by Pace, Pepper
I strained to hear her.
“B-bite m-me.”
I closed my eyes. I had never turned anyone although I had been asked to more than once. I had made the choice not to sire anyone of my own.
I felt movement behind me. Besides Paul, Tony, Ran, Kaniji, and every other Vampire stood silently outside the stone building.
“You better hurry,” Kaniji said. “You must take her blood until she’s at the point of death. Then she must ingest enough of yours to sustain her through her transition.”
I sank my teeth gently into Monica’s ruined neck. Her pulse was so weak. She would have never made it back to the States. I drank as her blood pumped weakly into my mouth. Her death blood had a bitter quality and made me feel strange. When I had nearly drained her, I stopped, brought my wrist to my lips, and tore through it so my blood would run freely.
Ignoring the pain, I gently pressed my wrist to her mouth. My blood dribbled out and ran down her chin. I pushed her head back and saw her swallow. She choked and coughed, but I didn’t remove my wrist. I bent down to kiss what was left of her forehead.
Closing my eyes, I gripped her hand and waited for Monica to take her last breath. Her death was inevitable. I had drank her death blood and fed it back to her recycled through me.
After a few moments, her chest fell but did not rise.
Panic struck me. Did I do it right? Was the Werewolf in me going to prevent Monica from turning? What about the other strange changes, my tears, my eating? Was I still enough of a Vampire to turn anyone? We wouldn’t know until tomorrow.
I stood and moved to Jason in the next bed. He watched me with swollen, blackened eyes. I pulled sheet off of him, and like Paul, he was nude. He’d been bitten repeatedly but more carefully then what had been done with Monica. Maybe they’d meant to give Monica a killing bite because they thought she was a Vampire. When they discovered that she wasn’t, perhaps they tried to save her. That sounded right to me. By the time they’d gotten to Jason, they’d known they were dealing with humans and delivered the bites with more care.
I sat on the side of the bed. “Are you okay?”
“You came for us,” he said weakly.
“Yes. You’re mine. No one takes what’s mine.”
“My other Master wouldn’t have come to rescue of a couple of donors,” Jason whispered.
“You’re more than donors to me. When I brought you in, you became my family. Why do you think I don’t take blood from any and everyone? I choose my family carefully.”
Jason lifted his hand.
I took it in mine and squeezed it lightly.
“I’m going to become a Werewolf, aren’t I?” Jason asked.
I looked at Paul. He nodded.
I looked into Jason’s eyes. “Paul will be here for you when that happens.”
Jason nodded.
I left his bed and went to Tyler’s. Her eyes were closed, but I could see that she was breathing. I touched her neck. Her pulse was steady and strong. Like Jason, she had been covered in a sheet.
I lifted the sheet and bit back a moan. The bastards had taken chunks out of her body and had raped her, too. They hadn’t been nearly as rough with Jason. Had their women raped him? I wouldn’t ask.
I covered her body and knelt beside her bed. I grasped her hand in mine and pressed it to my lips. “Tyler. I’m here. We’ve come to take you home, sweetie. The werewolves who hurt you are gone. We killed them all.”
I looked back at Paul for confirmation, and he nodded.
When I turned back to Tyler, she was looking up at me. I hid my tears. “Are you comfortable?”
“R-Ran took away the p-pain,” Tyler said.
I squeezed her hand. “Do you need anything?”
“J-Jason.”
I heard Jason getting out of bed. He limped over to us wrapped in his blood-stained sheet. It broke my heart when he started to cry. I left them alone.
~***~
While we prepared to transport the humans in a rickety truck owned by the werewolves, I contacted Mara and Karen to give them the news. They screamed and cried together. I was too drained to cry anymore. Ran flashed back to the safe house and retrieved clothes for Paul and Jason. Tyler’s injuries were too severe for us to dress her, but we made her, Jason, and Monica as comfortable as possible in the truck.
Before we left, I scanned the small compound, taking in the homes of those who had once lived here. They were so poor that the word “house” would have been an exaggeration. These people were like refugees—and now they were all dead.
I had absolutely no regrets.
It was a squeeze to arrive at the safe house before dawn, but we made it in the nick of time to put me—and Monica—into coffins. I closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to take me and for the first time ever I wished that I would never have to open them again.
Epilogue
Paul came through the French doors into the bedroom drying his hair with a towel before climbing in bed with me.
He wore nothing more than a smile.
Paul loved to swim first thing in the morning and enjoyed walking around in the buff. Good thing the patio was private. We loved making love under the moon and stars, but now it was daylight.
That’s right—daylight.
I could wake up whenever I wanted. Or if Paul wanted, he could wake me. The sun no longer offered me a barrier.
The bedroom in our new home was the best place in the entire world. We never stayed another night in the old house. The memories were too horrible. While we waited for our new home to be ready for us, we stayed with Ran in his and Julie’s house, and that was a soothing balm for us all.
Paul and I disagreed over having a television set in our bedroom. He wanted one. I didn’t.
I won.
But we had a sound system that played every type of music from R & B to Alternative and Oldies.
The floor of the bedroom was a worn and weathered wood, strategically covered with a plush wool carpet.
