“Three days? Well what happens to the person changing in that time?”
“They…die.”
“What?”
“It is not as bad as it seems,” he quickly explained. “I could introduce you to people who have been through the transition. They have no memories of the death, only the feeling of rebirth, of vitality. It is only slightly painful—”
“Wait, you expect me to do this? Adam, are you nuts? What if I don’t wake up?”
“You would wake up.” He sensed her fear. The idea of him changing her made her feel endangered. “Anna, I would never, ever ask you to do something that would hurt you.”
“Just die!”
“Not die. Think of it as a resurrection, like Christ. The death is quick. Hours. The days after your rebirth you are awake, but still transitioning. Your body will not completely heal from the ordeal of the change for those three days, but I assure you, you will only miss a matter of a couple hours. I will be with you the entire time.”
She stood. Was she going to leave? “This is a dream. This is all a dream. I am home, in my bed, and am going to wake up any minute.”
He watched her pace across the wood floor, prepared to stop her if she moved too close to the door. “Anna, you are my called mate. That guarantees you will live through the change.” She continued to talk to herself and pace. Not wanting to put her in this position, he had no other choice but to tell her the truth. “Annalise, if you do not do this for me, I will die.”
Her steps slowed, and she faced him. “What?”
“I will die. We cannot live without our mates. If we do not complete the bond, I will go mad. My mind will slowly slip, and I will become a dangerous beast. We do not believe in hurting others. My people would destroy me if it came to that.”
“They would kill you?”
“Yes. I have already asked them to.”
“Why?”
“Because once it gets to that point, I would be beyond rational thought. I would act solely on instinct. My body recognizes you as my mate. I would take you without permission and overpower you. I would force you to bond. I cannot imagine taking your life from you in such a way if eternity was not what you wanted. I would rather die than sentence you to a life of regret and a mate you despised.”
“But you would die.”
“I am asking you to sacrifice your life as you know it. What kind of man would I be if I were not prepared to do the same for you? A sacrifice must be made, be it yours or mine. If a life apart is what you wanted, I would give that to you.”
She walked to the chair and sat down. He watched her, wishing he had his sister’s ability to read thoughts. He did the only thing he could and read her emotions.
“You are sad, ainsicht.”
“Of course I’m sad. I don’t want you to die. I…like you.”
He smiled. “I like you, too. You do not have to decide tonight.”
“How long do we have?”
“Not long, but at least a week. There are ways to hold off the effects of not bonding with you.”
“How?”
He took a deep breath, attempted to explain, but only could say, “It’s complicated…”
“Like what you told me so far isn’t? Let’s not stop now, Adam.”
“It…it requires me to have transfusions of your blood.”
“That’s it? Well let’s do that. I can spare a few pints.”
“I have already taken some of your blood.”
She stilled. “Excuse me?”
“The night I brought you here and then a few days before that.”
“How?”
“You were asleep.”
“You stole my blood? Who does that? Adam, I am willing to help you out, but stealing my blood is not cool! How did you even manage to get a needle in my arm without me waking up?”
“I am able to push into your mind enough to make you sleep.”
“Push into my mind? I thought you did that by hitting a pressure point.”
She was beginning to sound hysterical. “I suppose I could do that as well, but the mental push is easier and wouldn’t leave a mark.”
“What else can you do?”
He frowned.
“Adam, if you want me to seriously consider dying for you I suggest you spit it out.”
“I can run very fast and jump very high. I can see as easily at night as you do during the day. I am for the most part immortal and can sometimes move things with my mind. I can also place other creatures in a dreamlike trance for as long as I need.”
“You can move things with your mind?”
“Only small things.”
“Oh, only small things. Well in that case…Are you insane? That is not normal!” She began to rub her head again. Then she looked up at him. “Move something now.”
* * * *
Anna watched as Adam looked around the room. Anna followed his gaze to where he focused on the small, whittled figurines on his dresser. He seemed to be concentrating on one. “Watch the fox,” he said, not taking his gaze off the small figurine.
When the small wooden piece began to slide across the dresser, Anna gasped. He focused on the trinket and held his breath as he pushed it with nothing more than his mind. It was magic. There were no strings, no magnets, or wind. The fox was moving simply because Adam willed it. The piece finally slid to the edge and fell to the floor. Anna stood and walked over to it. Speechless. She picked it up off the ground and frowned. “You broke it.”
“I can make another. I told you I could only move very small things.”
“That’s incredible, Adam,” she whispered in awe. She came and sat across from him again, still holding the tiny broken fox.
There was no way to reconcile what she already knew with what she had just witnessed. What if Adam was a saint of some godly creature meant to do great things in this life? Annalise loosely believed in each person having some sort of destined purpose, but Adam clearly had been placed on this earth for a reason. Perhaps her purpose was to keep him here. Alive.
It was actually kind of spectacular, being on a farm with a bunch of supernatural beings. It was as if she was in on some big secret even the Area 52 people were clueless of. That had to be worth something. “Can others do what you just did?”
