After returning the car back to her parents we made our way quickly back to the sanctuary. Holly excused herself and I headed down the hallway alone. I had forgotten my Prada glasses and the sun was beginning to make its way into the sky. Even though it was just barely dawn, already my eyes were burning so I was happy to be back into the darkness of my room.
I opened the door slowly and checked every corner of the area making sure I was alone. Satisfied that I was I sat on the bed and thought about Holly. She had taken a big risk for me and I hoped she wouldn’t get into any kind of trouble for it. I also wondered if I should go find Gavin or wait for him to come to me. I didn’t have to ponder that particular question for too long because at that moment there was a small knock at my door.
“It’s me.” I stood up and straightened my hair and clothes before letting him in.
“Hi,” I greeted him holding the door open. He looked a mess, like someone who had spent the night in the woods complete with crow feathers hanging off his jacket. I picked one off and held it up silently asking where it came from. He simply gave me a shrug.
“Listen,” he began “I’m sorry that I…” I didn’t want him to apologize. I decided to put an end to that right here and now. As the story of him sitting under my bedroom window night after night while I was sick and suffering flooded back I put up my hand signaling for him to stop.
I reached for his face pulling his lips to mine and gave him a long, lingering kiss. We pulled apart for a moment as he looked me in the eyes with a sigh of relief and a smile.
He brought his face to mine once again and kissed me back as he ran his long slender fingers through my hair.
The kiss ended but he didn’t let go. Instead he pulled me tightly to him, holding me like he never wanted the moment to end. “I was so worried,” he said. “I thought I’d made a huge mistake and you’d never speak to me again. I’m so sorry.”
“Stop that,” I said. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. From now on I’ll follow your lead. You’re my guardian after all and I want to learn everything I can. Time is running out, and my time may be shorter than anyone’s.”
He held me tighter still, “I’ll never let that happen.” I knew he meant it but after my experience with James I didn’t want to be away from his side period.
“Stay in this room with me?” I asked not sure how he would respond. “Don’t leave me alone. I don’t want to be alone in here.” He pivoted my eyes toward his as if trying to read my mind.
“What is it?” I wasn’t about to tell him what had really happened, not yet. “You don’t look so good.”
“I just… I’m missing home I guess. And with you I feel safe. ” He seemed satisfied to hear that and put my head to his chest once again, kissing me on the top of the head.
“Everything will be just fine, you’ll see.” I snuggled into him. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we take a walk down to your house and feed your cat. She must be out of food by now.”
“My god I totally forgot. I don’t think I left her any.”
“Oh I was there a couple of nights ago to feed her. Let’s go see her, and then we can continue our work when we get back. It shouldn’t take long.” I was never so happy to agree with an idea in my life.
We let ourselves into the house and Gizzy was indeed happy to see me. I sat on the couch and let her rub her face against mine as much as she wanted to. After the last few days I was happy to be in the comfort of familiar surroundings. I filled her bowl and then went into my bedroom to make a call to my aunt. I wanted to both make sure she was ok and also to let her know that I wouldn’t need a ride into town for the next week at least. I didn’t want her to stop by and discover by accident that I just wasn’t there.
I was feeling a lot better when I went back into the living room. Gizzy was tightly curled up on Gavin’s lap purring up a storm as he scratched under her chin. I curled up next to them on the couch and we three sat there in silence for about half an hour before it was time to get going.
Gavin could see on my face that I hated to leave. “Don’t worry,” he said, “Soon you’ll be back here and out of the sanctuary all together.”
“Can’t wait.” I think those were the truest words I had ever spoken. I really couldn’t wait for all of this to be over one way or another. Whether that meant having the imminent threat from Samuel being eliminated, or being killed by James I didn’t care. I just wanted it all to stop.
We locked up the house and made our way back. I had no desire to go out into the courtyard after our little meeting with the revenant so we went into another part of the building. A large room filled with different medieval looking weapons, most of which I did not recognize.
“It’s time you learned about swords.” Gavin went over to a large chest and grabbed four swords, two for each of us. The weapons were quite beautiful and deathly sharp. Celtic knots were carved into both the blades and handles.
“So as we discovered the other day revenants are quick, dangerous and extremely hard to kill. We got lucky because of your talent for starting a fire, which of course is one way to kill them, but if you hadn’t done that I’m not sure we’d still be standing here.” I nodded in silent agreement.
“The other ways to kill them are by decapitation and skewering them through the heart, so basically the same way you have to kill a vampire.”
“Basically?” I said picking up on that word. “Is there anything that makes them different?”
“Well the only other thing they can’t tolerate is sunlight. It will kill them, but of course we have no control over that. If Samuel really is coming with an army of them you can be certain he’ll come at night.” Suddenly my dream of the revenants burrowing in the ground made sense. They were digging their own makeshift graves not only to conceal themselves but to protect themselves during the day.
As Gavin twirled the swords around his head and all around his body it was easy to see he was an expert. His moves were so fluid and graceful that the swords seemed more like an extension of his body as opposed to a weapon.
