Reclaimed (Morta Fox Book 2)

by D. N. Hoxa

  Ray turned to her, smiling. “Look at you, all heartless now.” He winked at her. “But he got us out of there, one way or another. I’m just glad I wasn’t the one to give up my mind,” Ray said grinning. “Come on, now. Play nice. I’m only giving you blood.”

  The words had barely left his mouth when his face began to change, right in front of my eyes. Everything about him became more…sharp. His eyes, they earned an edge to them and his nose as well, and his mouth opened and…I turned around and started to run.

  Wake up, wake up, wake up, I chanted. I was still hoping it was a dream.

  But I didn’t make it very far. Ray, who had turned into something I didn’t know how to name, appeared right in front of me. It shouldn’t have been possible. It should’ve been crazy to even think about it, but he was there. He was there with those eyes and those teeth, and he grabbed me by the shoulders. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe. His hands were made of steel.

  He pulled me close to him, closer and closer until his cheek touched mine. “Drink,” he whispered, before he bit into his wrist.

  I’d heard stories about monsters eating people, but I always thought those were made up to scare the children to sleep. And now, there I was, in the middle of nowhere, and a man named Ray I’d never seen before was eating his own flesh right before he did the same to me.

  But then, I tasted it. Ray put his wrist above my lips, and I tasted it. The need. The blood.

  I lost control as a single drop of it touched the tip of my tongue. I sucked with all I had, without meaning to. Nothing at all made sense to me: not Ray, not my silent chest, and definitely not the incredible taste of the cold liquid that went down my throat.

  I just hoped that Mama and my sisters had made it. I hoped they’d gone far away from this place.

  Then I let go.

  VII

  The dream of the man who had eaten me burned the insides of my lids before I woke up.

  Something tightened in my chest. It was a craving. Like, when you hadn’t eaten in days and you’re on the brink of dying, but it was stronger. A thousand times stronger.

  I craved blood. The same blood that the monster from the dream forced upon me.

  As soon as my eyes opened and I found myself lying on hard ground, all I thought about was people. Normal, innocent people I could suck the blood out of. It made me sick, thinking about it. But it also made the craving stronger.

  Maybe the dream hadn’t ended yet.

  I was lying on stone. The place I was in, like a house but much bigger and stronger looking, was made of stone. I’d never seen something like it. All the houses in my village were made of wood.

  That was the first thing I noticed. The second was that I saw. Even though it was pitch black around me, I saw everything in clear detail as if my eyes had been bathed thoroughly, and all the dust that had kept me from seeing earlier was gone.

  The third thing was sound. I heard the wind blow, the insects buzz, even the birds flying above me. I heard them as if they were standing right next to my ear. It was a miracle. For the first time since I’d woken up, I felt just a tiny bit relieved.

  I stepped outside through a hole in the stone that had probably once been a door. The house I was in wasn’t the only one of its kind. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, all around me, and they were all broken and burned. Lifeless. Everything was lifeless. But everything was so huge, too, that it took my breath away.

  My breath…I touched my chest. My hands shook. I stood still and waited. A few seconds, and then more…my chest didn’t move. I dragged in air through my nostrils. It went through like it always did. But then I tried to not drag in air. And I didn’t choke. I didn’t even cough. I didn’t need air. I could walk and see and hear without breathing. And my heart had stopped beating, too.

  My first instinct was to shout. I didn’t know what was happening to me. It was terrible, impossible, senseless…until I remembered Ray and Ignis.

  They hadn’t breathed either. Ray had been fast. Ray had been strong. Ray had teeth like a crocodile, even worse.

  Ray hadn’t been a dream.

  My hand went to my teeth. They were as square as ever. I wasn’t like him. I couldn’t be, because it had all been just a dream. A nightmare.

  So why wasn’t I breathing?

  I looked around. Where the hell was I supposed to go? Where the hell was I supposed to get blood?

  Nothing moved. Not one thing except the wind and the birds and the bugs.

