by L. M. Justus
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
The cottage door opened and the Queen of San Jose stepped out.
She was dressed head-to-toe in white: a fur hat, matching coat, and knee-high boots. Her blond hair curled in springs, framing her girlish face. She grinned, her fangs on full display.
“No,” I said. “No!” I shouted, pulling Sarah tight to my body.
“It can’t be,” Sarah cried. “No, I would have sensed something. I would have known! Marcel?”
The look she gave him mirrored my sense of betrayal–it was like a fist squeezing my insides until I couldn’t breathe and I felt like my heart would burst.
“How could you?” I choked out.
The Queen clapped her white-gloved hands together with exaggerated slowness. “I enjoy this manner of drama so very much. Please, continue,” she said, lacing her fingers together and resting her hands primly against the front of her coat.
“She arrived in Montreal, shortly after you,” Marcel said. “I had no choice. I couldn’t risk Gabriel.”
“So you’re willing to sacrifice Sarah’s life for Gabriel’s?” I clenched my fists and screamed in frustration. I wanted to strangle Marcel and the Queen, but they were both strong enough to squash me like a bug.
“I did not even know Sarah when the Queen arrived,” Marcel insisted. “Or Sophie or Trudy or any of you! Imagine if you had been in my position and it was Sarah’s safety at risk. You would have gladly sacrificed the life of a stranger.”
“It may not necessarily be a sacrifice,” the Queen said. “It is my intention to turn Sarah into a vampire, not kill her. There is some risk, of course.”
“But, I don’t understand how Marcel could have hidden this from me. I know I would have picked it up from his thoughts,” Sarah said. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t seem more afraid. Her confusion over being duped was irrelevant now, wasn’t it?
“Is that really your greatest concern at this moment?” the Queen asked, echoing my thoughts. “Interesting. Well, if you must know, I told the King of Montreal about your ability and I instructed him how to disguise what he was thinking. I advised him to fill his mind with memories associated with strong emotions.”
Marcel turned to Sarah, his eyes watery with unshed tears. “When you were near me, every time you looked at me, I pictured Gabriel. I imagined the first time we met, and thought about how much I missed him. It wasn’t difficult.”
“Oh, my God. I knew you were thinking about him a lot, almost to the point of obsession, but I never . . .” She swore and buried her face against my chest.
“How sweet,” the Queen said, her voice flat. “It is time for you to leave, your Majesty. Our bargain has been fulfilled.” She flicked her hand, dismissing Marcel.
Before leaving, he spoke to us one last time. “I know you must hate me now, but I hope you will see in time I had no choice. If you ever need a place to stay, you will always be welcome in Montreal. I would gladly spend the rest of my life atoning for my betrayal, working toward earning your trust and friendship again one day.”
I glared at him and he bowed his head. Then he darted out into the forest, leaving us to our fate.
Sarah
She had never imagined her life ending in the frozen forests of northern Canada. Sarah realized she hadn’t told her sister that she loved her when they’d said goodbye. In fact, she’d neglected to say so in quite a while, and now she’d never get the chance.
Sarah drew back slightly to look up at Reed’s face. “Tell Sophie I love her,” she said.
Reed brought his hands up and clasped her cheeks. “No, Sarah . . . you can tell her that yourself. We’re not going down without a fight. You’re going to make it through this.”
“But if I don’t . . .”
His deep blue eyes bore into hers, and he shook his head, as if he didn’t know what else to say. All he managed to choke out was, “Sarah.”
“And . . . I love you too,” she breathed.
The Queen made a coughing sound of disgust. “I love drama, but this is too sickeningly sweet for my tastes. You act as though it were the end of the world, but do you not realize, people would kill for the gift I am about to bestow upon you? Incredible strength and speed, and near immortality. If you survive the transition, you will be so much more than human. You have no idea how pathetic your human life is. I understand; I once thought as you do, but now I know better.”
“It’s not a gift if you force it on someone,” Sarah shouted.
