All Souls’ Night: A Midnight Doms Boxset

by Renee Rose

But she didn’t seem crazy. And she’s never been that emphatic about anything.

  My heart beats faster as I approach the house, maybe PTSD from yesterday, but the door is closed.

  New windows have been installed, thanks to Locke—workmen showed up earlier this morning with a work order. I shouldn’t have accepted it, but I was so relieved to have the protection that I said yes. I’ll pay him back someday.

  In any case, everything looks normal. When I unlock the door, there are no stray noises, and it’s obvious that I’m alone.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, I head to the kitchen and use a chair to reach the cupboard; no time for finding the stepladder. Although all of the cabinets had been opened and lots of things destroyed during the break in, the intruder didn’t figure out the secret cabinet.

  I smile to myself—Abuela outsmarted them. Him? She mentioned a ‘him’ as if she thought it was just one person.

  I pull the can out and remove the wad of bills so I can reach the other jewelry box. I flip it open and catch my breath. The brooch inside is heavy and solid, adorned with what look like real diamonds and sapphires. This has got to be worth a small fortune!

  It’s almost too heavy to pin to my shirt, but she wanted me to wear it and I will. So I grab a sweatshirt from my room—it’s chilly now that evening has fallen. This fabric is heavy enough to support the weight of the brooch.

  I carefully place her money back into the can and put it back behind the fake door, arranging the cans in front of it. I sigh. Maybe she wants me to use the brooch, sell it, to make money to pay for the house? I’ll tell her no. I want her to keep these treasures.

  When I leave the house, it’s much darker, and a wind has come up, cold and dry. I shiver even in the sweatshirt. I glance down and the gems on the brooch gleam in the low light from the streetlamp ahead.

  As I walk towards my car, I notice that another car has pulled up behind it—and two men are getting out. As I put one hand into my pocket to get my key, the first one comes up fast and grabs me before I can even think about what’s happening.

  “Keep quiet or I’ll fucking kill you.” He’s got a gun. A gun. He’s got a gun and it’s in my face, and it’s a gun—

  “Temi!” The other man is Eddie. His voice is hoarse. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry!”

  “Eddie says you have money.” The gun—the man with the gun—his voice is low and cruel, and he smells of onions and BO. He grabs my arm, hard. “He owes me, and I’m taking it from you.”

  Eddie’s voice is high. “I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find anything. I owe him money. I didn’t mean to put this on you, I swear. I said it by accident. I didn’t mean it.”

  “Let go of me!” I shout, and twist my arm. Surely someone must be around? But the street is dark and empty. The neighboring houses are quiet.

  The man puts the gun right up to my head. “Shut the fuck up. I need money, Mami. Either you get me something right now, or I’ll drop you.” He laughs. “Teach Eddie a lesson, for sure.”

  My mind is racing. I think about the money in the can—the small stash of cash hidden under my floorboard. Will that be enough? Will he even let me go if I give it to him?

  “I have some money. But you need to let me go so I can get it.” I try to keep my voice low, soothing. Get him to trust me. How can I do this?

  I dart my gaze to Eddie, who’s standing there, shaking. He’s high or drunk or sick, maybe all three. He grabs himself as if trying to give his body a bear hug, and whines. Sort of rocks.

  The other guy’s eyes are beady and jittery; he’s not right either. “New plan. You’re coming with me. Eddie will wait here. I’ll call him when we’re done.” He laughs, a disgusting sound. His breath is fetid and his grip vicious. “I’ll take extra payment first.”

  Eddie makes a strange sound.

  “Shut the fuck up, Eddie. You said she was fair game.”

  My eyes go wide.

  “I didn’t mean it.” Is Eddie crying?

  I need help. I need to do something.

  With the free hand still in my pocket, I rummage for my phone. Can I dial 911 without looking? Fuck, why don’t phones have a panic 911 button?

  “Cesar, don’t hurt her. She didn’t do nothing.” Eddie’s voice is wild. “I’ll get you the money. She said she has it. If you leave her alone, I’ll-I’ll do the bank job. I’ll do it. I swear. I’ll get you the money.”