  With no other option, I started to run. I didn’t pick a direction. I let my legs go wherever they pleased. And I ran fast! So fast, everything around me became a blur. It was amazing, like I was flying. I had never felt anything better in my life. My smile stretched wide.

  Until I heard it. I heard it as clear as if my ear had been attached to it. I heard it beat and pump the red blood that every cell in me was craving.

  I stopped moving. It was a heart, no mistake there. It beat as steadily as mine had, just before Ray had done something to me. I turned east and I followed it.

  Finally. I was going to follow that beating until the end of the world if I had to.

  But the beating stopped. I had been so close to it I could taste the blood, when it stopped. I stopped. What the hell?

  The sound of simple movement reached my ears. Footsteps, but no heartbeat. I hid behind something made out of metal in the middle of the street. I could faintly hear, but not really. So I slowly moved forward, and closer to whoever was making the noises.

  Four people were ahead of me, three stone houses away. And on the ground was another. None had a beating heart.

  “You didn’t have to kill him,” one of them said.

  “Sorry,” said the other, but he didn’t sound like he was. On the contrary. He seemed pleased.

  “Come on,” another said, a second before he disappeared.

  They had no beating hearts. They didn’t breathe. They were fast.

  They were like Ray. And like me. But what was Ray and I and them?

  I stayed right behind the metal, because I could still smell a little blood coming from the motionless body on the ground. I was going to wait for them to leave and then go see. I barely held myself.

  The three had left already, and I no longer heard their steps, but the fourth walked. He walked away when he could’ve run. Run fast and let me get whatever was left.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. It was so strong. So strong that it was all slipping out of control. My mind, I mean.

  My mouth moved on its own. My teeth did the same, and when I touched them with my tongue, I felt them changing. They were changing from square to triangle. I was becoming Ray.

  I was afraid, but only for a second. My mind gave up, and all I saw was hunger. Red. Blood. That sweet scent that reached my nostrils was worth dying for. I didn’t hear anything else. I didn’t know anything else. I stood up and ran so fast that in a blink of an eye, I was on my knees in front of a body that had once been a man’s. His neck was torn. Blood dripped from the wound. That was enough for me.

  I dove in. Reason had left me. My whole existence hung on that first drop of blood that touched the tip of my tongue. It was a feeling that could not be described in words. It was everything in the world, a million times stronger.

  I sucked what was left from the man’s body until there was no more. It was not enough for me. Maybe it would never be.

  It was sad, looking down at the dead, bloodless body in front of me. Sad that this had happened to him, and sad that he had no more to give me.

  The next second, an arm wrapped around my throat.

  It was so sudden that I jumped to my feet. Whoever held onto me was as fast as I was and didn’t let go. I panicked. My elbows jerked back and hit him, but it was no use. His stomach was like steel. I was terrified at the thought that this was Ray. What more was he going to do to me?

  “Calm down, young one,” the man said. It wasn’t Ray. The voice was different. I stopped movin
g, almost sighed in relief. “I’m going to let you go now, okay? Don’t try anything stupid.”

  I nodded. “Okay.” Anything for him to let me go. If he wanted to hurt me, I could run as soon as he did. And I was strong now, too. If I couldn’t run, I could fight.

  His arm loosened around my neck, and my body relaxed. When he stopped touching me, that same second I started to run.

  “Stop!” he called after me, and he indeed was as fast as I was. He grabbed my arm, and he pulled so hard that I fell on my back a few feet away. Fingers wrapped around my throat, but then he froze completely. It made me stop moving, too.

  I looked up at his face. He had thick brown hair, long enough to stay behind his ears, and a wide forehead. His eyes were big and brown, lighter than Ray’s. He was staring at me, too, with what I thought was surprise and wonder and amazement and fear, all rolled into one.

  “Dear heavens…” he breathed.

  I jerked away from his grip.

  “No, don’t!” he called before I jumped to my feet. I stopped moving.

