by Diana Graves
I jumped, almost slipped in blood, and caught a glimpse of the elevator. The she-vamp was guarding it. What the hell? She was laughing out loud with her head back. Boy, she was getting a real kick out of me. I was going crazy.
“You bitch!” I yelled at her before charging her, a move of pure desperation. I grabbed her shoulders and she let me slam her against the elevator. “Let me go!” I screamed into her face.
She laughed at me, “Do you not like what your future holds here at the Bastion Fatal?” Her face went from amused to irate. She grabbed me by my shirt and slammed me into the wall.
“Bitch, do you have any idea,” she began to say, but I didn’t hear the rest. From up high, I could see over all the bodies. I could see the throne in the center of the room. I could see my brother!
“Nicholas!” I yelled. He was sitting in the throne and he looked like shit. He had blood on his lips and chin. His eyes were partially closed as he looked my way.
“Raina,” I saw his lips say.
“Yes! Nick!” I shouted, and even in this place, being screamed at by a crazy vamp, I smiled. Nick was back!
Nick struggled to make his way to me. He moved wobbly, sort of drunk-like as he pushed his way through the fucking and fighting vampires.
The she-vamp was still holding me up as though she could do it forever. I looked down at her. She was yelling something.
“…are we too scary for you?”
“Well, hello again,” interrupted a blond vampire, not nude but nearly. He was wearing a deep red robe, left open to show off his chiseled abs and chest and silky black thong. I didn’t recognize him at first, but as he came closer his face became more familiar to me. He was Nicholas’s doctor.
“Doctor Blondie?” He gave me an arched eyebrow before he turned to the vampire holding me.
“Set her down, Satan!” he yelled. Satan obeyed, but she glared at me for a bit before she walked away without a word.
“Blondie?” Blondie questioned as he knelt down to me. He offered me his hand. He had long white nails and light pink skin. He must have fed well. His hand felt very soft in my own, big and soft. It was hard to imagine that a hand so soft could rip a man in two at a whim.
“What kind of name is Satan?” I questioned.
“When one is reborn they often take a new name for themselves,” he explained.
“I guess she wanted a name that spoke to her nature.”
“Blondie?” Blondie questioned again.
I shrugged. “You weren’t wearing a name tag last night,” I pointed to his slick hair, “Blond.”
“I’m Gabriel.”
“I’m Raina.”
“I know.” Duh, of course he knew.
Nicholas came at a sloppy run. “Raina?” he said, his voice sounded strained, like he’d been crying for hours. His red swollen eyes confirmed it.
“Nicholas,” I cried. Tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn’t help it. I blinked and the tears came flowing down my cheeks. I watched him die. I watched his broken body give out and I was helpless to save him, my big brother. But, now he stood before me, alive or something like it. I grabbed him by his thick black robe, and held onto him fiercely.
Gabriel silently left us to our reunion.
Nicholas had blood on his face, but I would love him no matter his new diet. I looked up and found him looking down at me. His eyes were swimming in tears.
“Raina?” his voice was still shaking. “We need to talk.”
That’s never good. We walked to a door that was made to look like it was part of the wall, same white paint and gold wall paper. I didn’t notice the room’s décor until then. Gold, white and dark red, thanks to the blood on the floor and walls.
His hand was warm and trembling in mine as he pulled me through the awful carnage and carnal extravagance of his party. I kept my eyes on Nicholas’s bare feet.
NIL
HE SLAMMED THE white and gold door open. The room was all gold: gold shag carpet, gold wall paper, gold bedding and no windows. Nicholas said nothing as he sat on the bed. His black robe was tied tightly around him, but he struggled to tighten it further, beyond what looked comfortable. His skin looked tightly pulled over his bony, clammy, starved hands. His face matched, gaunt and sickly. He looked out of place in the brightness of the room.
I stood there, and didn’t know what to say or do. I set my purse down on the bed but I didn’t sit on it. The bed was unmade and it smelled of body odor and blood.
