Heartbeat (Morta Fox Book 1)

by D. N. Hoxa

  All of a sudden, he wasn’t cheerful anymore.

  “But our dearest Mohg had different ideas. He chose to explore,” he spit, “…and treat the land and come up with all sorts of ideas, and you know the worst part?”

  He turned to look at me. I only shrugged, his green eyes scaring the living hell out of me for a second.

  “For a long time, I, too, was convinced that it was the right thing to do. That we could finally be free. Until I woke up one day.”

  I was caught between saying something and keeping my mouth shut. In the end, curiosity won.

  “I don’t understand,” I said, in hopes that he would take it as the question I intended my statement to be.

  “You will. Eventually, you will.”

  In came the vampire with a glass as big as my Lord’s, filled with delicious wine. I would’ve feared it to be poisonous, but then I remembered that I was already a vampire. Poisons didn’t work in my body. So I took the glass and drank half in one swig. It was delicious. The best drink I’d ever tasted.

  My Lord didn’t say more about the topic. He only showed me countries on the map. Told me meaningless stories about when the world was the way it was supposed to be, all the while watching every small reaction on my face and body. I tried to act like I couldn’t tell, but I knew he knew that I was aware of his eyes on me the entire time. It was hard, and I almost burst out in flames by the intensity of his evil glare alone, but I never dared turn my head. Too much was at risk. Hammer was at risk. As long as I couldn’t figure out how to get him out of there, I had to play the little pet.

  For the next three nights, he told me bits and pieces of whatever he thought he was doing. I got the feeling that he was testing me. Looking for a reaction. An opinion, even. I gave neither. I only stood like a piece of wood by his side, and I listened, without word.

  On the second night he called me to the laboratory, he said:

  “It’s almost time, my pet. I’m afraid you’re not going to have the time you deserve to prepare. But my hands are tied. We must act now if we want to stop them.”

  I didn’t get any of it, except the feeling that this couldn’t be right. It felt like I was on the verge of a terrible event, and I had no way out of it.

  On the third night at the laboratory, he told me what the glass boxes held. “It’s a series of chemicals, mixed into silver,” he said. CFPH. “Not only does it blow, and not only is this iron mixture as damaging to vampires as silver, it also conveys the explosion like electricity throughout the whole place.”

  “What do you mean?” The question was sudden and very stupid. It cut his laugh abruptly. His brow rose and he watched me, his suspicion making me act even more suspicious than I already had.

  “I mean that I will kill them. All of them,” he said.

  “You can't…” That’s as far as I managed to go before he hit me so hard on the chest that I flew all the way to the other side of the room and fell against the cold tiles. They broke, and so did my bones. Or it felt like it.

  I couldn’t breathe for five seconds. I gasped for air, and gasped and gasped, and willed my lungs to open, but it was no use.

  He came in front of me, looked down at me and smiled, before he sent me to my cave, terrified and nauseous, my head threatening to explode with questions. Who was he talking about? Humans?

  No, he wouldn’t need silver for humans. He was talking about vampires. About Mohg, and no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with anything.

  On the next night, my Lord called me and didn’t seem amused. I doubted he would be after he threw me across the room the night before, but he called me.

  This time, we were alone. I was dying to know about Hammer. I knew it was stupid to even consider asking, but I was going to.

  “Sometimes you look so innocent, so very calm and boring, that nothing seems wrong about the way your eyes move,” my Lord said. He was holding a glass of wine in his hand and looking at the map, motionless as a statue. “Yet sometimes, you ask questions,” he said like that was a crime. I cringed internally, but I said nothing.

  “And then, there are the feelings. You feel so much, it’s pathetic. Tell me, Morta,” he whispered and slowly turned to face me. The look of his eyes was as deadly as ever. “What do you really hide behind that beating heart?”

  The wisest thing to do would have been to keep my mouth shut. But I was so scared when I looked at his eyes that the word stumbled from my mouth. “Hate,” I said, the same second I regretted saying it.