“I know it’s asking a lot, like with every other skill we’re trying to work on in a short time, but you need to have some confidence with the swords. I’m going to come at you, and I’ll show you how to defend yourself. If it comes down to a fight of some kind I will pair up with you and go on the offensive. Don’t go after them, just protect yourself. Understand?”
“I understand.” With that he raised the swords and charged toward me. On his first pass he knocked both of the swords out of my hands and had me on the ground in less than a second.
“You must hold tight of them, never let them go. To drop your weapon is to forfeit your life.”
He made another run at me and this time I managed to hold on the weapons, albeit clumsily. I clanged blindly against his attack using my new found speed. I watched his blades and every time a blade came toward me I moved my own sword to deflect it. “Not bad,” he said taking a time out. “It’s not likely that the revenants will be using swords of course but you’ve seen the damage their talons can do. If you can’t get a good shot at the head or heart you can always lop off a hand. It won’t stop them and they’ll grow it back right away but it might give you a few seconds to get away.”
The thought of chopping off a hand or head with a sword was frightening. Samuel waging his attack was becoming far more real as Gavin spoke. “Have you ever been in a fight like this before?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said casting his eyes down remembering. “I fought revenants in France, back in the late seventies. A vampire there had lost his family and in his grief he brought them back. There were only five of them and two of those were children, but they wiped out an entire village of three hundred people before we could stop them.”
“That’s awful. What was he thinking?”
“Grief is a powerful thing. It will make you lose sight of everything, even the difference between right and wrong. I guess you could say it is grief th
at is driving Samuel in a way.”
That didn’t seem logical. I was under the belief that greed and power were Samuel’s driving force. “What do you mean?”
“He’s grieving over the loss of his relationship with his brother in a way. When Angus cast him out it hurt him deeply. He knew it was coming after the things he did but still, he never thought that Angus would actually do it. And once he gets back on Soldiers Cove land he’ll be stronger. His emotions will be more intense. He’s not going to take any mercy on anyone whether they are his blood or not. He’ll feel his grief and rejection all over again.”
Gavin picked up the swords raising them once more. “Are you ready to go again?” he asked.
“Ready,” I said.
“I want you to go for my hands this time.” He took a run at me and stretched his hands out in front of him in the same way the creature had. I raised my sword over my head and brought it down just in time to stop from actually cutting his hand off.
“Why did you hesitate?” he asked.
“I didn’t want to take your hand off for real.” Did he want to lose a hand for the sake of practice?
“It’ll grow back,” he said.
“What?” Even though in the last few weeks I had seen and done things that never seemed possible this little bit of information surprised me. Gavin began to laugh.
“I just told you hands grow back didn’t I? Your shoulder grew back didn’t it?”
“You said the revenant’s hands would grow back, not yours.”
“I guess I should have clarified. Come on lets go again and I’ll show you.” He saw the hesitation in my stance as I raised the sword over my head. “It’ll be fine I promise.” He winked, “Don’t hold back.” And with that he was running once again. He moved quickly with his arms outstretched to grab me. I matched his speed and brought the weapon down on his hand severing it off completely. The detached limb landed on the floor with a thud.
“Look,” he said holding his arm up. In a few moments another hand grew in its place from the bloody stump that had been there for just a few moments, perfect in shape and form. He wiggled and stretched the fingers as if he was breaking this new piece of himself in, as he did the hand on the ground turned into dust.
“What the hell?” I said in disbelief. Gavin stood by my side and put his arm around me placing his brand new hand on my shoulder. I examined it closely. “That’s amazing.”
“Yeah, not bad eh? Works with legs too. Just watch your head because unlike your limbs, when it’s gone, it’s gone for good.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that. Your hand grew back right away though. Why did my shoulder take so long?”
“Because you’re not full blooded yet. Let’s go again,” he said. I shook my head in agreement but before we could continue my breaths became short. Since being changed I had rarely felt like I was over exerting myself but a feeling of exhaustion came over me with no warning.
Before I knew it I was gasping for air. I slumped to the floor as the daggers I had felt in my stomach previously returned with a vengeance. I knew it was blood I needed, but unlike the previous times I had thirsted this was greater. It was sheer agony. I could hear someone screaming like they were being tortured, and then realized, it was my own screams I was listening to.
Gavin lifted my head and cradled me against his chest. “Rachel? What’s wrong?”
“Blood,” was the only word I could get out. I could see the fear on his face as he drew his fangs and fumbled with his wrist, chewing into it and sucking hard to get the flow from his vein started. He put his bleeding wrist to my mouth and I tried to drink but the wounds closed too quickly and I was so weakened that I couldn’t keep it open.
“Hold on, “he said laying my head on the floor. I doubled over next to him as he took off his shirt and bit into the crook of his arm. He tore out a chunk of flesh spitting it out on the ground and the blood ran more freely. He brought the open wound to my mouth and I drank as it closed up. After a few swallows I gained enough strength to keep sucking and keep the gash open.