He hesitated a moment then said, “Yes and no. Older…immortals can do more. We each have different disciplines God reveals to us over time. If you were to become immortal you would most likely discover your own gifts through the years.”
She had gotten a higher education so she could help others. Sure, she didn’t make the cut into medical school, but that was more due to personal finances than anything else. Her intentions were just as honorable even if all she would ever be was a medical assistant. She was an organ donor. She donated blood several times a year. She even picked up a brochure at her recent gynecologist appointment that explained the process for donating some eggs. It seemed her entire adult life she had been quietly doing things to help save other people’s lives. Perhaps it had something to do with losing her mother so early in her life.
She was getting to know Adam and his family. They were good people even if they didn’t age. It was disarming, imagining his mother older than what she had first assumed, but Adam looked to be a young thirty-five. It wasn’t as if she could not believe he was past his twenties.
Her mind was splitting into a hundred different directions. She wasn’t sold on staying. Death was scary, no matter how many people promised it was only temporary. Annalise had studied science too long to simply forfeit what she had always believed was true. When you died you were dead. Kaput. Finito. Nothing but dust in the wind, as Kansas had sung. And being that that was what she knew to be true, she absolutely knew she did not want Adam to die.
Why did anyone have to die? It seemed so unfair. Perhaps if she could offer him some of her blood like he suggested it would hold off the effects of whatever was supposed to happen to him and maybe they could come up with another sol
ution in that time. A solution where everyone lived happily ever after and no one had to die, for a few hours or permanently.
She placed the small fox on the table next to the bed and looked at Adam. “I will give you some of my blood.”
* * * *
Shocked at how easily Annalise seemed to except all of this, Adam was afraid it was his last admission that would push her over the edge. “Anna, you are a priceless gift. There is one more thing I have to tell you.”
“I’m listening.”
“You have not yet asked what I am.”
She frowned. “What do you mean? You’re just like everyone else, except you have some really cool gifts and live extra long without aging.”
“No, Anna. What I am has a name.”
“What is it?”
“Vampyre.”
She froze. “Come again?”
“I am vampyre.” She laughed at him. “Do you understand what I am telling you, Anna?”
“Oh, sure. You, the man who has kidnapped me, broken into my dreams, danced with me, made love to me twice with an intensity I have never before experienced, and can miraculously move things with his mind, just your average country bumpkin, who is Christian to boot, is telling me he is a vampire.” A hysterical laugh bubbled past her lips.
“Anna, I do not lie.”
“Nooooo, of course not. Why would you lie when you possess superhuman strength? You could force people to believe whatever you wanted them to. Tell me, Adam, if you are ‘vampire,’ where are your fangs?”
“They only distend when I feed.”
“Ah, and I suppose that’s how you took my blood? You just,” she placed a fist in front of her mouth and quickly forked out two fingers like fangs.
“For the most part, yes.”
“Oh, okay. Well, why didn’t you say that to begin with? Look, why don’t you just stay here while I run out to the outhouse for a sec? I’ll be back in a flash.” She was speaking to him in a patronizing voice as she moved closer to the door. She wasn’t afraid. The emotion coming from her was more…sarcastic?
When she touched the knob, he flipped the lock. She paused and frowned at the door. She turned to face him and gasped when he was already directly behind her. “I am being honest, Anna. You’ve seen my family, you have seen me bleed and heal, and you have even seen me move things with my mind. What else must I do to convince you?”
She was getting angry. “Fine. You’re a vampire and you drank my blood.” She turned her head, showing him her neck. “Bite me.”
“Pardon?”
“Bite. Me.”
“Anna—“
“Come on, Dracula, show me what you got.”
“It will hurt.”
“Funny, I don’t remember even waking up before. You are so full of shit. To think I was almost believing all your crap about being your mate. I was actually considering it, Adam-who-cannot-tell-a-lie. Well, you must think I am really stupid—”
“You are my mate!”
She froze.
“I do not mean to shout, but I do not know how to get through to you that I am being honest. I am vampyre, Anna. I live off the blood of the animals we raise on the farm, as does the rest of my family.”
Her eyes were suddenly very large. In a small voice she said, “But you don’t sparkle.”
“Why would I sparkle?”
“And you don’t burst into flames in the sun. You leave the house every morning just before dawn.”
“That is true, although since I have been called to you, the sun has been making me ill. I can still tolerate it, but not like the others of my kind. My tolerance is dwindling because I still have not bonded with you.” He carefully took her hand. “Overtime folklore has distorted what were once recorded facts. Fables diluted the truth to the point that our existence is no longer even believable. The sun cannot cause us to burst into flames, nor will garlic blister our skin. Nevertheless, we are different, but we are not evil.”