  “Oh, yeah? Is that right?” Cesar turns to look at Eddie. “You think I believe you, you stupid fuck? You weak, stupid fucking idiot?” He doesn’t let go of my arm, but he looks away from me for a second as he turns to sneer at Eddie.

  This is my chance. I grab the phone from my pocket and with my left hand tap the call icon. I want to dial 911, but there’s no time—he’s already turning back. I don’t know what to do, so I hit the ‘redial last call’. Locke. I’m calling Locke.

  I slide the phone back into my pocket just in time. If Cesar weren’t high, he would have noticed.

  I think I hear Locke’s voice from my pocket. Is he saying hello?

  I raise my voice. “Please let me go. Put the gun down. I swear, if you let me go, I’ll get you all the money. I have these earrings!” I tilt my head. “See? I know they’re worth money. You can have them. I’ll give you my ATM card and the pin. Please.”

  My voice trembles and my vision goes weak. He’s laughing. He’s going to take all that, and rape me, and then kill me anyway, because of Eddie. Because of stupid, lazy Eddie, who clearly got caught up in something horrible.

  “Ah, I think we’ll have a little fun first.” He grabs my arm and yanks so viciously that I think he’s dislocated my shoulder. “Get into my car, bitch.”

  If I go with him, I’m dead—I know that for sure.

  I scream and twist. “NO! Help! 911, help, 911!” I keep screaming. Surely someone will hear me. Someone will see us; someone will call the police. Oh, how I want them here now, the assholes from the other night. Please let them come and save me from this madman.

  Eddie shouts and lurches at Cesar. “Let her go!” he yells, and punches.

  “I’ll kill you both.” Cesar’s voice is high and insane.

  Eddie hits again—with a grunt, Cesar lets me go, and the gun goes off.

  There’s a shot that echoes sharp and fierce around the street. And then there’s a flash, and a sudden artic chill.

  I’m on the ground and my chest has turned to ice and fire, and everything in front of me is blurry, because I’m looking through a waterfall. When did we get a waterfall here?

  Eddie shouts something, but the sound stretches out and reverberates, like a kid’s toy when the batteries are almost done.

  The asphalt is cold under my sweatshirt, but warmer than my chest. Why is it snowing? I’m buried in snow. I can see it all around me, flurries, blocking my vision.

  My mouth is full of tangy water. I spit it out and it keeps coming. “I need…” What do I need? I close my eyes. Force them open. “I…”

  The snow is coming faster, harder. It’s so quiet now. There are screams, maybe sirens in the distance, but they’re winding down. The amusement park is closing for the night, the rides slowing, the lights blinking off.

  And suddenly Locke is there, looming above me, a blur of motion—but I know it’s him because of the purple eyes.

  “It’s almost too late. But I can save her.” It’s the last thing I hear before everything goes black.

  Chapter 15

  Temi is cold and weak; there’s so much blood. It has her delicious smell but tonight it horrifies me because she’s lost too much.

  “I’ll take her.” I nod to my companions. “Slash, you clean up the rest of this. Alain, come with me.”

  I blur away, travelling as fast as I can. There’s no time for an ER, because she’ll be dead by the time they get to her. It’s up to me now.

  When I get her to my house, I lay her limp body down on the floor and gesture to Alain.

  “The bu
llet glanced off the brooch she’s wearing. Lucky thing, or it would have gone straight through and shredded her heart instantly.”

  “What did it hit instead?”

  “An artery. She’s bleeding out.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I look at her face. There are two options: I can try to heal her, or I can try to turn her. Both carry risks; neither are a guarantee.

  Temi’s face has a bluish cast and her breathing is so shallow, so far in between, that I know she has less than a minute to live. “I have to do this now. I’m going to turn her. It’s too late to heal her.”

  “I’m here.” Alain comes closer. “Tell me what you need.”

  I take a breath. “Call Lucius, and ask him to come as soon as he can.” Then I add, “I don’t believe in prayers. But if you’re inclined, say one anyway.” I bend over her body. “Wish us luck.”

