Crimson Born

by Amy Patrick

  “But it does mean something to you,” he prodded. “What, did a boyfriend give it to you?”

  If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn Reece was jealous. He stared at the locket as if it were a poisonous snake, his lips pressed into a thin, disapproving line.

  “No, nothing like that. It’s... remember when I told you Josiah was turned too? What I didn’t tell you is I think I’m the one who turned him—at least I’m pretty sure it was me. He was dying, and I didn’t want him to die. But it all went wrong. After he killed his parents and daylighted himself... later, that night, I went to the spot where he died. I scooped some of his ashes and put them inside this pendant.”

  “That’s a little morbid, isn’t it?”

  “It’s not like I think he’s in the ashes or something—I know he’s gone on to a better place—or at least that’s what my religion taught us.”

  “And yet you’re still trying to hold onto him.” Reece’s tone was sour.

  I touched the locket’s smooth surface. “That’s not why I wear it. I’m not trying to keep him with me. It’s a reminder... of what I did. I turned him. It’s my fault his parents died.”

  Reece grabbed my hand, squeezing it hard. “No. It’s not. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were trying to save your friend. Don’t beat yourself up over things in the past you can’t change.”

  “That,” I said, “is exactly what I’ve been saying to you.”

  “Touché.”

  His lips twisted in a sheepish grin so adorable I nearly leaned down and kissed him right there in front of the doctor and orderlies.

  “How about we both follow your excellent advice and let go of the past? We can make a new life here. It won’t be what either of us planned on... but it could be good.”

  “You’re right,” Reece said, taking my hand. “You’re absolutely right.”

  18

  No Pleasing Him

  The injections were working.

  With each passing day, Reece seemed more himself. His memories were returning along with the color in his complexion and the vitality in his eyes. My visits stretched longer and longer, taking up the bulk of my nights.

  We sat in our chairs on opposite sides of the bars, talking for hours about our past lives, our families and friends, the books we’d been reading, and the latest Bastion gossip. I had never spent so much time alone with one person—or revealed so much of my true self to someone.

  As Reece improved, so did I. Helping him recover made me feel useful. It gave me a reason to get up every day—or night, rather.

  And spending time with him made me feel like I could stay here in the Bastion and make it my home, despite Imogen’s brutality and chronic disappointment in me.

  Tonight though, Reece was irritable and cranky. There seemed to be no pleasing him. Every book I started reading to him was either “boring” or “silly,” and when I tried making conversation, he literally yawned.

  Irked by his rudeness, I closed the book in my lap with a loud clap and stood. “I guess I should be going.”

  His fleeting look of surprise was replaced immediately with a surly pout.

  “Yes. You should. You must have something better to do than hang out here all the time.”

  “Yes. I do actually,” I snapped. “Lots of things.”

  Truth be told, I didn’t.

  As I’d declined Imogen’s offer to be her protegee, I’d been trying out the different jobs available at the Bastion, hoping to find one that was a good fit for me.

  Nothing had worked out so far. The things I had experience with—cooking, gardening, taking care of livestock—were completely useless in the vampire world.

  And there was definitely nothing I wanted to do more than be here with Reece. But I certainly wasn’t going to tell him that visiting him was the best part of my day—not when he was acting this way.

  “Give me that first,” he practically growled. “I’ll read it when you leave.”

  He shoved a large hand through the bars, waiting for me to place the “boring” book in it.

  When I did, our fingers touched. There was an audible hiss as Reece inhaled sharply.

  For a moment we held blistering eye contact. Then he broke it and jerked his hand away as if he’d touched a hot pot. He stepped away from the doorway, scowling.

  “What’s the matter? Have I done something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “No. I’m just anxious for some news about when I can leave.”

  “Oh.”

  I was stung by his unexpected harsh tone and apparent aversion to my touch.

  Why was he so different today? What could have gotten into him?

  Maybe it was my imagination that we’d been growing closer day by day, but I didn’t think so.

  “Well... I’m sure it won’t be much longer.” My own tone turned petulant. “And if you’d prefer some different company, I can ask my friend Kannon to stop by and talk to you. You probably don’t remember him, but he’s the one who found you and brought you back.”

  Reece’s expression clouded. “We met. Earlier tonight.”

  “You did?” That was a surprise. And why hadn’t Reece mentioned it before now?

  “What’s wrong? Didn’t you like him?”

  “He’s a peach,” Reece said with a sneer.

  “I agree. He’s been nothing but kind to me. So what’s the problem?”

  “I don’t want to make friends here, Abbi. I don’t want to make a new life here. I want to leave. I don’t belong here. Neither do you.”

  “Oh really. Where do we belong then? If the outside world was so great, why did they find you living like an animal? Why did I have to come here every day for weeks, worried sick about you, afraid you’d never be able to speak again, afraid you’d never even remember my name?”

  “I don’t know. Why did you?” he roared. Then in a low voice he muttered, “God knows what you could want from me.”

  For a moment, I stared at him in stunned silence, battling the threat of tears. Then I whirled to go. I was expected at Imogen’s chambers soon anyway.

