by Nicole Marie
He ran his hand up the side of my face and held it against my forehead, and I closed my eyes as the throbbing pain in my head subsided somewhat.
“My renewed energy seemed to have drained you, somehow. We thought you were just passed out from the sight of blood at first,” he said. His voice was slow and calculated, and I noticed a slight tremor as he spoke. He sounded afraid and fearful. The knot in my stomach grew even stronger, as it became obvious just how much he cared for me.
“I don’t understand. How would that have drained me? I didn’t even take that much blood.” I remember drawing blood for him, but that was all. I didn’t offer anything else, and I believed that they wouldn’t have taken anything of me that I didn’t offer. Our mental connection was stronger than ever, and I could hear the chatter of his mind within my own. I could feel the pull I felt towards him grow stronger still, and that spark of energy that linked us flared to life in my head.
I also felt a slight numbness in the back of my mind from his mental block. He was being extremely careful to hide his emotions for me, but they still seeped through, and his devastation, anger, and fear flooded into my mind against his will.
“It’s okay, Erik. I’ll be okay.”
Erik shook his head again. “I don’t know how this could’ve happened. There’s no precedent for it. I’ve had my people searching the old books, referencing the ancient legends, but there’s nothing that tells of this. As far as I understand, you and I are the only ones to forge such a unique mental bond. How my strength drew from your own mental energy, I do not know.”
I smiled up at him reassuringly. “It’s okay, Erik. Now that you’re stronger, maybe you can return the favor a little bit?” I tried to laugh, but couldn’t. My chest was tight, and my muscles still burned. I closed my eyes in exhaustion and let the coldness take over again. The fever had come back full force, and I began to shiver.
I began seeing stars as my consciousness began to fade.
“Go get the doctor,” I heard Erik command sternly.
I heard a series of footsteps, and I smelled someone new. My senses were heightened beyond anything they were before, and I almost recognized him simply from the smell. He smelled clinical, and the scent of antiseptic burned my nose.
“She doesn’t seem to be doing well, Master.” I felt fingers pull my sweater down, and a cold, icy metal pressed against my chest. He listened to my heartbeat, as I did the same. It was faint, and nearly unrecognizable within my own chest. My body was growing weaker, and I wasn’t sure how long I had.
Fear coursed through my body just then, and I knew it to be my own. Was I dying? I tried to focus on my breathing and my heartbeat as stars shone behind my closed eyes. I shivered as I slowly began to drift away again.
“She needs to eat,” the doctor’s voice said sternly. “We can try with an IV, but I need her consent.”
“She consents,” Erik said.
The doctor groaned. “Master, she must consent herself. I must hear it from her.”
I tried to nod my consent, but my body didn’t move. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Yes, I consent, I thought to myself. Please, Erik, hear me. I consent. Save me.
But the words didn’t come, and Erik, for once, didn’t seem to hear my thoughts. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t anything.
Pain consumed me as I tried to will myself to speak. The thought of food consumed me, and I knew I needed nourishment. I needed food.
No, not food. I wasn’t craving food.
But I needed to feed. My body craved nourishment.
I craved blood.
“Treat her or I’ll have you killed.”
“Master Erik, there’s nothing I can do,” the doctor said. “She’s dying.”
My mind was consumed with red as I imaged the coppery taste of blood as desperation flashed through my mind. The sensation consumed me, and the need to feed grew stronger.
The glittering stars behind my eyelids were replaced with a bright blood red.
The red then turned black as I finally fell unconscious.
11
My bare feet squished in the mud as I ran, sweat dripped down my forehead and stung my eyes as I pushed forward. I wiped the wet hair from my face so I could see, but I didn’t dare look back.
I could hear them behind us, slowly gaining on us with every step.
“Run faster,” I shouted. I could feel my brother and our friends close behind me, running for their lives.
I ducked as another arrow flew passed from behind me, narrowly missing my right ear. When a trickle of blood fell down my neck, I realized that they had nearly got me. It was a close call. Still, I pushed forward.
The moon shone bright above us through the trees as we ran through the mud and over the roots, desperate for escape.
My heart beat savagely in my chest, threatening to give out at any moment. I’d never pushed my body so far, so fast. But I had no choice.
Screams echoed from behind me as I heard another man fall. The brutal savage sounds of death came next as his body was massacred by the wolves. The sound of torn flesh and the scent of metallic blood became faint behind us as we pressed on.
“Faster,” I shouted again. I could see my brother gaining on me out of the corner of my eye and I reached my hand back for him. He reached his out to me and touched his finger to mine, and I felt a renewed strength.
We would get through this. We would get through this together.
He gained on me and we ran next to each other. Jumping over large roots and stones, until we finally came upon the river. We screeched to a stop, and regained our ragged breaths for a moment as I looked back and saw the pack of wolves and hunters gaining on us.
Our bodies were weak and thin and frail from starvation. Blood dripped down both of our bodies from our wounds, bloody gashes and claw marks traced from our shoulders down to our knees.
I gazed at my older brother as a stream of blood flowed into his left eye from a wound above his eyebrow. I wiped the blood away, and looked back to the river before us.