  “No, no. Hate is good. Hate is healthy. Hate moves you forward and teaches you how to survive,” he said, shaking his head. “What you feel is different from hate.”

  I tried hard not to move, or flinch, or anything—just stand there. Look at the ground. But he could tell how I felt. That a million small bugs were running up and down my veins, leaving me uneasy and driving me crazy, bit by bit.

  “The man you were with…” he didn’t finish. At the mere mentioning of Hammer, my heart skipped a long beat. Something he most certainly heard. “Let’s go see him.” I heard the smile in his voice. I freaked out. I felt like I was going to start crying soon.

  I dragged my feet, one after the other, and stayed a good three steps behind him while he walked. I was alone. This was the perfect chance to jump him. There would be no one to stop me, except for him. I’d seen the kind of strength he had when he threw me across the room. One push, and he left me panting for air.

  He opened a door. The hallway was filled with five others. I lost my chance.

  I had to think and think fast. I couldn’t let him hurt Hammer. I’d let him kill me first. Easy. Too damn easy to just tell him the truth and have him end me. Exactly the opportunity I would have loved when I was first turned into a vampire.

  But now, there was Hammer. I couldn’t leave Hammer. I almost hated him for this, for taking this opportunity away from me, but I ended up hating myself with every step I took after my Lord through the dark corridors of the bunker. We were at Hammer’s cage before I could come up with something to say or do.

  My Lord opened the door, and he carefully made way for me to enter first. When I saw Hammer, a cry escaped me. There was nothing left of him but bone and skin.

  He looked miserable. Still tied to thick chains, thrown in the corner of the room, covered in mud. As soon as I stepped inside, he opened his eyes. The eyes that were once so full of color, now looked void. Everything in me snapped as I looked at him. My eyes filled with tears immediately. I didn’t care if my Lord saw. Let him know. I was going to take Hammer out of there, no matter if I had to die to do it.

  “Would you look at that?” my Lord said, not half as surprised as I expected him to be. He knew. He knew all along. “I think I found what your feelings are, and hate is nowhere near you.”

  Hammer’s lips moved. He wanted to tell me something. His fingers moved. That’s when I saw that the cuffs around his wrists and ankles were made of silver. That’s why he was so spent.

  “Let him go,” I said, a crying plea that made me want to turn inside out. But I had no other choice. I was going to beg if that’s what it took. My Lord started to laugh.

  “I’ll do no such thing,” he said. “On the contrary…” and his voice trailed off. I wanted to turn to look at him, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Hammer’s face. He wanted to say my name.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll plant that bomb in Trinidad. Just let him go,” I whispered.

  “What made you think you ever had a choice?” he asked. “No, my pet. You are going to go to Trinidad, do exactly what I tell you to do, but all of that comes after you bite this vampire’s neck.”

  I should’ve fallen that second. I was so scared, I felt like I should’ve kissed the ground by then. But, I didn’t. I turned to my Lord. Was he fucking playing with me? Was he insane?

  Oh, yeah. He was insane.

  “No,” I said, my voice far from the plea he heard from me earlier.

  “It wasn’t a re
quest, Morta,” he took one step closer to me and smiled.

  I heard Hammer move his hands. I knew he could see. He thought I was in danger. He probably wanted to tell me to shut up. And that’s why I loved the guy. I came first, even when he was looking death in the face.

  “Fuck you, Everard. I’m not going to bite him.”

  The first time he looked really surprised, with no trace of mock or pretend, was when I said his name. His lips parted, and he stared at me in shock. Only for a second.

  But when his hand flew up to my face, I was expecting it. I was ready. I leaned down. That did no good for the knee that connected to my chin, though. Thank God my jaw had filled with needle sharp teeth because my square ones would have probably broken.

  I pushed him with my head on his stomach and fast, and the sound that came out of me was otherworldly. Like a snake. I hated it, but it felt like when I produced it, I relieved the pain, the stress, and the fear.