“Oh, come now,” the Queen said, shaking her finger at Sarah. “I was not turned by choice either, but I am thankful for the gift now. I challenge you to name one vampire who would prefer to be human.”
“Reed,” Sarah said without hesitation. “Reed would give anything to be human again.”
“Really?” The Queen shifted her gaze to look at him. “Is this true?”
“I . . . of course,” he replied.
The Queen’s face lit up and her mouth stretched into a creepy grin. “You are the mind reader, Sarah. Do the boy’s words match his feelings?”
Sarah’s heart sank.
“Hey,” Reed said. “That’s not fair. You can’t spring that on me out of the blue. It’s true I’d give anything to have my normal life back. You’re twisting things around and putting words in my mouth.”
“You would prefer to be slow and weak?”
“So I’m faster and stronger than a human, so what? All that does is make me a freak. I can’t use my strength to do anything worthwhile. I’m not strong enough to defeat you.”
The Queen frowned. She opened her mouth to speak, but Reed beat her to it.
“And before you say anything about me not treating you with respect, why should I? All you do is show up again and again, making our lives miserable. If Sarah dies,” he said, his voice breaking, “I’ll have nothing left to lose.”
“If you behave properly, I will take Sarah and leave you here in one piece,” the Queen said calmly. “If you continue to shout at me or resist in any fashion, I will take Sarah and leave you here in several pieces. You remember what that is like, being torn to pieces?”
“Don’t touch him,” Sarah said. “I’ll go with you. Leave Reed alone.”
“No!” Reed yelled.
The Queen sprang forward and grabbed Sarah by the coat, lifting her off the ground. Wrenched out of Reed’s arms, Sarah was helpless to stop the Queen from darting away with her.
An inhuman growl ripped through the air and an impact from behind knocked them into the snow. The Queen let out a high-pitched scream. Sarah rolled over, wiping the snow from her face, trying to gain her bearings.
Reed stood, his fangs extended to their full length, facing the Queen across the clearing. Reed had ripped off her hat, along with a chunk of hair, and blood flowed in a red path down the Queen’s blond locks onto her white coat. Her face twisted into a monster-like mask of rage. She screeched at Reed, leaping to attack.
He bounded forward to meet her and their bodies slammed together with a crunch. In a flurry of motion, they rolled over the ground, kicking and grabbing. For a second, Sarah wished she had her gun, but then realized it would have been impossible to guarantee shooting the Queen and not Reed. In fact, she was at a complete loss as to how she could help.
He seemed to be holding his own against the much smaller vampire until she flung him into the air. He sailed across the clearing and smashed into a tree. The thick trunk cracked and split, and the tree fell to the side until it caught on the branches of its neighbors. Reed fell into a crumpled heap on the ground.
“Reed!” Sarah screamed, and started to run to him.
The Queen snatched Sarah from behind and hoisted her into the air.
Reed lifted his face out of the snow and tried to push himself up. He seemed unable to get to his feet and clawed at the ground in a panic, trying to move forward. It looked like his back was broken because he couldn’t move his legs or stand up. “Sarah!” he cried.
“I win,” the Queen said, and took off, holding Sarah at her side.
Reed’s shouts of frustration faded into the night as the Queen sprinted away.
Sarah struggled at first, trying to loosen the Queen’s iron grip. Realizing her efforts were fruitless, she eventually gave up to save her energy. At some point, the Queen would stop running and Sarah might get a chance to escape. As the forest flew by in a blur, she imagined grabbing a stick and stabbing the Queen in the heart. She would fight until her last breath.
Suddenly, the Queen drew to a stop and tossed her aside like a sack of trash. Sarah rolled upright and scanned the area around her for anything she could use as a weapon. It was hard to see in the dim moonlight. Her vision was swamped with the blanket of snow that covered everything.
She fumbled along the ground, crawling away from the Queen until a sharp pain shot into her knee. She stifled a yelp and froze for a moment until the shock subsided. A rock, she thought. Her knee must have smacked into a rock. Maybe she could use it.