That carpet was as good a place to make love as the overstuffed bed.
The remainder of the house was equally a reflection of Paul and me. We are traditional, antique, and modern.
We shared an office but had separate desks. His desk was ultramodern with steel and glass. My desk was weathered mahogany. Somehow they looked great together in the same room.
Our kitchen cabinets and refrigerator were filled to overflowing with food. I cooked at least twice a week. While mostly a carnivore, Paul loved my macaroni and cheese and couldn’t get enough of my southwestern chili. I ate, too, but only as the time of the full moon approached. Because we had frequent human visitors, the kitchen and pantry are always fully stocked.
As planned, the lower level made the most perfect underground suite of rooms. We even had huge windows covered in plantation shutters that gave the illusion of the outside.
Monica seemed content there. She even had her own private entrance.
Jason and Tyler had their own home nearby, but they still used the carriage house during the full moon.
You see, we had our own small Werewolf pack with Paul as pack leader. Both Tyler and Jason changed during the following full moon after the attack. We still don’t know about baby Julie. She was only three months old, so it was hard to tell whether she would be Werewolf, Vampire, remain human—or be a combination of any of the three.
No, Tyler didn’t have a baby. Because of Johan’s mistreatment of her, she had lost the ability to bear children. Luckily the werewolves hadn’t known that or she surely would have been killed.
The baby is Monica’s.
The announcement of her pregnancy created a whirlwind in the Vampire Nation because many Vampires wanted to bear children, but we soon realized she had been impregnated prior to being turned. We all hoped that Monica would find some type of reservoir of her old self when the baby was born.
But that never happened.
Monica the very night we returned to the States. I did her turning
the way it was supposed to be done, unlike the way Tige hastily turned me because he was on the run. Despite being there through each phase of her transition Monica took on a chilly personality that I could have never anticipated.
Worse is that she lost the human glint in her eyes.
One day she told me that if I didn’t take the baby when it was born, she would suck it dry. Paul and I took Julie as our own the second she was born.
Monica never took a second look at her.
Monica’s is as special as I am. She has succubus in her bite and although she has yet to awake during the day, the sun does not burn her.
I love Monica, but she scares me. I still have a human element to me despite my powers, but Monica is colder than even the coldest Vampire I’ve ever met. Her physical body healed perfectly, and her hand regenerated completely. She is considered one of the greatest beauties of the Vampire Nation, but inside it is a different story. Past events scarred her and left her damaged.
But B. J., the nickname we gave our daughter, is nothing but a joy. We flew in Dr. Minara from Italy. He specializes in the supernatural and pronounced BJ as completely healthy, human, and alive. Because of B. J., so many of us have healed.
B. J. gave Ran a reason to live.
I asked him to become my First Lieutenant, and he agreed. I have to take blood from him regularly to keep the link between us. The first time I fed, I felt his intent. Ran hoped to die serving me so that he could join Julie. I knew that I had to find a reason for him to continue.
Enter B. J.
The first day we brought her home, I brought Ran over for a special favor.
“What’s going to become of our little Julie?” I asked him. “She’s been rejected by her mother, and she’s neither a part of the human world nor the Vampire world. Ran, I’m scared for her.”
He watched Julie as she lay sleeping in her crib. “It won’t be easy for her,” he agreed.
“Will you be her protector, Ran?”
“Her … protector?”
“Protector” was another word for godfather—a word that the Neratomay were unable to say. “If something should happen to me or Paul, I want you to take care of her.”
He blinked and looked at the helpless baby in the crib, and I saw something melt in him.
When I left the room and returned a few minutes later with B. J.’s bottle, Ran was sitting in the rocker with her singing a lullaby I’d never heard before.
I knelt beside both of them. “Hi , baby Julie. You gonna let Uncle Ran give you your bottle?”
Ran chuckled. “Kim, I’ll be B. J.’s protector, but I think I’ll leave the feeding and diaper changing to you and Paul.”
I’m glad I had a “protector” in Athena. Her tip saved me from the Elder Council, which finally completed its investigation of me. I’m obviously still among the undead because the Elder Council did not carry out its wish to rid me from the Vampire Nation.
When Malarias returned from Spain and I was able to give testimony to the Elder Council, it saw something intriguing within my memories. They saw I was privy to more than the secret of day walking Vampires. They knew that I knew the Elders willingly sacrificed Master Vampires to pointless deaths by initiating them to an Elder Council that only day-walkers could join. They also knew that I knew the ultimate reason for their exile of Alexis—to prevent us from joining forces and becoming a powerful duo. What saved my life was the biggest secret of all—a Council less powerful than Athena could not kill her. And because I was now something Athena desired, no one dared risk her wrath by harming me.
For murdering Esmeralda, Athena willingly allowed herself to be exiled for one hundred years to a prison in her own mind. It wasn’t that much of a punishment. As a Vampire, she had the ability to create a paradise within her mind.
I hear that when she was placed in her tomb—one she could easily escape if she wished—she laughed and her “jailers” trembled.