  Reece reached through the bars of his enclosure and grabbed my sleeve. “Wait. Abbi... I’m sorry. Don’t go yet.”

  The orderly who always sat in the observation room with me lunged toward us, but I stopped him with a confident, “It’s all right. We’re fine here.”

  The man sat back down with his book, and I turned back to Reece. Gently, I pried his fingers from my shirt.

  “I have to,” I said. “Imogen summoned me. I can’t be late.”

  “What does she want?”

  It was obvious Reece didn’t like Imogen, and really, I couldn’t blame him. His only experience with her was when she’d bitten him, and she was the one who’d ordered the medical staff to keep holding him here in isolation, away from the larger population of the Bastion.

  “I don’t know. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you tomorrow,” I said. “That is if you want me to come back tomorrow.”

  His hot-then-cold-then-hot-again behavior had me in a tailspin.

  “Come back tonight.” Reece leaned his forehead against the bars, locking his violet gaze with mine and gripping the cold steel. “Please?”

  The aching vulnerability in his voice reached inside my chest and squeezed my heart.

  Whatever was going on with him, he was an emotional mess—that much was clear. I covered both his hands with mine.

  “Why? Will you... miss me?” I whispered, shocked at my own audacity.

  For a long moment neither of us moved. Neither of us breathed.

  “I started missing you the minute your wanna-be boyfriend’s buggy pulled out of the parking lot that night,” Reece confessed. “I miss you so much when you’re not here it drives me crazy. I’ve never met anyone like you, Abbi. There’s nothing sweeter in this whole godforsaken world—in here or out there.”

  Releasing one of the bars, he reached through them and stroked my cheek, staring hard into my eyes.<
br />
  “I only want what’s best for you. You know that, right?”

  Heart thundering, I turned my face and pressed my lips into his palm, kissing it. Reece gasped.

  “You are what’s best for me.” I reached up to cradle his cheek in return. “A very smart person once told me everything happens for a reason. I’m starting to believe that.”

  With no small effort, I forced myself to step back from him. Imogen was waiting, and she didn’t tolerate lateness.

  “I’ll come back tonight,” I promised.

  The edges of his mouth turned up in a slight smile that broke my heart with its sadness.

  “I hope you do. If you don’t... I’ll understand.”

  19

  True Daughter

  Still troubled by Reece’s strange parting words and tortured gaze, I knocked at the entrance to Imogen’s private chambers.

  It was my first time being there, and I wondered what the occasion was. She’d mostly ignored me after I’d told her I had no intention of being her successor.

  The heavy door swung open, and one of her personal Bloodbound guards stepped back to allow me to enter.

  “There’s my little Florence Nightingale,” she sang out, walking toward me in a simple white button-down blouse and cardigan paired with black pedal pushers and ballet flats.

  Once again, the resemblance to Audrey Hepburn floored me. Appearance was the extent of the resemblance though. Ms. Hepburn had reportedly been known for her grace and kindness and devotion to charity work.

  Imogen wasn’t the charitable sort, and her reputation around here didn’t exactly involve kindness. I wondered what had happened in her life to make her such a hard case.

  “Wait—do you have any idea who Florence Nightingale was?” she asked.

  “Yes. She was a nurse who lived in the 1800s and is considered the founder of modern nursing.”

  “Exactly. Your education is progressing nicely. Please come in.”

  She stepped back and gestured for me to enter. Of all the rooms I’d seen in the Bastion, Imogen’s chamber was by far the most luxurious.

  It was filled with antique furniture and art from various eras. Ancient but extremely expensive looking rugs covered the floor, muffling the noise of our shoes as we went farther into the room.

  The ceiling and walls were decorated with the same natural calcite formations I’d seen in other parts of the caverns, but they also featured rare shield formations, thin stone discs that jutted from the ceiling and dripped with what looked like liquid rock, frozen by time.

  There were candles everywhere. They cast flickering shadows throughout the space that were at once beautiful and eerie.

  “I hear you’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the medical clinic,” Imogen said. “How’s the patient?”

  For some reason I had a sudden attack of nerves. It was hard to keep them from showing in my voice.

  Had she been keeping tabs on us? Watching us? People said there was nothing that went on in the Bastion Imogen didn’t know about.

  “Oh yes. Reece. He’s doing better, I think. He’s having some issues with... adjusting.”

  And aren’t we all?

  She walked to a small, ornate table that held a crystal decanter and two glasses. Pouring red liquid into both of them, she offered a glass to me and kept one for herself.

  “No thank you,” I said with a shake of my head.

  Imogen took a sip from her own glass. “He’s very handsome.”

  In spite of her casual tone, I felt myself bristle. So she had seen him.

  Had she been to the clinic and watched him through the observation window? The thought creeped me out.

  “Yes. He is.”

  “So much better looking than I realized that night on the highway,” she added.

  Though she’d always taken a motherly role with me, there was nothing maternal about the way she sounded now.

  Was she interested in him—romantically?