“I’m a vampire,” Nicholas whispered.
“Yes,” I said softly. “Michael, too.”
“How is Michael?” Nicholas asked.
“I haven’t seen him since that day. When he started turning, the police took us to the town’s VCC.”
Nicholas looked at me with his head at a tilt. “What are you talking about, Raina?”
I sat down beside him. “After you—died,” I began “We were found by a vampire hunter and police who were tracking the vampire who attacked us. They took us to a town called Darkness for medical care.” Nicholas’s eyes widened at the name Darkness, and I noticed that his eyes were no longer a warm brown, but a cold black!
“The vampire town?” he asked, and I nodded. “Tell me everything Raina,” he demanded.
I told him about Ruy, Tasha, Nenet, Michael’s turn, and the classes I was taking, but Nicholas seemed more interested in Sheriff Mato and the investigation. I could relate with his eagerness to know why this happened to us, so I told him everything I knew.
“With Paul dead we can only hope to find the man who sold the vampire disease to him. Right now, I like Mark Press for our salesman, and we have to act fast because Paul’s not the only person this has happened to.”
Nicholas stood up, “Happened to Paul!” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah.”
“So this Paul is a victim?”
I never thought I would have to defend the man who did this to us. “He was sick. He was a man with a death sentence who took the only chance he had at living, like anyone would do, and he died a horrible death, Nicholas.”
“My name is not Nicholas!” he shot. “My name is Nil, because I’m nothing! Nicholas is fucking dead. He died Saturday morning. You know this. You watched!” He looked down at me, and his face was twisted in rage.
“You’re still Nicholas to me,” I began, but he grabbed me. He held me down on the bed by my throat with one hand. I was choking. I grabbed at his hand, and tried to pry it off of my throat.
“Nick?” I gasped.
He squeezed his hand tighter around my neck and I began to kick.
“Nil!” he shouted in my face. “Do you know what I’ve done? Do you know? Do you?” he screamed loud enough to hurt my ears.
I knew. I knew he ate that poor goat and probably another one tonight. I knew that because he was an elf he felt the pain of the animal. I understood his grief, but why hurt me for it?
“Let—go—please,” my voice was weak, hardly audible. I was seeing stars, my vision was blurring, but I could see him digging his nails into his own throat. “No!” I shouted, struggling against his hand. Damn it!
“Nicholas, stop!” He stared at me. His eyes looked red/black, shot in pain. Blood was seeping over his finger nails. He was going to rip his own throat out! “Help!” I screamed, kicking hard into his ribs, digging nails into his hand, trying to pry it from my throat.
I watched as his fingers dug deeper. Blood streamed down his hand, slow at first, but then a wash of dark blood poured from his neck, spraying the room and me. He screamed a guttural scream of terrible pain and I screamed with him.
“Fuck, help, help!”
It was Gabriel and another vampire that busted through the door. Nicholas picked me up by my neck and threw me away like a ragdoll. I hit the far wall. My head slammed into it hard and I fell to the soft shag carpet.
Blood tricked down into my eyes. Was it mine or his? My hands felt too heavy to lift to feel for a wound. I lay there paralyzed and I could
n’t see or hear my brother or anybody else. It was all going dark. “No, Raina, don’t fall asleep!” I told myself, but I was too tired and weak. The last thing I saw before I passed out was a woman’s body. Wait—No, she wasn’t dead. She was sleeping on the floor with bite marks on her neck and a gold blanket draped over her nakedness, just sleeping.
VAMPIRE HIERARCHY
BEFORE I COULD see Damon I could hear him. He was yelling at someone. The deep bass of his rich voice was heart thumping. He sounded pissed. I waited for the yelling to stop before I opened my eyes, and found myself lying on a hospital bed. I couldn’t move. For a few seconds I thought I might have been paralyzed, but then I saw the straps lying over my body.
“Oh, back with us?” asked Gabriel. He was still in his red robe and thong.
