The Blood Talisman

by Kim Culpepper

  “We have your sister.” It sounded like he was talking through water.

  Rose complied by putting her hands behind her back. A couple of faceless men tied them up and she walked away from Ben, staring back at him and crying hysterically. John hit her over the head with the butt of the handgun and the memory ended.

  Selene opened her eyes to Rose. Anger permeated from her eyes. She wanted to rip out John’s throat in the same manner that Ben had ripped up security. Selene was slightly proud of herself for being able to read Rose’s memories and, somewhat, her thoughts.

  John jerked Rose up off the floor and walked away with her. Rose looked back at Selene as he dragged her along. They disappeared down a corridor and soon only Selene and Alex were left, together with the two guys holding him against the wall.

  Selene strolled casually over to the two men. They looked at her anxiously.

  “No funny business here, witch,” one of the men snapped.

  “I can’t hurt you… unless you drink my blood or eat my flesh. And that would hurt you a lot more than me. You should be by my side, not against me,” Selene said to them both.

  “Not trying to sway my help, are you now?” Ram spoke out from behind her.

  He had returned with a white towel in hand. He wiped his hands on it in the same manner a surgeon would after washing his hands after surgery. The white towel had a tinge of bloody water on parts of it. Alex’s attention became perked. He worried that something tragic had happened to her.

  “Where’s my wife?” Alex yelled out.

  “She’s where she needs to be,” Ram said in a very matter-of-fact tone. “Selene, Mr. Jacobs, please follow me to your holding area.”

  Ram waved his hand towards a set of doors further down the corridor. The two men guarding Alex loosened their grip and he pushed their hands off of his shoulders. All three of them stood there, shirtless. Selene didn’t mind their near-nakedness.

  Alex took her hand and softly whispered into her ear, “Are you all right?”

  She nodded yes and leaned her face against his to feel the warmth from his cheek. His facial hair had become stubbly again and she winced slightly from the sharp brown points.

  “Not his mistress, huh?” Ram asked Selene.

  Alex walked over to Ram and punched him across the jaw. He picked himself back up and rubbed his cheek, chuckling at Alex. Ram then grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. Alex struggled to contain the wolf. He started to lose consciousness as Ram tightened his grip and it helped to keep him from changing.

  “I will rip your throat out, wolf. Then I’ll bed your wife and have your mistress killed. Don’t tempt me,” Ram snarled at him as he released his grip and Alex fell to the floor.

  He clutched his neck and coughed. Selene hurried over to him and rubbed his back, comforting him.

  “Now, if you two will kindly follow, I will show you where you will stay for the night,” Ram said as he straightened his shirt down and rolled his sleeves back down to his wrists.

  Alex and Selene complied, reluctantly. She helped him up from the floor and walked, her arm around his waist. Ram unlocked the doors and walked in ahead of them.

  “I’m sure you’re both hungry and tired. I will have some food sent up and some spirits,” Ram said.

  Selene helped Alex onto the oversized king bed. The posts on it reached high to the vaulted ceiling. The bedspread was a burgundy and golden velvet ensemble. There were neither pictures in the room nor any windows, only vases of fake yellow flowers that sat tall on huge tables and gothic dressers. The walls were beige. The entire room was decorated to feel like home but failed to convince Selene. She wished she could be home with him.

  She looked back at Ram and the two shirtless men standing with him at the door. She had never felt more disgusted at any vampire. Her family had had plenty of run-ins with vampires wanting immortality over the years but none as sadistic as Ram. She didn’t understand how one vampire could turn so many wolves to his side. She also wondered what role her brother Sol played in all of it. Maybe he was just tired of living the immortal life in their father’s shadow. Maybe he was playing both sides to diminish all immortals and supernatural creatures. She would have to wait until morning to find out where Sol’s allegiances lay.

  Ram and his henchmen left the room. He locked the door behind him then dismissed the two wolves. He reached into his pocket and took his cell phone from it. After dialing a few numbers it rang up to the kitchen on the next floor up.

  “I need you to bring a bottle of fine wine and two of the best meals you can come up with to the basement, room four. John will be up in a few minutes to put some additives in their meal. I want them to have a good restful night. Do you understand?”

  “Yes sir, Mr. Ram, sir. Right away, sir,” a nervous voice answered.

  Ram clicked his phone off and retreated back down the hallway towards his office where he had left Amalia. He needed to keep them apart for now. His plan would fall apart if they had time to talk. There wasn’t much time before morning and Sol would be here then. He would finally have all three of the people he needed in one place. Everything was finally coming together and he could not wait till noon tomorrow.

  Chapter 15

  A short black woman was pushing a cart along the dark corridors of the basement. She hurried down each hallway, looking urgently for basement room four. It made her nervous to do the devil’s work, but she needed a job, and, more importantly, her life. Most kitchen help would not have come down to the basement. In fact, a fight had been going on between a cook and one of the cashiers as to who would have to bring the meals down. She’d been forced to end the argument by volunteering. They had all looked at her like she’d lost her mind, but the day had been long and the night even longer. She was ready to go home, and hearing them argue about bringing a damned tray of food down to the basement had given her a headache.

