Vampires In Vegas

by Samantha Snow

  It took every ounce of strength Reagan had to keep from springing upon Caleb Strause and ripping him to shreds. The condescension coming out of the man’s mouth was unforgivable, especially seeing as he was several decades younger than Reagan was. He was a weasel of a vampire, wiry and with slightly receding muddy brown hair that only served to make his beakish nose all the more apparent.

  The two of them had run into each other from time to time over the years, and as far as Reagan was concerned he was worse than useless. The Council, however, saw it differently. In Caleb they found a vampire that was infinitely content to do as he was told, so long as he was provided with a marginal amount of respect and the ability to lord himself over those who found themselves in trouble.

  Because the Council granted him those things, he was happy to do all manner of questionable things. There was no compassion in the beast, no amount of heart left with which to love. Seeing him felt like a bad omen, and it was with carefully controlled fury and a sinking feeling in his stomach that Reagan allowed himself to be led to where the Council waited.

  In over two centuries, Reagan had never had cause to come before them. He would have dearly loved to keep that going, but it wasn’t an option. Ella was with them, and wherever she was, he would go. He would walk through fire for her if need be.

  He would gladly walk into the noonday sun if doing so meant that she would be safe. Because of this devotion, he would also follow Caleb wherever he led, which was how he came into the third in a series of long, sleek rooms. This was it. This was the room in which the Council sat.

  “Who have you brought before us today?”

  There were five members of the council, each one of them old enough to have allowed themselves to turn to stone long ago. The legends told that they were as old as time itself, but of course that wasn't true. Still other legends told that they were as old as the first vampire to walk the earth.

  While Reagan very much doubted that, he supposed it could be true. He certainly wasn’t aware of a time when they hadn’t been there. The one who spoke to him now was the fifth, the one who sat in the middle. His chair was the highest of the five vampires, which Reagan took to mean that he was the leader. He took a step forward, meaning to plead his case, but two guards appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him roughly by the arms. Caleb stepped forward then, a disgusting look of worship on his face. Apparently, he was the one who planned on doing all of the talking.

  “This is Reagan Morgan, my lord. He is the one responsible for the girl.”

  “Is he now?” The lord’s eyebrows raised, his eyes boring into Reagan like bullets, “Well that is interesting, isn’t it? I suppose we should bring her out then.”

  The others on the Council murmured their agreement, hardly moving or looking around them. In truth, they looked like they had already turned half to stone themselves. It shouldn’t have been so difficult to bring the whole group of them down, to just rip them to shreds and walk out of there with Ella safely on his arm, but he knew it was more complicated than it seemed. This was a matter of looks being deceiving.

  Reagan was well aware of the fact that the power and influence of the Council was deeper than he could imagine. To act rashly would be to get both himself and his love killed. And speaking of his love, he smelled her before he saw her. Her sweet, seductive scent reached him moments before he heard the sound of the chains binding her clanking. Then she was there, hands and feet bound, being practically pushed into the room by two guards.

  They shoved her again and again, causing Reagan to try and lunge forward again. The guards holding him held fast, and because they were vampires just like him, he wasn’t strong enough to break out of their grasp. He felt helpless for the first time in years. It was the worst thing he could imagine, at the worst possible time.

  “Here she is. The girl.” The lord spoke in a conversational tone, as if they were all sitting down to tea instead of participating in an inquisition. His eyes were lit from the inside with curiosity, something that might have been mistaken for good humor by someone who didn’t know better.

  “Tell me, Caleb,” he crooned, “tell me again how we came to be in possession of such a lovely girl?”

  “It was Reagan’s sister, my lord. His sister and the one called Andrea. They came to me, made me aware of the scene that was made at the Hoover club. I sent some men to pick her up right away, and now here we are.”

  “That’s right. Here we are. Mr. Morgan, I must say, I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I would hate to lose such a viral, healthy member of our ranks, I really would. On the other hand, you’ve been a very naughty boy. You know the rules. What on earth possessed you to tell her what you are? What we are?”

  He felt like he had gone spontaneously mute. How was he supposed to answer a question like that? It felt like too big of a question to ever answer, let alone on such spur of the moment. And yet there he was, in the middle of this vast room built of marble and chrome, with all of the Council and all of the guard watching him intently. Not answering was not an option, even if he did feel like the wind had been knocked out of him to learn that it had actually been Melania to put him in this position in the first place. Andrea, he couldn’t have cared less about, but Melania? She had betrayed him, and it was a betrayal that might very well get him killed.

  “Well, Mr. Morgan? We’re waiting.”

  “Because I love her.”

  “What was that?” One of the stony figures to his left spoke out in a gravely voice that sounded like it was just coming out of sleep. “Speak up, sir! There are those who would like to hear your responses!”

  “Because I love her!”

