“And Rachel is addicted too,” Gavin said, wringing his hands together in a fit of panic. “Why? How can she even do that?”
“I think Rachel is addicted worst of all. I mean look at her. It’s like a hive and if she’s living with the Queen she’s feeding way more than the others. We have to get her the fuck out of here. Tonight!”
“I agree. How the hell does this even happen? How could all these vampires let themselves become addicted to the blood of their leader?”
“It happens before they realize it. Most likely she picked up most if not all of these people when they were vulnerable. Taking away someone’s pain is like giving them a drug. We all need to anesthetise ourselves at some point during our long existence. Hell, humans do it during their very short one.”
Gavin stopped, remembering Nathan. It was conceivable that his grief had been so deep over Rosemary that he was willing to do anything to dull the pain. “What do we do?”
“I have a feeling we’ll get our chance. If it’s like every other feeding frenzy I’ve ever seen there’s going to be a break in the action when humans are brought in. Christina will want to feed to replenish herself after giving them so much. We’ll wait until then. But Gavin,” Ian said, looking him dead in the eyes. “Getting her out of here might be the easy part. Withdrawal from blood addiction can last months, even years.”
Gavin folded his arms across his chest, annoyed that Ian would suggest that Rachel could be a burden. “Just help me get her away from here. I’ll take care of her after that.”
“Of course.”
Seating themselves at the bar they could still see Rachel and Christina but were well hidden from their line of sight. After a few moments of nursing a drink Gavin felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. The vampire in the suit that had sat with the women earlier was standing there, smiling. “Good evening gentlemen. I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before. Who invited you?
Gavin’s mouth went dry as he looked at Ian, hoping he’d give him some idea what to say. Then from across the room Ian noticed the young blonde who had propositioned him earlier and pointed in her direction. The girl caught sight of him and waved back with a flirty wink. “She did,” Ian said.
“Oh, friends of Melanie? How nice. I’m Joshua,” he said, extending his hand first to Ian and then to Gavin, giving them a very firm handshake. “I couldn’t help but notice that you haven’t paid your respects to Christina. She does enjoy meeting new people. We always like to add to our little family. Come on over and say, hello.”
“Oh no,” Ian said. “She looks busy and we wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“No, come on. Come and meet her.”
“Who’s that with her?” Ian said, referring to Rachel.
“Oh her? Christina’s wayward soul. The poor child was cast out by some hick clan on the island. She’s pregnant too. Been traumatized. Christina is coaxing her back to life a little at a time. She’s very sweet and quiet. She may or may not speak to you.”
Now Gavin knew there was a problem. Rachel may have been sweet, but quiet was not a word he would have ever used to describe his wife. She had an opinion on everything and could talk for hours with him. It was one of the things he loved about her and it truly pained him to see her so docile and timid. She was never one to fall in line or shrink from a challenge since being turned. Looking at her now it was almost as if he didn’t know her.
“How awful,” Ian said. “But honestly she doesn’t look so good. We wouldn’t want to disturb them if she’s not well.”
“No, no. It will be fine. Come on,” Joshua said, taking each of them by the arm. He obviously wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
They followed him across the floor to where Christina and Rachel were sitting, Rachel still huddled against Christina’s shoulder. “Christina!” Joshua exclaimed. “We have some new friends. Guests of Melanie. Isn’t that nice?”
Christina looked up, meeting their eyes with enthusiasm as she gently moved Rachel away, who resumed her former position with her head down and hands folded in her lap. “That is nice. I’m Christina. Where are you from? You obviously aren’t residents here.”
“No, we’re from Kelly’s Mountain,” Ian said, his voice seeming to grow deliberately cold.
Cristina’s eyes narrowed and hardened, focusing solely on Ian. Locking him in her gaze with such an intensity it made Gavin uneasy. “Kelly’s Mountain? I see. And what are you doing in Halifax?”
“Just passing through. We hope to be on our way by morning.”
