Life's Blood (Pulse Book 2) (PULSE Vampire Series)

by Kailin Gow

  She did not speak to Aaron, to Jaegar, or to Stuart, beyond the occasional “thanks” and “hey” and “turn left, here.” It was clear that they knew something was wrong – that she was involved somehow with Octavius – that it was over between them – and yet she could not bring herself to discuss it, so afraid was she of spilling over into tears. “Choose one of the brothers,” Octavius had said. But all she could think of was Octavius himself.

  She greeted Justin with red rings about her eyes.

  Chapter 18

  “Didn't you have a nice time?” Justin asked her.

  She shrugged. “It was okay.”

  She locked the door.

  The next few days were even harder. Little things – like Justin's frozen lasagna or the sound of the birds outside her window – infuriated her, reminded her that she was in a small town in a small world, that she had been so close to something real, something beautiful, and that she had been found wanting – too young, too immature, too naïve.

  Or maybe it had all just been a lie. Maybe Octavius was telling the truth about compulsion. Kalina wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

  At last the first piece of good news came to lift her from her torpor. When Kalina came downstairs one morning soon after, she found a letter on the hallway table, marked clearly “Yale Department of Admissions.”

  Yale! In the chaos of this month, she'd almost forgotten that she had applied for early decision.

  Dear Kalina,

  We are delighted to grant you early admission to the class of...

  It was the first smile Kalina had smiled in weeks. It had been her dream for so long – for a moment, as she clasped the envelope to her breast, she felt that at last there was something outside the world of vampires and dangers that had so sucked her in the past few months – that there was a world of sunlight, of New England ivy and college classes, of courses on the Italian Renaissance (Octavius! The Castel St. Angelo) and French literature (walks along the Seine!)

  She resolved to share this good news with Jaegar. She drove down to the old wineries, finding Jaegar standing on patrol on the terrace.

  “Long time no see, Miss Kalina.”

  She bounded onto the terrace. “Take a look at this.” She handed him the admissions letter.

  He scanned the page. “We are delighted to grant you...well done, Kalina!” He grinned at her. “Not that any of us had any doubt.”

  “If I don't get it rescinded after all the classes I've missed this semester...” She laughed lamely, but Jaegar's smile warmed her heart. He looked at her with such sincere admiration, such sincere joy, that Kalina could not resist thinking back to what they'd had, or almost had, before she'd left with Octavius.

  “But...aren't you going to be in Italy?” Jaegar asked, and she could see his lips tighten with unexpressed jealousy.

  “Nope,” said Kalina, a little too harshly. “I'm staying right here. Or at least, in this country.”

  The sight of Jaegar's smile taking on a new dimension was reassuring to her. At least he still wanted her; after all they had been through. He would never use compulsion to make her love him – at least, not beyond that first flirtation – he would never lie to her, never break her heart. For all their witty banter and teasing, for all his cocky behavior, Jaegar was a good vampire at heart – as eager and straightforward as she was.

  She felt a twinge of guilt as she took Jaegar's hand, but it quickly dissipated.

  Fine, she thought to herself. If Octavius wants me to pick a brother, that's exactly what I'm going to do.

  She leaned in and pressed her mouth against Jaegar's. He started in surprise.

  “Kalina, what are you...”

  “Don't talk.”

  His lips were sweet; his arms were reassuring. She wanted to feel them wrapped tightly about her, squeezing out her pain, squeezing out her hurt, until there was nothing there but her desire and oblivion.

  He responded at first to her ardor, kissing her back with all the delight and joy born out of weeks of waiting for her.

  “I thought I'd lost you,” he was whispering. “I was so scared you were gone for good.”

  “I'm here.” She led him into the house, pushing him down onto the bed.

  So, Octavius thought she was just a little girl? She'd show him.

  Even Jaegar seemed surprised at Kalina's direct approach, as she straddled him and began unbuttoning his shirt.

  “I don't understand,” he said. “I thought you and Octavius...”