  Everard started to laugh. He grabbed me by my hair when a quarter of a second ago, he was at least four feet away from me. He dragged me to Hammer. I couldn’t free myself from his strong grip, no matter how hard I tried.

  I fell on my knees in between Hammer’s legs. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was desperate to get out of his body and save me. But it was my turn to save him this time.

  Everard kept laughing and pushed my head forward until I was face to face with Hammer.

  “Come on, little pet. Bite him,” I kept my mouth shut and tried with all my strength to not let him move me any farther. “Follow your Lord’s orders, now. Bite him.”

  I felt like my neck was going to break. Both palms on Hammer’s chest, I pushed back as much as I could without breaking his bones completely. I just needed something to hold onto to give me enough time to just turn or do anything that would put my mouth in direct contact with Everard’s skin.

  “Do not resist me, pet. I will kill him in front of you, slowly, much more painfully than if you bite him. And then I’ll continue to you.”

  It was about three seconds after that that fear completely took over me. I let go of my self-control and let it guide me. Best decision I ever made.

  He pushed. I resisted, though I felt like his hand was going to break into my skull any second now.

  “I am not your pet,” I hissed.

  He ignored me. He pushed again. The second he did, I let go. His hand flew forward, and my lips met Hammer’s.

  Everard needed less than half a second to regain his balance.

  Less than half a second was more than enough for me. With my mouth open, I turned my head, and I bit into the first thing I caught.

  His wrist.

  I didn’t open my mouth once my teeth made their way into his flesh. I looked up at him. He was completely taken off guard. Shocked, he looked at my mouth, my teeth buried in his wrist, and couldn’t believe it. He literally saw me there and couldn’t believe it.

  Another kind of fear, one that said he might not die from whatever it was that I gave with my teeth, came over me.

  But then his green eyes turned in their sockets. He fell to his knees.

  I never loosened my jaw. His flesh started to darken from the points my teeth had made, and move fast up his arm and to his neck. The taste in my mouth was terrible. I released his wrist, and it broke, his hand falling right in front of me. A rotten piece of dead meat.

  Dead. Or maybe gone would be the better term. Because he wasn’t there anymore. He wasn’t there. Just rotten skin covering bones in front of me.

  Hammer moved. I looked at him but still couldn’t find myself. I still waited for Everard to show, like he’d done so many times in my dreams.

  He didn’t. I waited, and he didn’t show anymore. I killed him. I killed the vampire who made me one.

  “Mo…” Hammer’s whisper called to my mind. I saw him again. I saw the condition he was in. I wanted to offer him my blood, but I couldn’t. It could kill him.

  Everything after that felt like it was happening in a dream.

  Before I could start to panic, I touched the cuffs around his wrists. I tried to break them with my bare hands, until Hammer nudged me with his foot and pointed his head towards the bars.

  There hung the keys that Everard had used to let us in. There were five of them. By the time I found a match for Hammer’s chains, I felt like sweat should’ve covered me, but my skin was completely dry. It was the very last key, the sonovabitch.

  But the chains were off. All of them. I took Hammer by his shoulders. He barely stood, leaning against the wall.

  Just that second, we heard noises coming from the other side of the hallway. I held my breath, and we didn’t move. If they were close enough, they would hear my heart. They would know. They would…

  The voices disappeared.

  “Can you walk?” I whispered to Hammer’s ear. He nodded, but when he took one step forward, he fell against me. My turn to hold him on my back this time.

  I turned around and grabbed his arms, and he refused. With little strength, he refused to let me. Good thing for now, I was stronger than he was, so I gave him no choice. I wrapped his arms around my neck and his legs around my hips. He tried to complain. I didn’t listen.

  He wasn’t heavy. He was light, even. Lighter than a carry-on. I went for the door with him on my back. I peeked outside, and no one was there. The problem was my heart. Everyone would hear it. But I didn’t have a choice. I needed to reach the end of the hallway on my left and walk out the door. Who knew where it would lead me?