“Shit,” I barely managed to say. I didn’t know which injury hurt more, my throat or my head. “How’s Nicholas?” I asked.
“Nil is fine. He gouged a nail through his artery and lost a lot of blood but there was a doctor nearby.”
Gabriel mumbled on, more to himself than me, about the surgery and how difficult it was to hold down a vampire. .
“The girl?” I asked.
“Girl? Oh, Holly,” he laughed. “She was just drunk on vampire pheromones. She was passed out cold. It’s a common occurrence here. She’ll be fine after a good rest. She was Alistair’s present to your brother and I think he thought he killed her.”
Gabriel tried to hand me some pills and water. “For the pain,” he said.
I looked down at the little blue pills. “Will I be able to think straight if I take those?” He smiled down at me but shook his head. I struggled to lift my arms.
“Oh, sorry, we weren’t sure if you would turn. Living vampires are unpredictable…we had to take precautions.”
He set the pills and water down on a counter and made his way around the bed. He unbuckled the straps at my wrists, ankles and across my chest.
“Any time your body is weakened you’re at risk of a full turn.”
Once he was done I felt at my neck and the back of my head. No bandages. The skin wasn’t broken, just swollen and very tender.
He tried to hand me the pills again. “No, no pills. Thanks, but I like having a clear head,” I said. My voice sounded raspy.
“Suit yourself.” He set the stuff on the counter.
“I thought I heard Damon yelling.”
“You did,” said Gabriel with his back to me. “He left. He asked me to call him when you woke. Would you like me to call him?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Gabriel left the room, left me to myself and it was nice. Quiet. I closed my eyes.
“Raina?” Damon’s concerned voice woke me up moments later. He was leaning over me, his deep touchable blackness visibly tense. Gabriel was behind him.
“I’m fine, just a little sore.” He flashed me a dazzling smile. “You were yelling?” I asked quietly because quiet small words hurt less than normal talking.
Damon looked back at Gabriel. It wasn’t a pleasant look. Gabriel stood his ground, showed no fear of Damon, the barguest…Vampire verses barguest. I didn’t know enough about them to know who’d come out alive in a fight to the death.
“Leave,” Damon commanded. Gabriel bowed and left us.
Damon dragged a chair to my bedside. “Raina…” Damon began, but I interrupted him.
“Damon, I’m sorry, but can I ask you something? Well, two somethings.”
He leaned forward. “Shoot,” he said.
I breathed deep but stopped mid-breath because it hurt. I settled for shallow breaths. I tried to sit up to get more comfortable but I was having trouble. Damon grabbed a pillow from a cabinet and placed it long-ways behind me to give me some support.
“Thanks.” He bowed his head. “First question, what the hell kind of birthday party was that?”
Damon looked at the door, then at the bed. “You don’t know much about vampires, do you?”
“Hey, I’m the one asking the questions here.”
“Remember when I told you about master vampires being able to control their subjects?” I nodded. “Master Vampires have complete control over their legion. There is a psychic connection between master and legionnaire. The legion becomes a true extension of their master. Their behavior changes dramatically sometimes.”
“Are you saying that they were acting like that because that’s what their master would have done?” He nodded. I had no idea Alistair, the master of Bastion Fatal, was like that. I mean, he had some serious Caligula issues here. I shook my head, “But, my uncle doesn’t act like that.”
Damon face changed somehow. He might have been annoyed with me but his face was too completely black to tell for certain.
“Seth is a champion vampire. Alistair is a Master Vampire. Masters keep their champions close to them because unlike legion vampires, champions are strong and only their loyalty to their master keeps them by his or her side. They think for themselves.”
I rolled my head on my shoulders very slowly to stretch my neck. It hurt like hell but it also felt good. “Fucking Charley, but I guess I can’t be mad at him now. He was just doing what his master would have him do,” I said.
Damon shook his head, “No, Charley isn’t a legionnaire of Alistair’s. He hasn’t yet found a collective of his own. But, I know why he took you up there.”