“Okay, ready?” I asked.
He nodded and took my hand. “Ready.”
I looked down at the raging rapids and lethal rocks below us and then back to the hungry pack that was gaining on us every second.
“Jump!”
I was jolted awake by the feeling of cold water on my face. I opened my eyes and the glowing firelit room slowly came into focus.
My skin stung, my muscles ached, and my bones hurt more than I ever knew possible. My mind raced as I tried to focus on anything but the pain, but it was all consuming. I couldn’t move, I could barely even breathe. I focused on the struggled effort of inhaling and exhaling, and that was the most energy I could exert without passing out again.
I struggled to keep my eyes open, and weariness threatened me again.
I looked up at a strange man, but when he began speaking I recognize him as the doctor. My body was so weak, I could barely keep my eyes open.
“Finally, you’re awake,” he said softly to me. “I’m going to give you something for the pain, is that all right?”
I nodded, and hoped he recognized my consent this time.
“Okay, Charlie. This might sting for a quick moment, but then you’ll feel better. I promise.”
I felt a damp cloth dabbed at my forehead and then down my arms, cooling my feverish skin.
I then felt a prick in my arm, and I was consumed with an immense and overwhelming hot pressure in my veins for a moment until relief finally coursed through my entire body and I drifted off into a blissful sleep.
My wrists ached as blood dripped down my arm from overhead. The skin below my hands had grown raw from the shackles, and my body had grown so weak from being in the dungeon for so long. My frail form was hardly recognizable.
My head hung low as I watched my brother on the far side of the room. I was in pain, but he was worse for wear. His arms had broken in multiple locations, yet they still
hung them from the ceiling. His body hung limp, swinging slowly from side to side in the cold wind that blew in through the metal bars in the opening overhead.
“Marco,” I hissed at him through a whisper of clenched teeth. “Look at me. Look at me, now.”
He didn’t respond. His body simply hung there, suspended from the hook in the stone ceiling above us. He hung weakly between life and death.
Every now and then, he would groan and his body would twitch, so I knew he wasn’t dead. But he was close, and if somebody didn’t come to help us soon, he would surely die.
My entire body ached, my muscles screamed in agony as I tried to push myself up against the wall, relieving the pressure on my wrists from the shackles above me.
My body then clenched as I heard footsteps approach. The sound of keys unlocking the metal door echoed through the dungeon as a tall hooded figure marched into the middle of the room.
He began undoing Marco’s shackles, and my eyes widened in fear. “What are you doing with him? Where are you taking him?” I shouted at him angrily. I tug my arms painfully against the shackles, desperate for release.
All I had to do was pull myself away from the wall and break his neck. I could then take the keys to unlock Marco and make our escape.
But as I tugged my hands one last time, blood began to flow more freely down my arms and over my shoulders. I knew how stupid that idea was. I had no chance of escape, and no chance of saving Marco.
“Where are you taking him?” I screamed again.
The figure ignored me and dragged Marco’s limp body from the room. I screamed after him, thrashing my body about wildly. “Come back! Where you taking him?!”
Tears streamed down my face as I watched my brother get dragged from the room, and nothing but a trail of his blood was left behind.
My eyes flew open and I gasped as it took a moment to orient myself. The hot fire burned next to me, and I ran my hands along the soft silk of the bed sheets. My heart raced from the dream, and it took a long moment and a few deep breaths to regain my composure. My body still ached from the pain, but not as badly as it had before.
I looked beside me and saw an IV set up in my left arm, a bag of clear solution hung from the bedpost behind my left ear.
I read the words morphine on it, and groaned in relief. Sweet, sweet morphine.
I turned my head towards the sound coming from the opposite side of the room as I heard crying. I soft sound of a woman’s tears echoed through the room and reverberated through my mind like a river in a past dream.
I lay in silence as I watched the people around me, moving around, ignoring me as if I weren’t there.
I tried to speak, to call someone over, but my voice betrayed me. All I could do was lay there and observe, and hope the morphine didn’t run out.
Erik sat on a chair in the far corner of the room, and a young couple knelt before him. The woman, the wife, I assumed, was crying into her hands. The man had his arm around her and was looking up at Erik pleadingly.
“I simply cannot, she is too young.”
Erik looked mildly angry, but I recognized a trace a sadness in his eyes.
“You don’t understand, sir. She’s dying. She doesn’t have much time left,” the man began to sob. He wiped tears from his eyes and then held his hands together in prayer. “You’re our last chance. We know the risks. Please, you must.”
Erik pushed himself out of the chair and began pacing the room. He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. “No, I mustn’t.”
The woman crawled towards him and grabbed his pants in her hands and sobbed into the fabric. “Please, we’re desperate. She’s just a little girl. She’s too young to die. Please, my poor baby. If you must.”
Erik tried to shake her off, but the woman held him with an iron grip as she sobbed desperately.
Erik stood there for a moment, staring down at her and then sighed. “Explain it to me.”
She finally let go and he returned to his seat, folded his hands on his knees and listened.