  “I don't want to talk about that,” she said. She wanted to erase every memory of Octavius from her body, replace it with something newer, something better. She wanted to do with Jaegar all that she and Octavius had left undone – so that when her blood began to run hot, so that when she thought of desire, Octavius’ face would stop appearing before her...

  She ripped off her blouse – she threw Jaegar's shirt over the arm of the sofa. With nimble gestures, she reached for the zipper to his jeans...

  “Come on.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I want to!” Her voice didn't even sound like her own. “I've been waiting for this ever since I had to leave.”

  “Look, Kalina, I'm not complaining.” He caught hold of her wrists. “Just, slow down for a second, okay?”

  “I don't want to slow down!” she shouted, unaware of the tears gathering in her eyes. “I'm eighteen. Four bloody sexy vampires want me. And I'm sick and tired of this stupid spell. I just want to have sex already!”

  “Oh, thanks.” Jaegar sat up.

  “I don't see you complaining. Now just – lie back, okay!”

  “Kalina, please, stop!” He pushed her off him. “I didn't realize I was just there.”

  “It's not like you haven't done it with loads of girls.”

  “Yeah, you know what?” He wiped his mouth and started putting on his shirt. “I never treated any of them like you just treated me.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kalina's fear and rage and pain were all seeping back in. “You always wanted to...”

  “I wanted you to want me, Kalina. Not just whoever was willing. I wanted you to want to be with me. And if you think I'm so desperate I'm about to have sex with you just because you're – I don't know – bored, or hurt, or whatever, or you and Octavius had some fight...”

  “Don't you even talk about Octavius!”

  “Whatever.” Jaegar snapped. “I'm not interested, okay? I waited for you for months. I fought with my brothers over you. I risked my life over you. And you don't want me? Fine. But I don't want to be your second-choice. And I definitely don't want to be your last-minute booty call.”

  Kalina flushed. His words rang true.

  “That's not what I...”

  “Forget it!” Jaegar had finished buttoning up his shirt. “I'm sick of this, Kalina – you leading us all on. You know how I feel about you. You know how much I want to. And you're just – just using me. Like you accuse vampires of using humans. Just for the blood.”

  “You're overreacting!”

  “Lovers quarrel?” came a voice from behind them. It was a voice they both knew well, and the sound of Mal's menacing cackle filled their blood with terror.

  They froze.

  Chapter 19

  “No,” Kalina whispered. “No.” But it was too late. She felt that same familiar chill in her blood that she had felt in those horrendous hours beneath the Seine, in the ruins of the Bibliotheque Supernaturel. Mal was standing before them, his razor-sharp cheekbones cutting against the air, his face alive with cruelty.

  “So, little girl,” he was saying. “You thought you could escape me.”

  She shivered. Octavius was not here now, and she knew that none of the other vampires could stand a chance without him.

  “But I followed you. Your pain – your sadness – your poor ex-boyfriend Octavius – it was so easily for me to slip into your brain, to feel all that delicious agony.”

  “Get away from her!” Jaegar c
ried.

  “And who are you to stop me?” Mal leered at him. “A piddling mediocre vampire in love with his maker's whore?”

  “How dare you!” Jaegar leaped forward.

  “She'll never love you. Look at her eyes. Look at her face. She's pining after that miserable scion of honor Octavius. Poor girl...and soon, she'll be mine!”

  The door flung open. Stuart and Aaron rushed in, both armed with a stake in each hand and their fangs bared, ready for action.

  Kalina burst into flight. She ran to the fireplace, where she knew there was stashed an extra array of battle materials. She grabbed a stake.

  “The girl thinks she can fight? She's no vampire...”

  Kalina raised the stake, as Aaron rushed towards Mal, slashing his stake wildly. Mal easily stepped aside.

  “You thought you had me beaten.” Mal laughed. “But now it is you who will pay the price...”

  “Coward!” Kalina cried through her rage. “Why don't you pick on someone your own size?”

  Mal whirled around to face her. “Like you, for instance?”