“Splendid.” Just then Christina’s attention shifted from Ian to Gavin who was staring quite intently at Rachel. “Beautiful isn’t she?”
Gavin struggled for a moment before he found his voice. “Yes, she certainly is.”
“Rachel,” Christina said, taking her hands. “Our new friend thinks you’re lovely. Do you want to say hello to him?” Rachel didn’t look up or even move. “I’m sorry,” she said, turning back to Gavin. “She’s like a lost little kitten. Been horribly abused. It pains me to see her this way, that’s why I took her in.” Gavin felt the disgust building inside him and had to turn away.
Ian took the lead. “That’s quite generous of you. I hope she recovers soon.”
“Oh she will. I have big plans for my Rachel. She’s very special.”
“I’m sure she is.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” said Joshua. “We should begin soon.”
“Yes. Let’s get started. I need to get the poor thing home soon. You know,” she said addressing Ian. “I’m not blood to this girl, but I do consider myself her mother in a way. It’s too bad she had such a poor maker. It will take a while to undo some of this damage. I feel as though I’m letting her live…once again.”
Gavin thought he was going to be physically ill. The anger settled down deep in the pit of his stomach and he wasn’t sure if it was anger toward Christina or toward himself. Her words offended him, but mostly because they spoke the truth. Rachel had certainly had a poor maker in him as far as he was concerned, but if he could just get her away from here that was going to change starting immediately.
The mood of the room shifted all at once as a group of blood influenced humans were brought inside. They stood in the center, all the vampires looking at them eagerly, but didn’t move. Christina stepped forward and selected one for herself and then took her back to the table, sitting her between herself and Rachel. Then she nodded and one by one vampires came forward claiming their meal. As the room began feeding Christina took the human’s wrist and offered it to Rachel.
Rachel took one look at it, recoiled, and turned away in disgust. Christina didn’t force it. She simply said, “Very well. You just sit quietly. I’m going to take her into the back. I won’t be long. We’ll go home after that and you can feed there.”
Rachel had no response. Christina rose, taking the human by the hand, leading her past Joshua. “I’m going into the back for some privacy. As soon as I’m done we’ll go so make sure you feed quickly too.” Joshua nodded and then ventured away to feed, leaving Rachel by herself.
“We don’t have long,” Ian said, crouching in front of Rachel to meet her eyes. “Rachel, you’re going to get up and very quickly and quietly follow me outside. Nod if you understand.” Again, Rachel had no response.
Gavin was fighting the urge to just pick her up and take her out of there as fast as he could. “It’s not working,” he said.
“Rachel,” Ian said once more, his voice becoming hard. “You will stand and follow me outside. Do you understand?”
She locked eyes with him finally and after a moment of hesitation nodded slowly. “Good,” he said. “Now, let’s go.” Rachel rose and followed Ian out of the room as Gavin kept watch. With all of the vampires gorging themselves nobody noticed. They made it up the stairs and opened the door to the darkness of the night. Ian walked past the guard but Gavin was a few steps behind and as he crossed in front of him, the large vampire reached out, p
utting him in a choke hold.
“Ian!” he cried. Ian turned back toward him and leaving Rachel there for a moment, tried to loosen the guard’s grip.
“Let him go,” Ian said calmly, and suddenly Gavin was free. Rachel, however, began screaming.
“What happened?” Gavin said, running toward her and scooping her up into his arms to run for the car.
“I told you I can only blood influence one vampire at a time. When I got him to let you go I lost my grip on her. I didn’t have a solid hold to begin with.”
They hurried to the car and Gavin put Rachel in the backseat. Ian crawled in with her and Gavin got behind the wheel as fast as he could, tires screeching as the car careened onto the pavement. Rachel was wailing bloody blue murder in the backseat and Ian had her head in his hands, trying to get her back under control.
“I can’t do it,” he said after a few attempts to calm her down. Suddenly a huge crack echoed in the interior and everything went deadly silent.
“What did you do?”
“I broke her neck.”
“Was that really necessary? Fuck, Ian!”