“Why?”
“This is your third question now,” he reminded me.
“Thanks for keeping track,” I said. Damon laughed at me. It was a small chuckle more than a full laugh, but it sounded good all the same after all the stuff that just happened.
“As you wish. It is no secret here that Alistair wishes to claim both your brother and you as part of his legion, but a master can’t force a vampire’s loyalty. You and Nil must take the first steps to becoming a legionnaire. Charley wants you to decline Alistair’s offer. He took you up there believing you would see what you might become and refuse Alistair. He asked Satan to help scare you.”
“He told you this?”
“After the fact, yes.”
He looked at me, his dark brow raised, his hands clasped and his chin resting on top of them. He was waiting for me to absorb the information. Charley had planned an intervention, of sorts.
“Why didn’t he just tell me about Alistair?” Damon held up four fingers. I shooed his hand away, “Tell me.”
“He was afraid you wouldn’t understand, but that you also wouldn’t want to see for yourself as a sort of self-preservation.”
“He shouldn’t have been so presumptuous. I could have gone my whole life without seeing what I saw up there!”
I crossed my arms over my breast to pout, which meant they were damn close to my chin and my eyes by association. I hadn’t realized I wasn’t in my own clothes until I saw my naked arms. I guess I hit my head harder than I thought. I was wearing a white hospital gown with little ties in the back and everything. I held up one full hand and my thumb, “Six, where are my clothes?” My pointer finger popped up, “Seven, why was class delayed?”
Damon held up two fingers, “Here,” he said, handing me my clothes with his free hand, clean and neatly folded. He put one finger down. “And about class,” he began, still one pointer finger in the air. “One of my patients was having an emergency.”
“Tristan?”
“I can’t say, but Raina, I think you should start seeing me as well. With all that you’ve been through, I think you may need it.”
I was going to agree with him but before I could utter a word I doubled over in pain. Not physical pain, something almost worse.
“No!” I cried. I couldn’t help myself. I was drowning in rage and sadness. It was like my insides were boiling with hate, boiling with anger toward myself. “What have I done?” I screamed. Damon grabbed me, held me in his arms. “No!” I pushed at him but he didn’t budge. He held me down. “I don’t deserve to be held! I don’t deserve love. I hate myself for what I’
ve done!” I wanted to be punished. I wanted something sharp because I was dead but the job wasn’t fully done.
“I want death! Oblivion!”
Everything was a scream because my thoughts were too loud in my head. I scratched at my arms and I could almost see Nick doing the same thing in a dark room somewhere? Nil? These thoughts weren’t mine but his, and when I realized that I stopped scratching at myself. Damon rocked me in his arms and I cried hard. He was still practically a stranger to me, and yet I clung to him and wept for my brother, for Nick—Nil.
“I’m okay,” I said after a while. The yelling and crying had hurt my throat, it was so raw. I looked at Damon, and he was looking back at me, solid black eyes searching my face, studying it.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Your empathy,” he said with a heavy sigh.
I had to take several deep breaths before I could talk again. I was having a mini panic attack. My heart was racing, my feet were cold and I was beginning to sweat. Damon grabbed the cup of water from the counter. I sipped the water slowly and it soothed my sore throat.
“I think your injuries weakened your ability to block your capacity for feeling other’s emotions.” He cleared his throat. “Whose emotions were you sensing?”
“Nick’s.” I looked down at the water in my hands. “I’m so sleepy,” I said after a moment. “I think I’ll just go home. Can I go?”
“Gabriel says you can leave when you like.”
“Great. I think I’ll have to catch tonight’s class again next week.”
Damon nodded and moved to get up out of his seat, “Everyone will. Class has been cancelled.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of Charley.”
“I know you said he did it to help me, but how could he put me through that?”
“He was in the wrong of course, but I think he achieved his goal.”
I gave Damon a sideways glance, “One more question? The last one, I promise.” Damon nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Why are you mad at Gabriel?”