Alexis was moved from Barcelona to an undisclosed location somewhere in the Middle East. For some strange reason, the Barcelona Council was reluctant to keep him around. I was banned from entering either Spain or the Middle East, and I had ninety-eight years before Alexis and then Athena would come for me.
Despite everything that I’ve lost, I’ve gained something pretty wonderful. I have life! It isn’t perfect, but it’s much better than the alternative. I still have to survive a Council and then a territory meeting each week, and I have safe houses that need to be policed. Tyler and Jason are now my Angels of Death. They both healed perfectly thanks to Lycan blood. We hunt and punish Rogues, but we make time for fun as well.
Just as Paul promised, he brought me life. We vacation and go out dancing. We go shopping in New York. We go to the movies. We take Julie to the park.
Nothing glamorous.
It’s life.
~***~
Paul snuggled under the comforter with me. He ran his hands up my legs where they nestled comfortably between them. “The adoption is going to be final today,” he said. “Are you ready to go to court?”
“I’m nervous. Do you think I can pass for human?”
“Don’t be silly. You look completely human as long as you don’t allow your eyes to change.”
“I’ll wear sunglasses just in case.” I hated interacting in the human world. I was especially nervous about going to court or anywhere else where there were human officials.
Paul chuckled. “No sunglasses. We’ll invest in a pair of contacts. I don’t want this looking like some celebrity rock star adoption.” He turned his attentions to kissing my neck.
I sighed and ran my fingers along the hard planes of his face. Paul’s face and body still bore scars from the Werewolf attack a year earlier, but he was still as beautiful as ever --only a little more rugged.
His hand crept a bit higher along my inner thighs.
I smiled.
“I wish we could give B. J. a brother or sister,” he said huskily.
“I do, too, baby, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”
“You said other Vampires have had babies, and look at Monica.”
“Yeah, but Monica’s case is special.”
His kisses trailed down my neck to my collarbone.
I pulled off my pink chemise.
Paul leaned back, his eyes gleaming.
I slipped off my panties.
Paul’s hands brushed against my mound.
I was already swollen and wet, my natural lubricant clear and silky. I wrapped my fingers around his thick shaft until his eyes fluttered closed.
He fell onto his back.
“You want me on top?” I whispered.
Paul nodded.
“Only after I feel you in my mouth …”
As we dozed lazily afterward, I heard Julie awaken. Paul was fast asleep, so I slipped on a T-shirt and shorts. We didn’t need a baby monitor. As a Vampire and Werewolf with super human senses, we were better equipped than any old baby monitor.
I went upstairs and entered the nursery. When we bought the house I never thought I’d have a reason to decorate a nursery.
Julie was waving her chubby little hands at the mobile above her crib. I gripped those chubby little fingers lightly, and she gurgled happily. Her beautiful blue eyes stared up at me. She knew I was her mom, and that pleased me like nothing else could.
“Hi, baby girl,” I cooed. “Hi, my sweetness.”
I checked her diaper.
That wasn’t sweetness.
After changing her, I picked her up, loving the baby smell of her and the roundness of her plump little body. I spent some time snuggling with her.
“Let’s go wake up Daddy and have breakfast.”
When we walked into the bedroom, Paul peeked at us with one eye. He smiled and sat up.
The baby gurgled excitedly near my ear.
“Kim!” Paul shouted. He leaped out of bed.
He scared me so badly I nearly dropped the baby. “Paul, what’s wrong?”<
br />
He pointed at Julie. “Look at her.”
I turned Julie to me.
Her normally blues eyes had turned golden.
The End
THE RETURN OF ALEXIS
Book III
~Prologue~
In Poland, among the ruins of tens of dead Werewolves, I drank the last of Monica’s lifeblood and then I opened my vein and poured my blood down her dying throat.
I stayed with her as we went back to the safe house. Mara and Karen screamed hysterically when they saw her dead body. I wanted to join them but knew that she would return to us.
I never left her side and Paul barely left mine. Mara and Karen would come in only long enough to give me a feeding…they wouldn’t look at Monica’s lifeless form. The blood smelled like decay on her body….
Then, beneath the fresh sheet, her form changed; limbs elongating and began to repair.
We had washed her but couldn’t get her clean because some of what was supposed to be on the inside was now on the outside. But when the sheet fell away from her nude form she was clean and whole.
I remembered tears sliding down my cheeks as Monica rose. This was my Monica back to us! Her body rose into a sitting position but seemed to be controlled by a force outside of herself; like a marionette puppet. Paul hurried out of the room to get Mara and Karen but before he left I remembered seeing the stricken look on his face as if he was unsure about leaving me alone with her.
I didn’t understand; at least not then.
Monica’s head turned in my direction and her eyes were a dead lifeless grey.
‘Monica?’ I called her name aloud. Then her mouth opened and her teeth were long and ready. I could see her nostrils flare reflexively as she sniffed me out and I knew what she was going to do seconds before she did it.
She flung herself at me and I blocked her with my forearm. Her teeth sank painfully down to the bone. I bit back a cry and carefully turned her back onto the bed so that she was now beneath me. It was hard not to strike out because she was hurting me badly; working my arm like a mad dog with a bone. And the sounds coming from her throat weren’t human, weren’t animal; they were--demonic.