  She finally reached the right door. A husky black man guarded the door. He was dressed in army fatigues and held a gun that was longer than his arms against his chest. He was leaning against the wall beside the double doors. As she approached, he straightened himself up and attempted to look proper.

  “I’m here to deliver the food to room four,” she announced meekly.

  “Yes ma’am,” the guard said.

  He turned and unlocked the door which led into a grand room with a huge bed in it. She had no idea that something this beautiful was in this dead hole of a hospital. She was in awe.

  There were two people in the room: a woman standing by a dresser, who looked worn down and tired, and a man, who looked like he had just stepped out of the shower. He sat on the burgundy and gold bed and appeared rugged yet guilty. She began to wonder why they were being locked in but, it wasn’t her place to wonder.

  “Thank God, I’m starving,” the woman by the dresser said as she scurried over to the silver platters. She immediately grabbed a roll and started eating. She opened the bottle of wine and poured the thin red substance into a tall slender glass.

  The man stayed sitting down on the bed. His face was weary. He rubbed one hand over his eyes, down to his nose, and finally over his mouth. He took a long breath as his hand reached his chin and slammed down to the bed. He seemed frustrated and drained of all emotion.

  She ignored them both, figuring it wasn’t any of her business as to why they were prisoners here. She had learned to not ask questions in this hospital. People would disappear for no apparent reason and those that asked questions always ended up as a patient or worse.

  She quietly left, without speaking one word to either of them. The guard closed and locked the door behind her. She hurried out of the basement and safely back up to the kitchen, leaving the prisoners and all the basement’s dark secrets behind her.

  Alex and Selene were stuck as prisoners in the vampire-ruled basement. Selene paused from stuffing her face for a few moments to look back at Alex. He was staring at the floor and looking unusually distraugh
t. She hadn’t seen this before. He seemed depressed.

  “They included some raw meat over here. You should keep your strength up,” she said, trying to cheer him up.

  “I’m not remotely hungry… Do you think she loves him?”

  Selene giggled a little at the thought. “You mean, does Amalia love Ram? That’s ridiculously hysterical. Nobody could possibly love a monster like that. I don’t believe he is even human anymore. He’s a bit of a psychopath, if you haven’t noticed.”

  “She stood beside him like they were a couple.” He searched the Beechwood carpet for answers but found none. He closed his eyes, which were beginning to sting from the lack of rest, and waited silently for Selene to give some sort of answer or support.

  She carried her glass of wine over to the bed and plopped down beside him.

  “Here.” She handed him the glass of wine that she was drinking from. “This won’t hurt your, um, diet.”

  He took the glass and drank one sip. The cool liquid ran smoothly down the back of his throat, immediately relaxing his mind. He handed the glass back to her. The one small sip gurgled in his stomach and made him feel sicker inside.

  “I can’t live like this!” he screamed out, and jumped off from the bed.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I can’t be this anymore, and if she isn’t going to love me, then why even live anymore?”

  He searched her shocked face for a response. She reached over to the nightstand beside the bed and placed her wine gently on the cherry wood surface. She gracefully walked over to where he stood, broken and confused. She ran her hands down both sides of his weary face. He seemed comforted by this so she continued down to his arms and pulled him closer to her. They were face to face. Their lips were inches apart.

  His breath began to increase with every inch closer to his face. Her eyes were like glass as they glared into his very soul.

  “Because you have me,” she finally said as she lovingly stroked his hair.

  They kissed and he grabbed her by the hips, pulling her body closer to his. He tasted the comfort in her lips. Her touch seemed to be the only thing that could bring him down from his anger and up from his sadness.

  He slowly pushed her back onto the bed and she happily complied. He never gave lying on top of her another thought. They kissed and rolled around on the large bed together. She jerked her top off and threw it across the room onto the floor. Her bright, white bra made her seem all the more innocent, but irritated him so he ripped it off in one rough movement. She screamed out in part pleasure and part pain. They stripped each other’s remaining clothes off.

  Their eyes comforted each other as they made love. She studied every contour of his face and upper body. She held on to him until they both found their sweet release. He collapsed on top of her and kissed her shoulder gently.

  They heaved their breaths out together in unison. She chuckled and he rose up from her. He stared at her face, looking for answers once more.

  “Oh my God!” she exclaimed.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fantastic. I think that we both needed this,” she answered more seriously.

  He kissed her passionately and rolled off her. She snuggled up to his chest and they both closed their eyes. She felt safe in his arms and he felt soothed in hers. They drifted off to sleep in each other’s embrace.

  Chapter 16

  The room that Amalia was ushered into had a long table in it surrounded by puffy leatherback chairs. She waited on a red suede couch for Ram to return. She flipped through channels on the oversized TV that overwhelmed the lounge area. She no longer felt like a prisoner, but more like a part of the group that brought her to this place. She questioned Alex’s love for her. She didn’t know if it was just Ram’s way of manipulating the situation or if Alex really was with that other woman.

  She clicked the TV off and slammed the remote control onto the glass coffee table in front of her.