She reached down and closed her hand over the hard shape at her knee. The rock came free with a quick tug, and she turned to face the Queen.
The vampire watched silently.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” Sarah asked. It felt like her heart was in her throat, choking her. She gripped the rock tighter, its hard edges pressing through her mitten into her hand.
“I find your instinct for survival interesting,” the Queen said. “Do you think that stone in your hand will do you any good?”
Sarah swallowed nervously and felt herself break into a sweat despite the cold.
The Queen darted forward and grabbed Sarah by the wrist, pulling her hand with the rock into the air. With vampiric strength, she squeezed tightly until Sarah’s bones cracked. She screamed and the rock dropped away, useless.
Releasing her grip on Sarah’s wrist, the Queen let her fall back into the snow. She cradled her broken wrist and couldn’t help whimpering. The shooting pain was a hundred times worse than the throbbing ache in her knee.
The Queen crouched next to Sarah and caught her gaze. “Do you see how weak you are? Your bones are like toothpicks. How long would it take an injury like that to heal? Two months? As a vampire, it would heal in minutes.”
“Why are you toying with me like this?” Sarah asked through gritted teeth.
“I am waiting for the right moment.”
Sarah stared at the Queen in disbelief. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you enjoy hurting people? Has your life has been so awful you need to make everyone else suffer too?”
“You know nothing about my life,” the Queen said, her eyes narrowing.
“Then tell me. Help me understand.”
The Queen crossed her arms and blinked slowly. “Why? What do you care of the life I have led? Do you wish to repair my broken psyche? Or do you hope to talk your way out of this situation? I promise you that will not happen; I will see this game to its conclusion. Either you will become a vampire, or you will die.”
“This isn’t a game, it’s my life,” Sarah argued. “Can’t you remember what it was like to be human?”
“Did you know . . . vampires cannot have children?” the Queen said, ignoring Sarah’s question. “I have been trapped in the body of a thirteen-year-old girl for over four hundred years. I will never age, and I will never have children. You, however, are an adult, in the prime of your life. As a vampire, you will be young and beautiful forever. And you will be my child. I have plans for you to carry on my legacy.”
Sarah wondered what crazy plans the Queen had in store, but when she tried probing her mind, she found a garbled mess of images and emotions. The Queen’s brother, the King of New York, had possessed similar thought patterns: a clear sign of insanity.
“I’d heard vampires typically follow a ceremony to meet the sun once they reach a certain age,” Sarah said, trying a different tack. “Before they go completely mad. You can stop this insanity and end your life with dignity. It’s not too late to do the right thing and set me free.”
“Mmm, yes, I could have chosen to go through with the ritual. Although . . . one would ordinarily choose to do so in one’s own realm. That is no longer an option for me, seeing how you destroyed my lair.”
“Okay, fair enough. I know saying sorry doesn’t fix things, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–that was an accident, and I am sorry. Listen, if you want to give me a gift, let me live. We can travel back to Montreal and do the ceremony there. Marcel told us we were welcome to return to his lair, and I bet he’ll be able to assist us with the ritual. There’s still time for you to end this properly, with pride and grace.”
The Queen spoke as though Sarah hadn’t said anything. “I have bided my time here with you to allow Reed’s broken back to heal. Then, his instincts will have propelled him to seek out a source of blood. After that, he will have fallen into his death state, which I presume is taking place at this very moment. Due to it being an emergency feed to replenish the blood he lost in our little battle, he will awaken much more quickly than after a proper meal. And that, Sarah, is what I am waiting for. I am stalling so he will have a chance to wake up and seek us out.”
“But . . . why? So you can beat him up again? I don’t understand.” Sarah felt like ripping her hair out. She couldn’t run, she couldn’t win a physical fight against the Queen, and her attempts to reason with her hadn’t worked at all. What else could she do?
Then she heard him: his mental voice, shouting her name.