“She’s fine, I just needed to put her out. Christina’s blood must be some pretty potent shit if it’s that hard to blood influence her. She’s not even through her transformation, I should have been able to do it no problem.”
“What a fucking mess,” Gavin said to himself, squeezing the steering wheel and feeling it dig into his palms.
“As soon as we get back you take her straight to the sanctuary. Get her to see Holly.”
“Holly? Ian, Holly can barely stand up under her own strength right now, let alone help Rachel.”
“Do it anyway.”
“What if Holly can’t help her?” Ian grew quiet. “Ian?” he said, “what if Holly can’t help her? Who do we turn to?”
“If Holly is unable to help her there’s only one other who can.”
“Who?”
“Her father.”
“Ian, her father is dead. And what could a human have done for her anyway?”
“No, Gavin he’s not. He’s still very much alive.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Gavin, Duncan is Rachel’s father.”
Chapter Eight
Gavin drove in stunned silence for the next half hour, the words Ian had said rolling around and around in his mind. Ducan is Rachel’s father. That seemed like the most surreal statement he had ever heard. He had watched Rachel for an extended period of time. He knew her. Sometimes he was convinced he knew her even better than he’d known himself. How could that be? And if he really was her father where the hell had he been all those years when she was sick and suffering? He never once had shown his face.
“Ian what are you saying?” he said, still working to process the news.
“You heard me. Duncan is Rachel’s father.”
Gavin shook his head. “Are you absolutely certain?”
“One hundred percent. Come on Gavin, it only makes sense. Didn’t you ever wonder why he just showed up at your wedding?”
He had been so engrossed with simply marrying her that it had never really crossed his mind. “No, not really,” he said.
“Duncan doesn’t come out of his self-imposed exile unless he’s compelled by something important.”
“But Ian, Rachel’s mother wasn’t a vampire.”
“Of course she was. Rachel wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t.”
“Who is her mother?”
“You didn’t know her,” Ian said, looking out the car window absently. “Her name was Phillipine.”
“And you knew her too?”
“Yes, yes I did. It’s a long story Gavin, but, I was there the night Rachel was born.”
Gavin was becoming angry now. How could his brother have kept something so important from him? How could he have kept it from Rachel? “So you weren’t really out of Nova Scotia all that time then, were you?”
“Not entirely, no,” he said, guilt settling into his features. “Look, Gavin, I know this is a shock but she can never know. There are certain things that would be devastating to her. That’s why Duncan didn’t raise her. Plus, it was too painful for him after Phillipine died.”
“What happened to her?”
“She died the night Rachel was born.”
“Vampires don’t die giving birth. What are you not telling me?”
“Things it wouldn’t benefit you or her to know. Please, just trust me. The priority has to be getting her well. If Holly can’t help her we’ll have to go get Duncan and convince him to come back with us. I’m not even sure what he can do, but he’s very old and if anyone could help her it would be him.”
“Does anyone else know about this?” Gavin asked.
“Um…”
“Oh my god. Everyone knows don’t they?” Ian nodded sombrely from the backseat. “Why was I not told?”
“Did it really matter? Would it have changed the way you felt about her? Does it change the way you feel about her now?”
“No, of course not.”
“Well then it’s irrelevant. The only relevance is that Duncan might be more prone to help his own flesh and blood to overcome an addiction. He wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about you, or me, or anyone else, but he might come down off his mountain for his only daughter.”
Gavin knew he should feel more hopeful about Duncan than the possibility that Holly could help her, but now he was worried. Duncan had certainly taken a shine to Rachel, and now it was clear why. But would it be enough? What if he didn’t want to help her? Gavin would drag him down off the mountain or die trying, and with Duncan that was a real possibility.
***
Gavin left Ian back at the house so that he wouldn’t be seen and made his way through the snowy woods to the sanctuary. Cradling Rachel in his arms he felt her limp form beginning to stir. The bones in her neck were healing, although more slowly than normal, and she would be awake soon. He had pushed any thoughts of Duncan far into the back of his mind for now and focused on getting her to Holly.