  Have I timed it right? Am I doing this correctly? I’m working on instinct and lore. The instant that Temi’s life starts to fade—when I sense it begin to lift from her body like a morning mist drying in the heat of the rising sun—I must act. There is a split second to deliver her enough of my own blood, my life-saving essence, to stop her from evaporating away.

  It can go wrong, and usually does. It’s not a thing to be done lightly, but as there is no alternative, I focus and wait.

  Lucius has arrived and stands behind my shoulder, ready to assist. He watches intently as her chest rises and falls—and doesn’t rise again.

  “Now,” he orders, and I slash my own wrist, hold it to Temi’s lips, and allow my blood to flow into her mouth.

  For a second, nothing happens. “Damn it. I was too late.” My whole body floods with regret and anger. But I keep my wrist there and twist the skin to allow more blood to flow, faster. “Take it, take it,” I murmur. I rub her chest with my free hand, touch her face. It’s so cold and still.

  It seems like nothing is happening, but the blood must be entering her body somehow, because it’s still flowing from my wrist and isn’t leaking from her lips. What’s happening is a mystery, but I hope against all hope and make promises to long-dead Gods, to the Fates, to the entire world: Save her. Please. I will return the favor somehow, sometime, somewhere.

  As a minute goes by, and then another, a dreadful realization hits me: the blood is flowing into her, but it’s not doing a thing. I’m filling a hollow vessel with nothing.

  Temi is gone.

  “That should have been enough.” Alain leans in. “You can stop.”

  I keep my wrist against her lips. “Maybe a little more.” I can hear the desperation in my voice.

  “I’m sorry.” He touches my shoulder.

  Lucius is silent, but I hear him bow his head down behind me. “All you can do now is wait, Locke.” His voice is somber.

  I take my wrist from Temi’s lips and seal the wound, then I take her head into my hands. “Please, Temi. Come back to me.” I lean down to listen for breathing sounds, for anything.

  She’s silent and still, a wax doll.

  I put my lips to hers, tasting the odd mixture of my own blood and some of hers lingering there from her injuries. I breathe into her mouth; although CPR doesn’t work in a situation like this, I want to give her every piece of myself that I can.

  “I know you’re still in there. Fight back, Temi. Come back.” I pat her cheeks with my palms. “Listen to my voice. Follow my voice. Temi, I need you. You can do this. You can come back.”

  “She may not choose to return.” Lucius’s voice is low. “Part of this process, Locke, requires that the human be willing. They may instead choose to go…” his voice trails off for a moment, “to we don’t know where. To the other.”

  Even Lucius, with his centuries of knowledge, doesn’t know what happens when we die.

  “I know.” My voice is harsh. “But I want her back. Temi.” I pat her cheeks harder. “Temi!”

  And just when I’m ready to give up hope—to grieve, to think about the awful and necessary discussion of how to bring the body back to her family—she gasps.

  It’s a long whistling sound, a train arriving at a strange new station. Then her eyes flash open. I don’t see her, yet—not Temi. Just a creature who’s alive.

  “Careful.” Lucius blurs forward. “She may be feral. You may need to restrain her.”

  I grasp her by both of her arms. “You’re safe, Temi. You’re with me. You’re okay.”

  She blinks and looks around. Her chest heaves and she sucks in a breath of air. She looks like a caged animal, her eyes wild and savage—

  She screams, a howl of rage and pain and despair. Then she breaks down into sobs, her whole body heaving.

  “Hold her.” Lucius’s voice is sharp. “Make sure she doesn’t rampage. She does not know what’s happening.”

  I sit on the floor and cradle her in my lap, holding her with both arms. “Steady, Temi. You’re safe. You’re with me. Locke.”

  I sit there for hours until she stops fighting my grasp and is finally able to hear my voice.

  But I have hope, because her wound is healed, and she’s alive. She smells of herself and of me both—the blood is mixing in her veins, and it’s sustaining her, because her face is pink again.

  “What happened?” Her voice is low.

  Lucius and Alain sit, watching like hawks.

  “You were shot.” I start with the easy part.

  “That man shot me. Eddie’s friend.” She shudders. “I was on the ground.” Her voice cracks. “I think I was dying.”