  Reagan had spoken up, alright, and his voice rang out like a beacon of hope in the otherwise dreary room. He looked at Ella then, saw her tear stained face, saw the deep red marks where the chains binding her bit into her skin. They were hurting her, would continue to hurt her, and he wasn’t sure there was anything he would be able to do about it.

  He had told her that she would always be safe with him, and yet here she was in danger and him incapable of stopping it. He had meant what he said, and yet the Council was making him into a liar. He hated them for it. There was more rage inside of him than he had ever felt in either of his lives, but it was a rage he couldn’t succumb to.

  Never before had it been so important for him to keep his head. And, if for nothing else, he needed to stay strong for Ella. She looked so afraid, almost sick with the fear. She needed him to be strong, to be brave enough for both of them, and by god that was exactly what he was going to do.

  Meanwhile, the lord and his fellow Council members had begun to laugh with varying degrees of enthusiasm dependent upon how alive they still were.

  “Because you LOVE her?” The lord shouted, laughing like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. “Oh dear, oh really, I was expecting something more than that. How foolish. If you loved her, you would have kept her as far away from all of this as possible. You should have known that revealing our kind to the girl was the same as signing her death warrant. No matter, if you didn’t know before, you certainly know now. I doubt this is a mistake you will make again. Guards?”

  The two vampires flanking Ella dragged her forward, moving her so quickly that her feet dragged helplessly beneath her, incapable of keeping up with their pace. If possible, the terror on her face had increased, and Reagan sensed that she was very close to being driven completely mad by it.

  When the terrible trio was standing directly in front of the lord’s high chair, one guard handed her off to the other, who held her firmly in place. That was when the first drew a long, gilded sword from beneath his dark robes and raised it up over his head. He was going to decapitate her, to cut her head off right there and make Reagan watch.

  From the depths of his despair, Reagan found a reserve of strength he hadn’t known he possessed and wrenched free from the ones who held him. He rushed forward, knocking the one with the weapon aside and taking Ella into
his arms. Her body was shaking so badly it felt to him like she would break into a thousand pieces. He had done this to her. It was all his fault, and if he got them out of this awful mess, he would spend the rest of his immortal life trying his damndest to make it up to her.

  “Ella. Ella, are you hurt?”

  “I-I-don’t know. They-they’re going-”

  “To kill you,” the lord interjected, “yes, I’m afraid you are correct, my dear. Please, don’t take it personally. It’s simply a matter of what you can know and be allowed to live. And you, I’m afraid, know far too much for your own good. It’s a pity it can’t be helped. Such a pretty young girl.”

  The guards began to close in around them, and there were more of them now. Six, eight, fifteen. They seemed to be materializing out of thin air, and each one was ready to die for the lord’s commands. Reagan could fight some of them off, but not all of them. Not when there seemed to be an endless supply of backup. He was out of options. The best he could do was hold Ella close and try to keep her from the end for as long as he could. He held her head close against her chest, waiting for the two of them to die. Instead, Caleb spoke up yet again.

  “You know, my lord,” he said in that solicitous tone Reagan so loathed, “there might be another way.”

  “And what would that be, Caleb? I trust your judgement, to an extent, but I must say I’m not following you.”

  “The way I see it, the trouble all comes from the fact that the girl is human and knows what we are. Am I correct?”

  “Yes, yes,” the lord spat impatiently, “and what of it?”

  “So what if the girl weren’t human after all? What if we were to take that out of the equation?”

  For a moment, there was not a sound. The room was deadly silent, and the lord looked as if he might have Caleb ripped to shreds right along with Reagan and Ella. Then the expression on his face changed, and Reagan understood what was about to happen. He understood, and could do nothing.

  THE FINAL CHAPTER

  “No! No, you can’t! That was never what I wanted for her. It was never what this was supposed to be!”

  “This should never have been to begin with, Reagan. As is so often true in life, now you must reap what you have sown. The choices are clear. The decision is on you.”

  Ella strained against the hand cupping her face to Reagan’s chest, doing her best to glean some kind of understanding about what was happening around her. Everything had moved so quickly since her fatal mistake of opening her door without first looking to see who was on the other side.

  Everything was still moving quickly, and she felt like she was a good three steps behind everyone else in the room. When she managed to get a look at Reagan’s face, however, at his face and then the lord’s, she understood that the thing they were discussing was beyond serious.

  Some part of her mind didn’t seem to want her to understand and kept doing its best to shield her from the horror that was playing out around her, but the part of her that wanted to know was stronger, or at least more persistent. She listened carefully to their words, then focused on the wretched sound of Reagan’s voice.

  That was when she began to understand what was really being talked about here. It was her. The whole ordeal had been about her from the beginning, and the two of them being able to walk away from it now depended on her as well. With a great effort, she pushed Reagan away from her, holding up a steadying hand when he tried to grasp for her again.

  “Please, Reagan. Don’t.”