He rubbed her hands softly with his own. They were cold as ice. Looking into her lost gaze with his own pleading eyes, he explained, “It is a misconception that those of our kind are without souls. Our species has been referred to throughout time as everything from vampyre to demon, universally believed to be nothing more than mythical creatures. However, our existence had been a secreted one dating back to the days of Christ. We are not monsters. We are immortal Christians devoted to the Amish faith and way of life. We are The Order.”
Her emotions were erratic. He could not seem to follow one sense long enough before it flipped into a different feeling completely. He grew alarmed when her emotions began to flicker as if she was losing her grip with reality and beginning to shut down her mind. He waited for her to say something.
Her breathing had accelerated, and her eyes were filled with unshed tears. “Adam?”
“Yes?”
“I want to go home.”
He reached for her, and she flinched. When he reached for her again, she surrendered into his embrace. He pressed her head to his chest and kissed her hair. “Do not fear me, Anna. I could not bear it. Sleep now, my love.” Her legs crumpled, and he carried her to the bed. He wanted to tear at the walls. What if this was something she simply could not accept? What if this was the end for him? What if he never got to hold her willingly again?
He held her sleeping form and watched her. He never wanted to let her go, but perhaps letting her go was for the best.
Chapter 17
The sun was setting across the beautiful Pennsylvania landscapes. Annalise had been sitting staring out at the green and brown patchwork of the earth for several hours. It was nothing like the urban parts of the state she was from. Here, there was nothing but land folded into more land, trees, and old farmhouses here and there. She looked toward the horizon, a small cluster of roads, some immeasurable distance away, so far it made her feel like a giant, able to pinch the tiny rooftops in the distance. She had no way of knowing if the homes she saw rested inside or outside of the property line, no way of knowing if the residents were like Adam and his family or not.
The only thing Annalise did know was that during the hours of daylight, Adam could not tolerate the sun’s intensity as much as the others. She had skipped breakfast. She woke up alone in their room and spent the afternoon dressing and readying herself for a day that was altogether frightening and unpredictable. When she slipped out of the house, she was relieved to find the kitchen empty.
She had walked outside and found a patch of sunshine to sit in far enough from the house. It was hot and she was sure her cheeks were sunburned, but it was her only shelter from the insanity she had been thrown into.
Gracie had come to see her at one point. Annalise had not spoken a word and only thought the repeated phrase, go away, go away, go away. Eventually the girl sighed and returned to the house.
Annalise did not want to talk. What would she say? She felt confused and stuck somewhere that even if she escaped, she would never understand. She would never be the same. It wasn’t like she could tell her friends at home about this. That would be a one-way ticket to the loony bin. She was living on a farm of Amish vampires. How insane was that?
When Adam first began telling her about his secrets, she didn’t believe him. Then he had sliced his flesh wide open and healed right before her eyes. She had been in school long enough, learning the basics of medical practices and common scenarios to know that a wound wide enough for stitches and deep enough to bleed a person to death did not just miraculously heal itself.
The age thing was not as much of a red flag as the healing. It was the twenty-first century after all. There were things like BOTOX and plastic surgery that Annalise supposed could make any seventy-something woman appear to be in her thirties. Maybe. She thought about celebrities who never seemed to age and figured the plain lifestyle and simple living contributed to how fit they all looked. That was the rationale she had clung to last night. Today, however, she had wondered if celebrities like Dolly P
arton who looked better than they did in the eighties were actually vampires as well.
And what about all the vampire propaganda? There were shows, books, movies, and more setting bloodsucking trends across America. Was there any truth to these fictional works? Would they eventually all be living amongst one another, fighting for civil rights among species and serving up bottled blood? Was there a scary governing trio somewhere in Italy that would come and rain down penalties on those who broke protocol? And what about werewolves? Did they exist, too? It was all simply too much.
Anna began to bite her nails as if the answers to her problems rested somewhere beneath her cuticles. When she nipped her skin a little too close and drew blood, she quickly stuck the digit into her mouth and looked around, paranoid that some rabid vampire was going to sniff her out and attack. She knew she was being ridiculous, but she kept her finger in her mouth until the blood stopped nonetheless. Once her finger was nothing more than a dried up prune, she decided it would be safe to occupy her fidgeting hands by braiding grass. She plucked three long blades and began weaving them together.
Anna had been freaked by Adam’s mind trick. Moving things with your eyes was just wrong. Yet, in hindsight, she supposed she should be grateful that he hadn’t poofed into a bat or something. Did they sleep in coffins? And was this why she hadn’t come across a mirror? What about garlic? She could have sworn she saw Gracie slicing up some the other day.
And what about Cain? Everyone had been so furious over his flirting. Was it because he had intentions she didn’t understand but the rest of them did? Was he going to eat her? Anna moaned and dropped her face into her palms, her long green rope of grass forgotten.
Could she believe Adam? He’d sworn since the first time they met that he did not lie. If she asked him something, he told her the answer, no matter how upsetting. He had also done some sneaky work of omitting some facts. She guessed his loophole was that she never asked. He had drunk her blood.
Called to Order [The Order of Vampyres 1] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 19