  “I don’t want any trouble,” I said.

  “What…what…” He fell on his ass. The face he made, his open mouth and wide eyes…you’d think he was holding all of the sadness and happiness of the world.

  For a very long time, he did nothing but sat there and stared at me. It was awkward. I had no idea what the hell he wanted, or what he meant, or if this was just a trick to get me confused so he could kill me quick afterwards.

  “You made it,” he finally said. He said it like a defeated man. “I can’t believe it. You sonovabitch, you made it out.”

  “I just want to be on my way,” I said and wanted to stand up. He raised both his hands in front of him to tell me to stop. I did. Maybe because he didn’t look like he wanted to kill me.

  “Hammer, you smell like a newborn,” he said and dragged himself closer to me. Hammer? “Why do you smell like a newborn, Hammer?”

  “My name is Matias,” I said. “You must have me confused with someone else, mister.”

  “No,” he whispered before he stood up. “Matias, yes, but no,” he said, more to himself than to me. He put his hands on his hips and every few seconds turned to look at me, shaking his head and murmuring no.

  I didn’t know what to make of it, of him. A few minutes later, he disappeared. He ran away and I heard every time his feet hit the ground.

  He ran a circle around me, and then ten seconds later, he was back, standing in front of me again.

  “What have you done?” he asked me, desperate now. “What have you done, Hammer?”

  “I haven’t done anything. I woke up in this place and then he bit his own hand, and gave me his blood…then I woke up like this! And my name is Matias.” I didn’t think it wise to shout, but panic made loss of control a breeze. This man was mistaking me for someone else, that much was clear to me, but I needed to get away. I stood up. “I don’t even know how I know English!”

  “Shut up and think, boy. Shut the fuck up and think. What did you do? How did you get out of the Red Dimension?” he urged me, and when I wanted to turn away, he grabbed my arm and stopped me. The look on his face was murderous.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I am not who you think I am. I’m just a boy who was forced to drink blood by a monster,” I explained again.

  “Goddamn it!” he shouted, and then he…hugged me. What the hell?

  I froze as one of his hands held the back of my neck, and the other fell around my shoulders. He was hugging me. This stranger, whoever he was, was hugging me. I couldn’t believe it. I had no clue how the hell to act.

  “It’s okay,” he said when he finally released me. I took a step back. “We’ll get through this. We will. You just need to remember…”

  “Who are you?”

  He looked at me like that was the worst possible thing I could’ve thought to say. “Dublin. My name’s Dublin.”

  “Well, Dublin, I am not Hammer or whoever it is you think I am. I live in Spain, or at least I did before I woke up here and drank from—”

  “Drank from who?”

  I didn’t know if it was safe to say it. Maybe this guy knew Ray. Maybe he would tell…

  “You can tell me, Matias. I won’t hurt you. I promise.” I don’t know why that convinced me.

  “Ray. It was a man named Ray. He was like you. And…me. He gave me his blood.”

  “Will you describe him for me? What did he look like?” Dublin asked.

  “Black eyes, brown hair…a bit shorter than me.”

  I had no obligation to tell him anything, but maybe this guy could help me. Maybe he could tell me what the hell was going on, where I was, and I could finally be on my way to finding Mama and my sisters. I was angry with Papa, sure, but I understood. I wasn’t his boy. Why wouldn’t he beat me every day?

  “Are you sure?” Dublin said, putting one hand on my shoulder. “His eyes weren’t blue?”

  “No, they were black.” I remembered with clarity. I’d seen myself in them.

  “The only Doyen named Ray I knew was Ray Bardos, and he’s been gone centuries,” he whispered. I thought he talked more to himself than to me.

  “What’s a Doyen?” I asked. Maybe that was what we were. What I had become.

  Dublin sighed. “It’s almost sunrise. You need to get inside. I’ll meet you tomorrow night, right here in this place, and we’ll talk. The others will be wondering where I am.”

  “No, wait. You can’t leave. Just tell me—”

  “Sunrise is coming in half an hour. You need shelter,” he said.