  The baby hairs on the back of my neck actually rose. She hadn’t asked me a question, so I didn’t respond, just let her continue.

  “You know... it’s very common for our citizens to find a mate here at the Bastion,” she said, gesturing with the glass in her hand. “But it isn’t strictly necessary to stick to only one. Have any of the males here caught your eye? Or more than one perhaps?”

  The discussion struck me as strange and made me highly uncomfortable. I wanted to switch the subject away from Reece.

  “What was it that you wanted to see me about?”

  She gave me a tolerant grin and allowed the change in topics.

  “You’ve been here for three months now. Your education is nearly complete. It’s time you took the final step in your journey of transformation and become a true daughter of the Bastion.”

  “Final step?” I didn’t like the sound of this. “What kind of step?”

  “There’s going to be a ritual at the end of this month—up on the surface. We call it the Inception Ceremony. Several humans who desire to become like us will be granted their request. Some of them are nearing their fifteenth bite, but there’s one who’s never been bitten.”

  She gave me a Cheshire Cat grin. “He’ll be yours.”

  “Mine,” I sputtered. “No—I—I can’t. I told you—I thought you understood.”

  She seemed not to hear my protest. Or not to care anyway.

  “It’ll be the perfect test of your powers. If your bite doesn’t do the job, then I’ll allow the others to work in tandem to turn him. If it does succeed however... then you’ll take your place at my side as my true daughter and heir.”

  “I told you Imogen—”

  “Call me Mother.” Her tone went frosty. “I’ll be insulted if you don’t.”

  “I told you... Mother, that’s not the kind of vampire I want to be.”

  “You don’t have a choice in the matter—this is who we are. It’s who you are.”

  “There are some vampires who live a different way.”

  She flicked her wrist as if waving away an unpleasant smell. “I don’t want to hear about those pacifist wimps. It’s unnatural. And unsustainable. Why can’t you see that? You’re my child.”

  She seemed so distraught I actually felt sorry for her. Harkening back to my parents’ teachings, I tried to put myself in her shoes.

  Maybe if I’d been the one who’d done the turning, who’d saved the life of a girl I could just as easily have drained and left on the highway that night, I’d feel the same way she apparently did now.

  Rejected. Maybe even betrayed.

  “Why me?” I asked the question I’d always wondered. “Why did you choose me? There’s nothing special about me.”

  “Oh, but you’re wrong. I haven’t elected to create a child in a hundred years, and I had no intention to do so anytime soon. But that night as you lay dying on the asphalt, there was something about you. A rare quality. I couldn’t let it perish. As I’ve told you before, Abigail, I see great potential in you. With me there to guide you every step of the way, you could become a very powerful immortal, perhaps one of the greatest. One day several millennia from now when I’m ready to pass on my crown... I want to see it on your head Abigail.”

  I couldn’t help but be flattered and even touched. But my mind hadn’t changed. In fact, I was more certain than ever. I couldn’t imagine myself ever wearing a crown. And I certainly couldn’t see myself leading a community like the Bastion.

  “Imogen—I mean Mother—thank you. I do appreciate all you’ve done for me. But that’s not my vision for my life. I told you before... I don’t intend to ever bite a human again.”

  The glass in her hand flew across the room and smashed against the stone wall, causing it to run with streaks of blood.

  But that was nothing compared to the red fury in Imogen’s eyes.

  “I’d hoped after spending time here, you’d have come to your senses. What kind of vampire refuses to feed from humans?” she demanded.
<
br />   “The peaceful kind,” I said. “I’m sorry. I know you must be very disappointed, but I’ve made up my mind, and there’s nothing that could change it.”

  She let out a snort that was half-laugh half-growl. “You may go now—as you so obviously want to. I have another meeting.”

  With a quick head nod, I turned and left the room. When I stepped out into the hall, Kannon was there waiting his turn.

  “Hi,” I whispered, nodding toward the door. “Get ready. She is not in a good mood.”

  “Oh really?” He laughed. “Did you play the rebellious teenager card and question her orders?”

  “Worse. I told her I wasn’t going to bite any humans.”

  He winced. “Oooh. That’ll do it. Well, thanks for the warning. See ya later kiddo.”

  He ducked into the room, and I went to my own. I needed to pack.

  I was going to get Reece released from the clinic and leave with him.

  Tonight.

  It was what he wanted, and now, it was what I wanted too. As he’d said, this was no place for either of us.

  He was almost fully recovered, and there was no way I could stay here with Imogen’s constant pressure to become the kind of vampire she wanted me to be.

  A vampire like her.

  If this was going to be my new life, I had to figure out a way to live with myself. I had transformed, but deep inside I was still me.

  There had to be a way to survive while also leading a life that was worth living.

  20

  Recruit

  My heart raced as I walked down the west corridor toward the clinic two hours later, carrying a duffel bag with the few items of clothing I owned and a stash of blood bags.

  This was it, the first day of the rest of my life. Now that I’d made my decision, I could hardly wait to get started.

  It felt right—it felt good. And Reece would be thrilled to be free again.