  “Ella,” he hissed, his eyes pained and panic stricken, “you don’t understand. You don’t know what they mean to do.”

  “That’s the thing, Reagan, I think I do. They’re giving us a choice, aren’t they?”

  “No! Not really, they aren’t. It’s not a choice we can make. We don’t have to make it. I’ll get us out of here. I WILL.”

  Ella heard the lofty scoffs of the ones called the Council, heard the nasty laughter of the vampire named Caleb who had taken such pleasure in her captivity. She ignored both. She ignored everything but her and Reagan, this massive decision that lay between the two of them.

  “No, Reagan, I don’t think so. Not because you don’t want to and not because you aren’t strong. Simply because there are so many more of them than there are of us, and I’m not any help to you at all. I’m too weak for this. Too human.”

  “Listen to the girl,” Caleb interrupted in his singsongy voice, “she’s talking a lot of sense. You would do well to let her call the shots before you get the both of you killed.”

  Reagan snarled, and Ella stepped forward, using both hands to turn his face back to face her own. He looked to her like a wild animal now, a wild animal who had been trapped in a cage and couldn’t see any good way of getting out. She wished with all of her heart that she could take his pain and doubt away from him. Oddly enough, she herself no longer felt afraid. The fear had been there when she had been locked away with no idea of who these people were and what they wanted from her.

  Now that she knew, now that she saw the choice that lay before her, she felt calm. There was no more room for indecision. She knew exactly what had to happen.

  “Reagan. Reagan, ignore him, OK? Ignore all of them, everyone but me. I need you to hear my voice.”

  “But Ella-”

  “No, Reagan. I need you to hear me. It’s very important that you hear me now. Are you listening?”

  “Yes,” his voice was full of anguish she could not free him from, “I’m listening.”

  “To me and no one else?”

  “To you and no one else.”

  “Good. Then believe me when I tell you that this is not your decision to make.”

  “Of course it is! It’s too much to ask, Ella! I can’t. I can’t do it.”

  “Can’t you? Would you rather the alternative? Would you rather watch me die?”

  “Of course not! But those can’t be the only two options!”

  Ella peered up at Reagan, possessed of an eerie, almost otherworldly calm. This was such a role reversal for the two of them. So much of the short amount of time they had spent together had included her being panicky or afraid about something while he remained calm and in charge.

  Now, for maybe the first time in her life, Ella felt completely in control of herself. She was the one who would shoulder this burden. She was the one who would take care of him, for once.

  “Reagan?”

  Nothing. He wouldn’t answer her, but she could see it in his eyes. He understood. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, to himself or to her, he understood that she was right. She was sure then that they were going to make it out of that series of bizarre penthouses, just as she was sure that her life would never be the same.

  “Reagan. It’s the right thing to do. And not just because they’re forcing our hand. It’s because I want you to do it. This would have come about sooner or later, don’t you see that? I love you. It’s crazy, beyond crazy, but that doesn’t make it not true.

  I don’t think I could stand the idea of knowing that I could be with you forever and not doing it. I couldn’t take growing older and older and then getting sick and dying while you stayed the same. One way or another, me staying human would rip us apart in the end. I don’t want that. I want to be with you always. As equals, Reagan. As partners.”

  Ella saw that Reagan’s eyes had begun to film over with a fine mist of tears. His body sagged, as if he had just laid down a massive amount of weight that he hadn’t even realized he was carrying. She knew that he saw the truth in what she had said. She knew that he was going to take her.

  “Bravo,” Caleb said sarcastically, everything about him giving off the impression of extreme boredom, “very well put, Ella. You’re a natural with words, really. Now, if you don’t mind too terribly, could we get on with it? What’s it going to be? The change and everlasting life? Or the final death for the both of you. I have to say, at this point I couldn’t care less which one you choose. This is going on longe
r than I anticipated and I’m sure the Council has better things to do than listen to the anguish of your love affair.”

  Both Reagan and Ella ignored Caleb completely. As far as they were concerned, it was only the two of them in that room at that point. It was to be their last moment together in their current state, their last moment in that phase of their lives together.

  “Ella, are you sure? Because once I begin, there won’t be any stopping it. This is one decision you can’t take back.”

  “I know. I’m ready.”

  Ella kept her eyes locked on Reagan’s as he bent forward, kissing her long and slow. Then, in one fluid motion, his head moved down to the crook of her neck. There was one moment of excruciating pain, and then the strangest sensation of becoming lighter. She was looking up at the ceiling and realized that the lights were growing dimmer and yet brighter somehow at the same time. The sounds in the room grew far more acute but mattered less.

  She was floating, floating on a high unlike anything in human existence, and then she was fading, fading to the brink of nothing. She was going to die. She knew it and yet didn’t care a bit. It didn’t seem like such a terrible thing, to die. Everyone was so afraid of it, but she was beginning to see that it was only about letting go, and what could be so terrible about that?