  She fell behind the others, holding up her stake. Jaegar, feint left. Jaegar did so, distracting Mal long enough for Kalina to slash at his right side with a stake, leaving a jagged scar down the edge of his neck.

  “I've had the blood,” Mal laughed. “Nothing can kill me.”

  “Yeah,” Kalina muttered. “I sure can try.”

  Silly girl. Thinking you can play with the vampires. You're only a stupid child, an idiotic teenager. No wonder Octavius doesn't want you.

  “Stop it!” Kalina shouted. “Stop it!”

  I bet he's moved on already. Found another cute girl to play with. Maybe Olive. Maybe someone new. Someone older, more experienced. Someone who knows how to give him pleasure – the kind of pleasure you can never give...foolish child. Did you honestly think he would love you?

  “Stop it!”

  Kalina put her hands to her ears.

  And now not even Jaegar wants you. You're damaged goods. You may be a virgin, technically, but you're no innocent -and he can smell it. We can all smell it.

  Kalina channeled her rage into a single, frenzied swoop.

  And then time seemed to stand still. Stuart, Aaron, and Jaegar were all moving in slow-motion; Mal too was frozen, as if moving in molasses, and yet Kalina was still running, lunging at normal speed, driving her stake deep into Mal's heart, seeing black blood spurt out from where she pierced it. And then she had withdrawn the stake and run across the room – and suddenly time sped up again. Mal was screaming in pain, blood spurting out of the wound – her blood along with his – and Kalina was twenty paces away, and Mal was looking around, wildly, for a sign of his invisible attacker.

  Before Kalina could register what had happened, Mal had seized upon Stuart, his fangs closing in upon his neck.

  “No!” But Kalina's shout was lost in a spray of blood, as Mal bit a gory chunk of flesh out of Stuart's neck, sinking Stuart down to the ground in a viscous layer of flesh and nerve.

  “Stuart!” Aaron rushed forward to his brother, groaning out the barest hint of life, but it was too late. Mal had caught him. No sooner was Aaron close enough to Mal than he was seized in a single, pouncing motion.

  You're next, little girl.

  And then Mal was gone, vanished with Aaron into nothingness.

  “What happened?” cried Kalina.

  Jaegar's face was white. “They transported – transported...they could be anywhere.”

  Stuart was groaning out the last of his strength onto the floor.

  “You take care of Stuart – I'll track them down.”

  “Jaegar, no! It's too dangerous!”

  But Jaegar's ears were closed to her entreaties. Without a parting glance, he ran out into the night, gaining in speed until he was no more than a moving blur and then an invisible ripple upon the wind.

  Kalina sighed as she caught her breath. “Stuart” she cried, running to the motionless figure on the floor.

  She rushed to his side, kneeling down in the pool of Stuart's blood that was spreading readily across the carpet, soaking her skirts. “Stuart, can you hear me?”

  A low moan was her only answer.

  They were running out of time. She quickly made a torniquet out of her blouse – still lying where she had so shamefully torn it off on the floor, and did what she could to stop the bleeding from the neck.

  “It's – not – so – bad.” Stuart had regained enough strength to speak, but even that was fleeting.

  She squeezed his hand. “Oh, Stuart, I'm so sorry.”

  They hadn't spoken properly – had more than a few words alone together since their fight and their subsequent implied breakup after Maeve.

  “I'm so sorry about everything – about Maeve – and about getting jealous, and about leaving...and never resolving anything properly.”

  Stuart gave a low, pained chuckled. “We're – complicated.”

  “I didn't mean to hurt you,” she said. “It's just – everything was happening at once.”

  He nodded.

  “I should have ended things properly – instead of this mess I've made. I didn't mean to – I didn't. And I do care about you so much.” She squeezed his hand again. “You mean so, so much to me – you have no idea how much...you showed me how to be a vampire. How to be kind and strong at the same time. You showed me what I needed to do to protect myself. I'm only sorry I couldn't protect you.”