The man took a deep shuddering breath and began to speak more calmly. “She’s nine years old. She has leukemia, and they’ve given her a matter of weeks to live.”
“She knows all about you people,” the woman sobbed. “It’s all she’s ever wanted. She reads all the books, watches all the movies. She knows what she’s getting herself into, and so do we. Please. This is not a last-minute decision... this is what she wants. What we need as a family.”
Erik pondered for a moment, and then shook his head. “She’s too young. I cannot make that decision for her.”
The woman collapsed in a heap on the floor and began to sob uncontrollably. “Please, she’s going to die. Please. Please. Please…”
Her voice echoed into silent sobs until her voice was unrecognizable.
“And there is no treatment?” Erik finally asked.
The man shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do. There’s one experimental treatment down in Europe, but we can’t afford it. And they will not allow it here.”
I watched them in silence, and my heart broke for the couple. What were they asking him to do? Surely, they weren’t asking him to turn the daughter into a vampire.
“I’ve read all about it. I know you’ve taken children before.”
“That is false,” Erik snapped angrily at him. “I do not take children. That is irresponsible and unfair to the child. To trap someone forever in the form of an undeveloped body. Small and weak. I would never do such a thing, and you should be ashamed for asking.”
The man then joined his wife and sobbed, and held his head in his hands.
Erik sat and watched, and then diverted his gaze up to me as he noticed I was awake. He moved to stand, but I held my finger up in a gentle gesture to tell him to stay. He froze in place and sat back down and nodded, all the while keeping his eyes on me. I offered a smile to him, and he seemed to relax somewhat.
He then sighed and looked down at the sobbing couple. “I will pay for your daughter’s treatment. Go now, before I change my mind. She will undergo the treatment, and if that fails, return to me after. We must buy her as much time as we can.”
The couple looked as if their entire world had been turned upside down. They both jumped up and lunged at him, wrapping their arms around him and sobbed. “Oh, thank you.”
“You’ve no idea what this means to us, thank you. Thank you.”
I laughed softly to myself at the look of complete shock that spread across Erik’s face. I could tell he wasn’t used to such strange affections, and I noticed Victor and two other vampires I didn’t recognize approach the couple and pull them away.
They thanked him profusely as they were led out of the room, and finally silence fell again. Erik immediately pushed himself from the chair and strode over to me, but as I watched him get closer, my vision began to fade again. The last thing I felt was his cold hands on my forehead and him mumble some unrecognizable words before everything faded to darkness again.
Fire. There was fire everywhere.
It burned against my skin as I ran through it, but I knew I had to press on. I ran fast, the scorching sensation on my skin simply fuelling me forward.
“Marco!” I screamed into the flames as I ran. I heard his groaning from the far side of the room and I changed my direction to run towards it.
It took all my effort not to scream from the pain of the fire as the flames licked against my skin, but I had no choice. I ran forward, using the pain as incentive to move fast.
“Marco!”
His screams grew louder, and I leapt high above the flames to the other side of the room. I landed on my hands and knees, beside his dying body.
His screaming stopped, though, as a hooded figure raised his head up to look at me. Blood coursed down his face as he looked up after taking Marco’s life.
I stood there and stared as my brother’s blood pooled on the ground and his lifeless body lay before me.
“NO!”
I screamed. I was too late. I collapsed onto the ground as my skin burned and my heart broke. After everything I’d been through. After everything I had done to try to save him, I failed.
The vampire wiped Marco’s blood from his face with his sleeve and narrowed his eyes at me before he pounced. I lunged back into the flames, letting the fire engulf me. Anything was better than being bitten by a vampire.
I screamed as my body was consumed by fire.
A smooth, sultry voice pulled me back into consciousness.
A half naked women knelt on the ground in the middle of the room, and I looked over to see Erik pacing in front of her.
She knelt with her knees spread seductively and her hand traced along her collarbone and then down her chest between her cleavage.
“Turn me,” she whispered. Her voice oozed sex and desperation.
I looked up to Erik who rolled his eyes and looked down at her in disgust. “And why would I do that?”
“I know how you bloodsuckers like your women,” she ran her hands down her breasts and along her narrow waist. “I know how you like to keep women for pleasure. I’m offering myself to you.”
Erik sat down in his chair on the far side of the room and stared down at her as he shook his head. “And why you? What makes you so special?”
The woman pushed herself up and slinked towards him, her hips swaying far more dramatically than they should have.
I tried to roll my eyes, but the motion hurt. I then tried to groan, but the sound wouldn’t come out. The fact that I couldn’t show my distaste infuriated me as I lay motionless on the bed.
She knelt in front of him and placed her hands on his thighs as she looked up at him, and all I could see was the back of her head.
“I promise, I’ll please you more than anyone’s ever pleased you. Turn me, and I’ll be forever yours.”
The angry-looking vampire that I met with Victor, whose name I still didn’t know, leaned against the far wall with his arms crossed. “We could do with more help around here, Erik. I wouldn’t mind taking care of this one.” He winked and licked his lips like an animal, and I couldn’t help but feel sick.