I drank and drank until the burning pain subsided into something more manageable. Finally when I stopped he was looking a bit sick himself. I didn’t want to hurt him and so I resolved not to drink anymore, even though I desperately wanted to.
He took a deep breath and drew me close to him again. “You’ve been drained. Damn it I can’t believe I didn’t see it.” James had fed on me for a prolonged period and it had finally caught up with me. “What did you do to yourself?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Nothing,” I lied. “I don’t know what happened.”
I could hear in his voice that he didn’t believe me, but for whatever reason he decided not to push. “You need good blood again. Mine won’t hold you for long, maybe a couple of hours.” He sighed. “Oh god Rachel, what were you thinking?”
“I don’t want anyone else to die,” I whispered to him thinking of the innocent girl and the not so innocent man.
“We’re going to take a drive,” he said after a brief silence. “I’m going to teach you how to feed without killing, but we have to go to a special place to do it.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Sydney, can you walk?” he asked helping me up.
“I think so.” I stumbled around for a second and then he helped me out of the sanctuary. Placing the glasses over my eyes he laid me in the back seat of his car.
Sydney was an hour away. “Will yourself to sleep until we get there,” he ordered. “Just hold on. Soon you’ll be feeling a lot better.” I put my head down and covered my eyes with my arm as he started the engine. A moment later everything went black.
Chapter Seventeen
The Sydney waterfront had undergone significant changes in recent years and part of that was the addition of a beautiful new hotel. Gavin parked in the lot just as I woke up and we walked in silence to the front desk, which was just as well because I was beginning to feel the daggers coming on again. As we approached a petite looking brunette with big dark eyes gave Gavin a nod.
“We’d like to go downstairs,” he said in a low but casual voice as he pushed a black credit card across the counter.
“Of course,” she said. After a few minutes of tapping on the computer in front of her she handed us two room keys. We walked past the elegant elevator in the lobby and down a corridor to what looked like a service elevator. Gavin gave a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching us as we waited. The door opened silently and we slid in.
Placing my hand against the wall I braced myself as my legs weakened a bit. “It’s going to be alright,” he said as the elevator made its descent. “In a little while you’ll feel much better.” When the elevator finally came to a stop we stepped out into a second lobby. Judging by the length of the elevator ride I figured that we must have been pretty far underground.
This lobby was all in black, decorated in a decidedly gothic theme. The man behind the desk here was the complete opposite of the petite brunette in her pressed uniform. He was clad in leather and had long black hair which flowed well past his waist. Obviously another vampire, as his fangs were partially extended. He smiled as we approached his whole demeanor otherworldly as he spoke with an accent I couldn’t quite place.
“Mr. MacDonald,” he said in a deep respectful manner, “we’ve not had the honor in quite a while.” He took me in for a moment. “Your friend here is new isn’t she?”
“Yes she is.”
“She looks as though she is not feeling well.” Either I looked sicker than I felt or he was just incredibly perceptive. “What is your name child?”
“Rachel,” I said.
He came from around the desk so fast that the movement was undetectable. “Rachel this is Moroltho,” said Gavin.
“Do not worry Miss Rachel,” he said kissing my hand, “we will take care of all your needs here. This way.” He motioned for us to follow. “Does your friend have a preference for type?” he asked Gavin.
“No. We’ll need to try different types and we’ll need a lot of blood. She’s drained.”
“Horrible!” Moroltho said with a modicum of disgust in his husky voice. We were led into a beautiful room, large and ornately decorated. The bed was massive and draped in crisp white sheets that were pleated on the bottom. The room, with its red carpeting and black walls, purposely made everything stand out.
Off of the bedroom there was a formal dining area and living room. Also in the suite was the biggest shower I’d ever seen, three sprayers and enough room for about five people to stand in. Next to the shower was a large tub with more than enough room for two. It was definitely the best of everything. Gavin palmed Moroltho a tip as he motioned to the intercom device. The bed was pushed up against the wall with the intercom above the pillow so that one needn’t even get out of bed to use it.
“When you are ready to begin press the button. You know the routine,” he said. “Lovely to have met you my dear.” I gave him a nod and with that he disappeared.
“So what is the routine exactly?” I said when we were alone. “And where are we?”
“Get undressed,” he said not answering my question directly. “You’ll want to enjoy the full experience.” He peeled off his shirt and threw it on the floor, and then removed his blue jeans leaving only his underwear. I took him in for a moment enjoying the sight of him. He was muscular and tall, very masculine as his body was hardened and toned from a life of working in manual labor before his own transformation.
“Come on,” he said gently as he pulled off my shirt, “don’t be shy.” He kissed me deeply as he removed my bra and caressed my full breasts with his rough workman’s hands. He slid my jeans down my legs leaving my underwear on as well.
“I’m going to go first,” he said as he led me to the bed, having me kneel on the soft white sheets next to him.
“The key is the heartbeat. You need to control your want and need enough to be listening. You need to hear what that person’s natural heart rhythm is before you begin, and when you start feeding you have to remember to listen. When you hear it slow down or change in the slightest you stop.” He touched my face. “Ready?”
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove Page 10