  “I don’t need shelter. I need to be on my way, if you could just tell me what—”

  “You listen to me, Matias. When the sun’s up, if you’re not hiding from it, you’ll die. If you’re not somewhere inside when the sun is about to rise, you’ll fall unconscious on the ground and then you’ll die. So at least fifteen minutes before it does, make sure you’re inside and sitting,” he said, though it felt more like it was a warning.

  “What do you mean—” he wouldn’t let me speak.

  “Just listen. The way we are, we can’t stay awake in daylight, only at night. It’s not a choice. We fall unconscious when the sun comes up, so make sure, make really sure that you’re inside.”

  He turned around and started to walk away.

  “How the hell will I know when the sun rises?” I called after him and he turned.

  “Be quiet!” he hissed. “Don’t ever talk so loudly.” And though he whispered, I heard him. “You’ll know. Just get inside.”

  And he was gone.

  VIII

  As soon as I went back to where I’d first woken up, I felt my body weaken, as if gravity had just grown much stronger, and it was pulling my body much harder. Strength escaped me and my eyes closed as I imagined the rays of the sun hit the sky. I didn’t sleep. I was just unconscious.

  And I didn’t wake up the next night, either. I just opened my eyes, and my mind picked up where it had left off the night before.

  I looked and listened for any movement around me. When I was sure that no one was there, I ran to meet Dublin. I couldn’t wait. There were questions I needed to ask him, and he seemed more than well equipped to answer them. I trusted him, though I had no reason to.

  The craving never stopped. I was right about that, unfortunately. It didn’t stop, it only grew. And I was constantly straining my ears for a beating heart without even realizing it.

  Dublin came not long after I found the dead body of the man I’d drank the blood of the night before.

  “Follow me and keep quiet,” he whispered before he turned away. I followed.

  He was much faster than I was, but I still caught up with him. The best part was that I never got tired.

  We ran for maybe half an hour before we entered this amazing, huge place with glass windows and doors. It looked old and broken, but it wasn’t empty. Stuff was in there, stuff I’d never seen before in my life. And that scar
ed me. It scared me more than I realized at the time.

  He took me up the stairs, and up again, and again, and again…when we stopped, I felt like we were on top of the world. We were on the tenth floor.

  I went closer to the window to look outside, and that scared me, too. Nothing was out there. Just darkness, broken trees, nothing green, nothing whole, no human being that I could see…just empty space.

  “What happened to this place?” I asked Dublin. I knew he was standing behind me, watching me, analyzing my every move.

  “Us,” he said. I turned to look at him in confusion.

  “Us? What does that mean?”

  “I think we ought to sit down and talk. I don’t have long before they come looking for me.” He waved his hand at some chairs made of iron and plastic—things I’d never seen before. I didn’t know how I knew what they were. I didn’t ask, though. I had a feeling he was going to tell me everything on his own.

  “I saw others with you before. Are they your friends?” I asked first.

  “Yes, they are friends of mine. But they cannot see you, Matias,” he leaned closer to me, as if to make sure that I could see how serious he was. “Listen carefully, boy. Nobody, and I mean nobody that is the way you are, can ever see you. Nobody can see your face. Not until you work things out.”

  “But why?” It sounded ridiculous to me.

  “I’m no good at explaining that. I’ll explain what I can tonight, and then I’ll send you on your way,” he said. “First of all, you need to understand that what I’m telling you is not a lie.”

  “I don’t even know you.”

  “I know that. But I know you,” he said.

  “That right there makes no sense to me at all.” What did he expect? I’d never seen the man in my life.

  “There are some things you won’t understand, but you need to leave it to time. Don’t try anything stupid, Matias, ever. Remember, I will not lie to you. You have my word.” I nodded just to get him to continue. “And that right there is the first and most important thing you need to know about us.” He fell back on his seat and rubbed his face. “You, and me, and the others you saw, are vampires.”