaine looked the most unsteady that Garrett had seen him since arriving here.

“The official word is that Lorna’s turning was an accident. The timing of it says otherwise. He got jealous that his favorite had eyes for another. Her turning was no accident – Kleuger turned her to get her away from me. That’s why she is so restricted about returning here. He doesn’t want us together.”

“Is this just your suspicion?”

“I don’t make unfounded accusations, Garrett. It’s not in my nature to play at such subterfuge. Lorna told me. I believe her when she says she could feel his second set of fangs slide past her skin.” He let out a frustrated breath. “Besides, accidental turnings often don’t happen the day a human is infected. The viral count is low and it takes time for it to build numbers enough to start the transformation. Mikael – yes – his was an accident, and his Burning Blood happened here at the barracks – four days after he was fed from. He killed three, including his only child, before we were able to report it.”

“No wonder his attitude is so pissy.”

“He hasn’t been the same man since that night. We’re all surprised he didn’t just walk into the sunlight and end it all by now.”

“How well do you know him?”

“We grew up together at my previous house. We transferred over here together. He was one of my best friends. So as you can see, Lorna and Mikael are both vampires I know I can trust.”

Garrett looked away, a muscle in his cheek jumping as he mulled over his previous accusation. He realized his suspicion had been unfounded, but as was typically him, he made no apologies for jumping to such conclusions.

Blaine drew a breath. “Be ready to show your wares. I have a feeling I will be called upon to bring you to the house. I’m already risking a beating if they think I hid you purposely.”

“How much time will I need to hide what I am?”

“Perhaps an hour – might be more if they decide to do a full assessment.”

“I can probably pull off about three, beyond that I’m not sure how well the spell will hold.”

“I’m certain we’re going to be pushing your limits with this.”

“That you certainly will.”

Blaine got up again, breaking off another piece of the loaf and chewed methodically on it as he turned away. He seemed to remember something more, for he paused and peered at Garrett over one shoulder. “Remember, if they assess you and find you acceptable, you will go in rotation. You will be requested for meals – possibly that very night. Don’t fight them – I know you’ll want to. You do – you resist the feeding, they’ll kill you and ask questions later. Keep reminding yourself, the slaves in this city are conditioned to be fodder – they don’t refuse their host, ever.”

The human walked away before Garrett could form an appropriate protest.

A/N: Once more the plot moves forward! Garrett can't have expected to just remain anonymous inside the Barracks walls until he was ready for Lord Meirakat did he? I love Mikael - another minor character that rather took me by surprise with his voracity, he doesn't do quite as much to take over my plotlines, but I love what he adds to the mix!

NEXT UP: A Slight Change in Plans

Garrett manages to pass inspection - to keep his true nature hidden from the vampires around him. Yet he still hasn't made it much closer to joining one of the entourage's going to Lord Meirakat's court. How fortuitous then that Lord Klueger is hosting the Court's oldest vampire...Garrett would do anything to get close enough to that vampire and end his revenge. Yet, it's never as easy as it seems is it?