  “Easy. That will break you know,” Ram’s seedy voice announced from the doorway into the conference room.

  “What am I waiting here for? I should be with my husband.”

  “I’m not sure you will want to be with him when I show you what he’s doing right now.”

  “I am so sick of this back and forth shit. This isn’t a game, Ram. I don’t know what you are planning but it’s not going to work. I love Alex. He’s my husband. We have overcome being months apart from each other and countries apart just to be forced apart by a bunch of vampires. You think anything can stand in the way of how I feel about him then you couldn’t be more wrong.”

  “Come with me,” he said and held out his perfect, manicured hand. She slammed her hand into his and reluctantly obliged by following him. He snuck an evil smile in beneath his lips at her feisty behavior. A security guard buzzed them into a large room lined with tiny monitors. Two security guards were constantly monitoring them. They pressed buttons and moved back forth across the octagonal shaped room.

  Ram stopped in front of one bigger monitor that was blank. He stood behind Amalia and put one hand softly on her shoulder and turned the screen on with the other. It turned to snow at first then a picture came to. Alex lay in the bed shirtless and Selene lay beside him with one hand on his chest.

  Amalia gasped at the sight and pulled both hands to her face in shock momentarily before looking up at Ram. He had a serious ‘I told you so’ smirk on his face.

  “This is fake. This doesn’t mean anything. They’re asleep anyway,” she murmured, more to herself than to him.

  “Guys, can you rewind this to, say, thirty minutes earlier?” he calmly said to the two security guards.

  “Yes sir,” one of them answered.

  The screen went to snow again and a few minutes passed before a picture came back up. Alex was kissing Selene and rolling around with her on the bed. They were naked and her nails were digging into his flesh out of pleasure. Tears fell from Amalia’s eyes as she watched furiously. She wiped them away, embarrassed.

  Ram glared at Ram in anger.

  “Why would you show me this?” she yelled at him.

  The two security guards looked at her, shocked that she spoke to Ram in such a way.

  “Can we have a moment, boys?” he asked them quietly.

  They scurried out like punished animals. They didn’t want to be present for the war that would surely ensue between them.

  When the door shut Ram took her by the arm. He was much gentler than before Ember’s passing. It was a comforting touch. He didn’t seem angry in the least bit from her yelling at him.

  “You should know the truth – that’s why I showed you this. I would have asked for the same had my wife… well, that’s over now.”

  The sorrow in his eyes struck deep to her heart. She couldn’t have imagined how it felt to lose a spouse. Although, of course, right now she wished death for Alex for betraying their love.

  “I would never do that to him. I don’t understand what has changed so much in him that he thinks it’s okay to betray me like this.”

  Ram’s grip pulled her into his arms. He hugged her for comfort. She cried brief tears and the room started to spin. She felt incredibly dizzy. She hadn’t eaten since she had been here and her gurgling stomach was in defiance.

  “He’s a wolf, Amalia. The instincts and emotions that he now feels are sometimes not his own. He must learn to contain his urges. Only the strongest-willed men can survive the animalistic instincts that the wolf places on its host,” Ram said as he led her to a chair. He squatted down in front of her and placed his hands gently on her thighs. “We need to talk. There’s more you need to know.”

  She wiped the tears from her face and looked into his dark, piercing eyes. She wondered how her life could possibly get any worse.

  “Please don’t give me any bad news,” she pleaded. “I can’t take much more.”

  “It’s not… completely… bad, but you are going to need my guidance a lot more with yo
ur condition,” he replied carefully.

  “I’m only a little dizzy. I’ll be fine if I have something to eat.”

  “It’s not as simple as that anymore. You need to feed to keep your strength up. You’re one of us now, Amalia.”

  “I don’t understand. What do you mean ‘one of us’?”

  “I mean you have my condition, my curse, and my blessing. You are what America calls a vampire, but you are not immortal. There is only one that is immortal and he refuses to share with the rest of us.”

  Amalia sat there in silence. She couldn’t understand how one person could run through so many emotions all at once. She felt angry at Alex for betraying her, scared of hurting other people to stay alive, and relieved that she finally knew the truth about everything.

  “I don’t have to kill anyone, do I?” she asked.

  “No, I can do it for you until you learn how to cope with it emotionally. It will take a while for all of this to set in. I will bring you something to get you started. Let’s get you somewhere more comfortable.”

  Ram stood up and offered his tanned hand to her. She stared at it. He wore a sterling silver ring on his left ring finger. She placed her hand into his gently and he pulled her up until she was eye level with him. He seemed much shorter than Alex but stronger. She looked back at the screen on which she’d watched her husband betray her earlier. It was now a snowy picture. The horrendous video had disappeared from the screen. She looked back at Ram and he led her out of the monitor room. The security guards waited out in the hall, until they had exited, and scurried back in to work.

  “Why are you being so nice? Up until now, I thought you were an evil guy with his own agenda.” Amalia said after a bit of silence between them.

  “Every man has his own agenda. Whether it is evil or not is in the eye of the enemy.”

  ‘Well that’s very philosophical.”