Free In Blood We Trust by Christine Cody

chastened.
    I knew that the were-community was curious about what might happen if they tasted my blood, much less exchanged with me. And I knew that right before me, a power struggle was beginning between them and every other faction—the ones who couldn’t claim me as their actual blood sister.
    As I took that in, I went still.
    Finally accepted, I thought, and I knew just how psychotic that was as tears started to blur my gaze. But after all this time being stranded on the outside of my Badlander group, I couldn’t help myself.
    I could see Gabriel through the bodies surrounding me, and I knew I needed him just as much as I needed everyone else. Even more so.
    â€œListen to you vamps,” the oldster muttered, before saying even louder, “Nobody gets her blood. She stays one of a kind, got it?”
    â€œOne of your kind,” said a vampire.
    The oldster ignored him and spoke to his posse. “Take her away until these fiends calm down. You older weres corral the younger ones and give them a talking-to pronto . We need to stand together—all of us, Reds and Civils—or there’ll be shit to pay if the humans ever start fighting us.”
    A pair of Civils, who weren’t affected by silver, lifted me, carrying me toward the asylum, where I was pretty sure I’d get a talking-to, also.
    The silver had cooled my half-changed body back to normal in record time, and I cooperated with the Civils as they brought me to my quarters and set me on the bed.
    â€œShe’s kosher,” said the oldster after inspecting me and tucking his revolver into a holster on his hip. I was sure the old-time weapon was full of silver bullets, which would poison a vampire, sucking energy and power just as surely as a shot in the heart would do away with a were-creature.
    The guards unwrapped the chains from me, and I rubbed my skin.
    â€œThanks, Michael,” I said.
    Judging from the slant of the oldster’s mouth, I could tell he wasn’t sure whether I was being a smart-ass or not.
    â€œI mean it,” I said. “We just got caught up in . . . something . . . out there.”
    â€œSomething? How about we just call it a near feeding frenzy? Do you have any idea what they would’ve done to you, Mariah? Chaplin’s so pissed at you that he wouldn’t even come with me out there.”
    I swallowed, then raised my chin.
    â€œThey wouldn’t have done a thing I couldn’t have handled,” I said, surprising even myself with my cheek.
    The oldster raised a gray eyebrow. “Cocky. Maybe you think you’ve become some kind of goddess who’s untouchable or something.”
    The memory of what that vampire had proclaimed when I’d been visiting 562 slapped at me: It wasn’t our origin who was going to “break out,” he’d said to me with that strange vampire’s smile. And when I remembered how those three guard vampires had all looked at me, I could almost believe I was untouchable.
    The oldster put his hands on his hips. “Mariah, it’d be dandy if you’d avoid getting yourself into a situation like that again. We’ve got a passel of worked-up vamps now and a bunch of pissed-off Civils having to look over their shoulders. It’ll be bad enough for them when the full moon hits and they’ll have to team up with the other Reds to restrain you and us were-creatures. We need teamwork round here, girl, not bloodletting parties that threaten the Civils’ comfort.”
    He didn’t add anything about what might occur with the dormant 562 on the full moon. Not with the Civils still standing in my quarters right now.
    I glanced at the pair of Civils who’d restrained me. Fauns. As expected, their human faces weren’t amused.
    â€œI’m sorry,” I said, relenting for their sake.
    One of them shrugged his bare, broad shoulder. In the torchlight, his chest glistened until it got to his hips, where the body