Coming to her door he didn’t hesitate as he normally did. For the first time he entered as quickly as he could with Rachel in his arms and stepped inside.
“Oh my dear god!” Margie said upon seeing them. “What happened?”
The bed was empty since Holly was sitting cross legged on the floor, facing the wall as she usually did. “It was the only way to get her back here,” he said, laying her down. “Look, mom I can’t explain right now but Rachel is blood addicted. We need to get it out of her system somehow or she’ll be sick for months, maybe even years. I can’t let that happen.” Hearing the words come out of his mouth made it all the more real. His mother looked at him with sad eyes, feeling his desperation, and turned toward Holly, speaking softly.
“Holly, Rachel needs you. Can you look at her? Can you tell Gavin what to do? Please, honey, please try.”
With great effort Holly rolled over, crawling on her knees to the bed where Rachel lay and attempted to push off with her arms in an effort to crawl up onto the bed. Too weak to make it alone Gavin scooped her up, sitting her down on the bed next to Rachel. With one hand she clasped Rachel’s chin and began, with much painful effort, to look her over. Holly slid her once beautiful hands, which were now wrinkled and disjointed, up and down Rachel’s neck and arms, then lay her hand on her stomach followed by her ear a moment later.
Closing her eyes she used every ounce of strength to listen. She pressed her hand down more firmly on the abdomen, as if trying to rouse the life inside, after a few more moments spent in silence she picked her head up, a look of fear falling over her face. “Suffering,” was all she said.
“Rachel is suffering?” asked Gavin?
“Rachel is dying…baby is suffering.”
“Dying? There has to be something we can do. How do we stop it?”
Holly opened her mouth and widened her jaw as much as she could. Gavin knew what she was trying to do but s
he wasn’t having any success. Her fangs wouldn’t run out no matter how hard she tried. After a few moments when it was apparent that it wasn’t going to happen, Holly took one of her long, now yellowed with age, nails and scraped it along Rachel’s forearm causing small drops of blood to seep through the skin. She pressed her tongue to one and then closed her mouth. A shudder overcame her as the taste settled in.
“Cleanse the blood,” she said weakly. “The blood is bad.”
“Cleanse it how?” Gavin was desperate now and had to fight to keep from raising his voice. He bent down taking her by the shoulders and almost shaking her. “Tell me what to do Holly.”
The sick vampire’s eyes grew heavy as dark circles began to form around them and all at once she was fighting to stay coherent. “Fever,” she whispered as she began to pass out. “Fever will cleanse her.”
And with that Holly was out, her head falling down onto her chest as she slumped down over Rachel. Gavin picked up Rachel and Margie lifted Holly, tucking her into bed. “What now?”
“I don’t know. Holly could be out for days. You get her settled in a room and I’ll go find Angus. He may know what to do.”
***
Gavin took his mother’s advice and got Rachel into in her old quarters, the one she had occupied when Gavin had first brought her here. Every second he waited felt like a millennia and he paced the room, back and forth, his mind reeling. How could she be dying? What was in that blood and how the hell do you induce a fever in a vampire? He had never heard of such a thing. He was desperate for answers and hopefully Angus would have them. If not there would be only Duncan left to turn to. He had no qualms about going to get him either. There was no way of knowing whether or not the old vampire would be willing to help, but he’d take Ian with him and hopefully between the two of them they’d be able to convince him.
Angus and Margie entered the room just then, along with John. Although he took some comfort in the presence of his parents, he was still made sick by the sight of Angus. He had been willing to let Gavin be staked for the sake of avoiding a forced cleansing in Soldiers Cove. It was only what a good leader would do to protect his people, to give up one for the sake of the many, but still, he was angry. He had been unjustly accused and even with all of the evidence staring him in the face he would have let him die anyway. Gavin was sure he would hate him forever, but if he could save Rachel, he knew he’d have no choice but to forgive him.
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: The Unborn Page 13