  “You were dying.” I take a breath. “Yes.”

  “And then you came to me.”

  “You called me, and I came.” I touch her face.

  “I was dying.” Her voice is full of wonder. “Did you take me to the hospital?” She sits up, and because she doesn’t seem like she’s going to run or fight, I give her slack. She touches her chest. Her neck. Her hands. “I’m better. What happened?”

  “You did die, Temi. And then… I brought you back to life.”

  “What?”

  “I’m a vampire. You died, and I saved you by turning you into a vampire, too.”

  She’s silent for a minute. We’re so quiet that I can hear the seconds go by.

  Then, “Oh.”

  “Oh?” I wrap my arms around her again. “I don’t think you understand.”

  “No, I don’t.” Her voice is weak. “Am I dead now? Am I crazy?” She touches her chest again. “You’re saying things that don’t make any sense at all.” She hesitates. “There’s blood. And the brooch. But I’m alive.”

  “You’re alive, but not human,” I correct. “It will take some time to accustom yourself to it.”

  “I need to go to my Abuela. She’s in the ER!” She suddenly blurs into motion, rips away from my arms.

  Startled at what she did, how she’s moving, she stops in the air. Falls to the ground with a thud. Blurs back up. “What’s happening?” Her voice is full of pain and confusion.

  Then she runs, and it turns into flying. She screams as she flies around the room, her panic clearly increasing as she doesn’t know what’s going on. “I need to get to her!”

  She knocks over chairs, vases, veers along the wall, tearing a huge gash into the drywall. Her words become nonsense, garbled sounds of passion and pain. “Aiiiieeee, aaaaaa, aiiiieieieieie!”

  I blur over and grab her, using my superior strength to hold her back, but for a second she’s too much in her grief and rage; Lucius and Alain have to help.

  When she’s pinned down, panting and glaring at me, I see her canines: she’s hungry, too. She needs to feed. She needs to learn how to tame her nature.

  “There’s something that can help.” Lucius frowns. “Theo’s blood—it will help tame the bloodlust. We don’t know why, but feeding his blood to new vampires helps calm them. Eases the transition.”

  “I heard about that. Can we obtain some?”

  “He donated some for cases like this. I’ll g
o to him and get it.” Alain blurs away.

  When he returns, I feed the blood to Temi, who sucks it down like a wild wolf, snarling. A second later, she sighs and closes her eyes, the fight draining from her body.

  When she opens her eyes, she’s back. She’s Temi, the woman I loved, although she’s no longer exactly a woman. And in her gaze, I see a new recognition: she finally understands what she is. In an instant, she feels her new nature, like a hatched chick who starts running on ancient instinct.

  Her human and vampire sides are starting to come together.

  “Everything is different now.” Her voice is soft.

  I nod to Lucius and Alain; they disappear. She’s safe, I can handle her. They’ll leave me alone as she gets used to her new life—with me.

  “So it is.”

  “Is Abuela all right?”

  “Yes, Slash checked and texted me. She’s fine at the ER. She’s called a friend to sit with her. Alba.”

  “Can I never see her again?” Her voice cracks.

  I hug her close. “Of course you can see her. Just—only at night, Temi. We vampires can only come out at night. The sun destroys us.” I stroke her hair. “I’ll teach you all about being a vampire. It’s going to be all right.”

  She grabs my hand. “Locke, she knew.” Her voice is thin. “She knew this was going to happen.”

  I shake my head. “No, Temi. Nobody could see this coming.”

  “She said my life would be different. She said we—” She sobs. “We could go see my art at night. She said night was okay, too. She took me to the café to see the light reflections I like. She bought me sunflowers. She knew, Locke.”

  “Okay.” I don’t know that I believe it yet, but I’m not going to argue with her.

  “She’s always known things.” Temi sighs. She touches the brooch, which is damaged and bloody. “She demanded that I go home and put it on. She was very specific about where.”

  “She has the sight, then.” It becomes clear to me. “Rare humans do.”

  “What happened to Eddie? To Cesar?” She shudders.

  “Cesar’s gone.” My voice is flat. “My crew killed him. His body is gone, Temi.”