  “I guess we're broken up, huh?” He tried to smile through his pain.

  “It's so much more than that,” said Kalina. “You will always be so important to me. And if I could give you my blood – if I could make you human – I'd do it, in a heartbeat.”

  Stuart shook his head. “Don't give it to me, Kalina...it will only make me cruel, make me mad like Mal – if I'm not...”

  “My true love?”

  He nodded.

  “I do love you,” said Kalina. “Maybe not like I love – I loved – Octavius, but in my way.”

  “That's all I ask.”

  He raised himself on his elbows, exerting the last bit of energy he had.

  “Kalina,” he whispered.

  “What is it, Stuart?”

  “I want you to know,” he said, his voice cracking as it grew hoarse. “It wasn't your blood I wanted. Not ever. Not now. It was you.” He sighed. “It was always you.”

  “Stuart!”

  Stuart closed his eyes, slipping into the slow sleep that came before death.

  “Help!” Kalina called to the sky, to the ceiling. “Help me!”

  But there was no answer. Jaegar had vanished into the night, in hot pursuit of Aaron and Mal. And there was nobody else she could call, nobody else who could come, and Stuart's blood was still soaking through her blouse, and he was losing strength rapidly.

  Octavius, she called. Please. Please...

  Chapter 20

  Kalina waited with Stuart's body, growing ever colder and stiffer as the life flowed out of him. Octavius, she called again. There was no other choice; Stuart had only minutes to live, if that. All her anger with Octavius, all her hurt and rage, paled next to the necessity of getting Stuart well again.

  She leaned her head on Stuart's chest, knowing all the while that there would be no heartbeat there – there had not been a heartbeat there in nearly a thousand years. Still, the sensation was strange to her; she felt as if she had already lost Stuart, as if he were already dead to her, even as there was still a chance, still a chance.

  “Kalina!” Octavius’ voice was rough with worry.

  She whirled around, instinctively putting her hands over her body, covering herself. She was still in her bra after what had happened with Jaegar, the black lace soaked with Stuart's blood; her skirt soaked with Stuart's blood, her body covered with red and her eyes swollen with tears.

  “What has happened here?” He looked down, clearly feeling awkward at discovering her in this state.

  “Mal – Mal ca
me, took Aaron. Jaegar ran after...”

  “And left Stuart here to die?”

  “Please!” Kalina was sobbing. “Please, don't let Stuart die.”

  Octavius’ lips tightened. Could Kalina detect a layer of jealousy behind his cool, efficient reserve? No – it couldn't be. Octavius didn't love her – he had sent her away, he had told her it was only ever compulsion between them.

  “Could you not give him your blood yourself?” he said stiffly. “You would cure him – and make him human...”

  “It isn't like that!” Kalina shouted. “Please – just do something.”

  Octavius enveloped her in his stare. Then, slowly, he bit into his own wrist, leaving great red marks where the puncture wounds had been left. He dripped the blood slowly into Stuart's mouth. Drop by drop, the blood seemed to revive him, bringing color to his cheeks, repairing the skin torn apart by Mal's fangs. Stuart moaned lightly as Octavius’ blood brought him, slowly, back to strength, one taste at a time.

  “Octavius!” Stuart's voice was full of love – the reverential loyalty due his maker.

  Octavius pressed his hand to Stuart's forehead. “Do not worry, child,” he whispered to Stuart. “Your maker is here. You will be well. I swear it.”

  It was the first time Kalina had truly understood the bond between maker and made. As Octavius comforted Stuart, she saw Stuart's face take on a contented rapture – the face of a child brought home at last to its parents. So too did she see an unexpected tenderness in Octavius’ features – features she had forced herself to despise after what had happened in the chateau. For all his jealousy – his coldness towards her – Octavius was not prepared to let one of his own die.

  When Octavius had finished, Stuart was restored to rosy life, falling immediately into a heavy, childish sleep.

  Octavius took out a lace handkerchief, dabbed elegantly at the puncture wounds, and then turned to Kalina.