  I ran, anyway. I had no idea where I was going. Out one door, and another, and another, and…

  “Stop her!” someone called.

  The door to my right was the closest. Who knew I had luck left? Because the door led right to the main hallway that led to the exit door of the bunker.

  Shouts everywhere. I pushed the metal door open with my head. I almost broke my neck until it gave enough to let me and Hammer pass through.

  Outside, there were three vampires to my sides. So I headed forward.

  Run, run, run…faster, faster, faster.

  I felt them all behind me. There were too many to count. I didn’t let myself think about that, and I concentrated on how many broken buildings, burnt cars, dead trees I passed instead. I concentrated on Hammer’s arms that hung on to me tighter than before. That could only mean that he was getting stronger.

  They started to shoot at us. Bullets flew all around me, and two caught my legs, but I didn’t feel them. I kept going until the bullets stopped.

  Pitch black all around me, yet I saw everything I needed to see before I ran face first into it. I avoided walls and garbage and pieces of things that were once whole. I ran so hard, so fast, that I forgot to count the time. I had no idea how long it had been.

  The buildings ended, and the woods began. Dark, scary woods with no whole tree or leaf on them. All that was left were tree trunks and vines that seemed to tie around my feet and try make me slip. I jumped more than I ran for a long while.

  I had no idea where I was. I just knew that I had to keep moving forward. I had Hammer with me. That was the only motivator I needed. My teeth were sharp and my blood frozen. Though I should’ve run out of breath long ago, I never stopped.

  That’s until the ground fell before me. It was straight one step, right there, and then gone the other, down what looked like a hill. A broken hill, with nothing but a thin line of dark brown water streaming through the very middle, dividing the hill into two.

  I heard the voices of the vampires behind me.

  “I’m sorry, Hammer,” I whispered, before I jumped forward.

  I landed on my feet by some miracle, right in the middle of the hills, my feet planted in the mud. I pushed forward. Running was so much easier on the way down. Thank God I didn’t have to climb up somewhere.

  The hill went down forever. But finally, I could faintly see where the water disappeared to the left, and the ground was straight again. I pushed harde
r. My mud-caked shoes slipped. I fell on my knees. I only had a second to let go of Hammer.

  I heard the others, too close to me, closer than they’d been the whole way. Hammer fell forward, and so did I. I rolled and rolled and rolled until I felt bile in my mouth.

  Hammer fell straight on his back and me on my stomach. No air inside my lungs. I rose to my knees, and I grabbed Hammer by the arm, desperate, and started to drag him away.

  This can't be it, I thought. I couldn’t let Hammer die like that. He deserved so much better. If not for anything else, then only for what he did for me. For bringing me life for the first time in my miserable existence.

  His eyes were closed. I dragged and dragged until my hands refused to hold him any longer. Tears slipped from my eyes. I heard voices. Steps, everywhere around me.

  This was it, unfortunately.

  But I didn’t plan to go down without a fight. With my eyes closed, I planted a quick kiss on Hammer’s forehead.

  “I’m so, so sorry,” I whispered. “I wish we could’ve…” Lived.

  That one sentence had probably more meaning to me than it did to anyone else in the world. Hammer’s lids moved, but he couldn’t open them. I didn’t have the time to wait for him to look at me for one last time.

  The voices stopped. I stood up, and my teeth grew sharp. I wiped the tears from my cheeks and spread mud on them instead. I turned around.

  Up the hill, right in the middle, there were more vampires than I could count. All looking down at me, all burning with rage, each with a pair of huge, deadly fists to their sides. I stepped in front of them.

  “Come on!” I called.

  They didn’t move. They stood there like damned trees, and they watched me. It only frustrated me more. I couldn’t wait to get this over with. I would die, but I would at least take a few with me.

  “What the hell are you waiting for?! Come on!” I called again, louder this time.