“Reed,” she whispered.
A corner of the Queen’s mouth lifted in a satisfied smirk.
In a flash of motion, the Queen straddled Sarah, slamming her flat on her back. With her superior strength, the Queen easily kept Sarah trapped beneath her.
“This will hurt,” the Queen said with an evil grin. “A lot.”
A blast of agony exploded in Sarah’s gut. She screamed and looked down. The Queen’s hand was buried inside her belly.
With a wet ripping sound, the Queen yanked upward. The horror of seeing her insides on the outside was too much for Sarah. She shrieked and sobbed uncontrollably until her vision grew blurry.
The world became fuzzy and the pain gradually shrank away. She felt oddly relaxed although her heartbeat pounded loudly against her eardrums. She was in shock. Dying. Floating to a place where there was only darkness.
Wasn’t the Queen supposed to bite her now and drain her blood? Or force her to drink some of her vampire blood in return? Maybe she’d never intended to turn her after all, and this was really the end.
She felt nothing.
Saw nothing.
Heard only the sound of her heart beating, slower and slower.
Going . . .
Going . . .
Gone.
Nathaniel
After Marcel had left for the other cabin with Reed and Sarah in tow, Trudy began her lesson on using the snowmobiles. Sophie listened to every word with rapt attention, but Nathaniel felt distracted.
He scanned the forest, but did not see anything. The only sound he heard above Trudy’s voice was the whispering of wind through the trees. The hair at the nape of Nathaniel’s neck prickled, as if he was being watched, yet his enhanced vampiric senses could not detect anything out of the ordinary. He scented the air for good measure, but the only discernible smell was the skunk odor he had been aware of for hours.
Apparently, he was not the only one. Sophie sniffed and her face crinkled in a look of disgust. “What’s that stinky smell?”
“Skunk, I believe,” Nathaniel answered.
Trudy gave him a sympathetic smile. “It must be infinitely worse to your vampire nose,” she said.
“It is rather vile,” he said.
“Quite handy for disguising my approach though,” a male voice said from about twenty feet away.
Everyone turned to gape at the newcomer. A vampire–one Nathaniel vaguely recognized. Roughly the same height as Re
ed, around six feet tall, with black tangled hair and dark eyes. Dressed in a black leather duster and matching boots, he stood in stark contrast to the thick blanket of white snow.
“You!” Trudy spat, eyes flashing.
“Hey, you’re that vampire we were chasing through the tunnels in Montreal,” Sophie said. “What the heck are you doing here?”
Kyle, Nathaniel thought. That was his name. The one who had killed Trudy’s fiancé and ruined her life. What was he doing there?
“You thought you were so smart,” Kyle said, “trying to track me down. Yet here we are and it is I who tracked you down.”
Nathaniel was not certain, but he seemed to recall the King saying Kyle was only a century old. That made Nathaniel well over a hundred years older–a huge factor in his favor if it came to a physical fight.
Sophie bent over and picked up her sheathed samurai sword, which she had laid on the ground next to her snowmobile. Kyle followed her movement, but did not look concerned.
“What do you want?” Trudy snapped. Her hand slipped into her left pocket, and Nathaniel wondered if she had a UV ball hidden there. If she did, she could not use it without killing him as well. Unless he sped away, allowing her to set off the burst of UV light. But how could he abandon the others on the mere possibility there actually was a weapon in Trudy’s pocket?
He should have paid more attention to their enemy instead of pondering his options. In a split second flash of movement, Kyle darted forward and seized Trudy.
No, this could not be happening! Nathaniel had only now let his heart expand to care for someone, and dared to imagine a life with Trudy in it. How quickly he had become helpless to defend the ones he loved once again. His life was stuck in a miserable repetition.
Kyle backed away, his arm around Trudy’s throat. She could not make a sound with her air cut off, and she struggled in vain to get away.
“I wondered how I would deal with you all,” Kyle said. “And then you conveniently split up into two groups, eliminating half of the problem.”