by Folsom, Tina
“Thanks. Yvette?”
The woman turned and Maya had another chance of admiring her beauty. Her model looks were only diminished by the slightly sour look on her face. “Yes?”
Maya shifted from one foot to another. “I’m thirsty.” She felt as if she’d just confessed that she needed a shot of heroine. And in her own eyes it was just that: forbidden and dark.
Instead of giving her a disgusted look, Yvette actually smiled. Maya could easily imagine how men flocked to her when she turned on the charm. “That’s to be expected. I brought you a couple of bottles.”
Bottles of what? “I mean, at least I think … I want some blood.”
“I know. Over there.” Yvette pointed at the bedside table. On it were two bottles with unrecognizable contents.
Maya approached. As she inched forward, she read the labels. All they said was O Pos. Was this what she thought it was? “Is that -”
Yvette responded before she had a chance to finalize her thoughts.
“Human blood. Not all of us actually go out and bite humans. We have evolved.”
They drank blood out of bottles? No biting? For the first time since she’d awoken, a sense of relief spread inside her. She wouldn’t turn into an animal that attacked humans.
“You don’t bite people?”
“No, not for food anyway.”
Maya decided not to have Yvette explain her comment. Thinking back to her kiss with Gabriel, her instinct told her that biting wasn’t reserved for the purpose of food intake. And right now she didn’t want to think any further about what had happened with Gabriel.
She picked up one of the bottles and unscrewed the top. She sniffed and inhaled the metallic scent. Her stomach recoiled. It smelled nothing like Gabriel’s blood. This wasn’t what her body wanted.
“It smells awful,” she commented.
“Awful?” Yvette’s incredulous tone gave her pause. “I thought you were thirsty.”
Maya nodded. “I’m famished. But this is not what I want.” Gabriel’s blood had smelled delicious, and the enticing package it had come in –
well, she didn’t even want to think of it or she would charge downstairs and try to find him to get what she wanted.
Yvette shook her head. “We all drink this. It’s first quality. Samson only buys the best. Drink.”
Maya set the bottle to her lips. The moment the blood touched her lips, she virtually gagged. She tried to swallow, but couldn’t get the repulsive liquid down her throat. She spat.
“It’s God-awful.”
A shocked look passed over Yvette’s features. “But you have to drink human blood. Without it you can’t survive. We all feed once a day, sometimes more often if we are injured or expend more energy.”
Maya still had the vile taste of the blood in her mouth. All she could think of was to get rid of it. She didn’t care what the others did. She wasn’t going to drink that disgusting liquid. “I’m going to puke.”
She ran into the bathroom and scooped water from the faucet into her mouth to wash out the taste. When she turned she saw Yvette standing at the door.
“Maybe you’ve got it all wrong. Maybe I didn’t turn.”
Yvette shook her head. “The signs were all there. And besides, I can sense your aura.”
Maya didn’t understand. What kind of new-age junkie was she?
“What aura?”
“Every vampire has a certain unmistakable aura. Only other vampires or paranormal creatures can see it. It’s how we recognize each other.”
“I don’t understand.” She couldn’t see any aura.
“You will. You’re weak right now because you haven’t fed yet.
Once you’ve recovered you’ll slowly find your new senses. So feed or I’m calling the doc and tell him there’s something wrong with you,”
Yvette said.
That was all Maya needed: not only was she a vampire, no, now something was wrong with her. She couldn’t accept it. “Let me try again.”
When Yvette handed her the open bottle, Maya held her breath.
Maybe if she didn’t breathe the scent in, she would be able to swallow.
Again she put the bottle to her lips and took a swig. A second later, she spewed the red liquid over the white marble counter and the pristine mirror. The droplets on the mirror created little rivers and ran down toward the counter, creating an eerie pattern of long strings meant to trap her and tie her up. Like a net in which she felt captured.
“I’m calling the doc,” was Yvette’s only comment.
Maya braced herself on the counter. “Maybe I need real human blood.”
“This is real human blood. It’s fresh, it’s bottled. There’s nothing wrong with it.” As if to prove it, Yvette took a sip and swallowed.
“See?”
There was no denying it. Yvette drank the blood without problems.
“Maybe I’m allergic. Are there any other brands?” Even as a human she’d had a few minor food allergies, so maybe this was all it was: an allergy to one type of blood.
“Allergic? Impossible. I’ve never heard of a vampire who was allergic to blood.” Yvette’s dismissal came without any hesitation.
“Is that the only blood you have?” Maya asked in desperation. She was starving, and her body told her she needed to eat, or drink, or whatever vampires called it.
“Samson keeps some O neg somewhere. Let me check with Carl.”
She started toward the door. “Get dressed in the meantime.”
The moment Yvette left the room, Maya slipped into the clothes she’d brought her. Whoever Delilah was, Yvette had been right.
Delilah’s size was almost the same as Maya’s. The faded jeans fit her almost perfectly, and the soft, red t-shirt was only marginally too tight around her toned biceps.
By the time she was dressed, Yvette was back with another bottle.
Maya read the label when she took it: O neg. She prayed that this tasted better than the previous bottle and unscrewed the top. The whiff that hit her was even more vile than what she’d spit out only minutes earlier.
They expected her to drink that? Nobody in their right mind would touch that awful stuff.
She pushed the bottle back into Yvette’s hand. “I can’t. This is even worse than the other stuff.”
Yvette gave her another skeptical look. “This is the best blood out there. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to get O neg? It’s like a bottle of the best champagne.”
“I don’t care what it costs. I don’t like it,” Maya snapped. “Why don’t you drink it?”
Yvette raised an eyebrow. “I think I will. The bottle’s already open.
No use in wasting good stuff.”
Maya’s stomach growled again, and she hugged herself trying to counteract the hunger. “Maybe I’m not a vampire.”
Yvette tsked. “I know it’s a hard thing to come to terms with, but denial isn’t going to get you anywhere. You’re a vampire, just like the rest of us. Get used to it.”
“But then why wouldn’t I drink human blood? That can’t be right.
Have you ever heard of a vampire who won’t drink human blood?”
Yvette pursed her lips. “I haven’t, but maybe the doc has. Let’s go downstairs and wait for him.”
“What’s his specialty, vampirism?”
Yvette shrugged her shoulders. “I’m afraid all they’ve got here is a psychiatrist. This is a bit of a quiet backwater. In New York we could get you a real doctor, but in San Francisco he’s the only one.”
“There are plenty of doctors in San Francisco.”
Yvette gave her a meaningful look. “Sure there are, but not one who’s a vampire.”
Of course Yvette was right. She couldn’t go to a real doctor. How on earth would she explain her hunger for blood on the one hand, but her body’s refusal to drink it on the other? She needed to see a vampire doctor. How a psychiatrist could help he
r was beyond her, unless he could hypnotize her into drinking the awful stuff. Maybe that was what Yvette was getting at.
For sure, he must have heard of cases like hers. If not, then her own theory made much more sense: she couldn’t be a real vampire if she didn’t want to drink human blood. They had gotten it all wrong – she hadn’t turned. She was still human. Maybe her freakish strength and lack of reflection was just temporary. There was still hope that this nightmare she’d awoken into would end.
Seven
Gabriel kicked the gas pedal down and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in Samson’s Audi R8 with a speed of close to ninety miles.
Traffic was light, and an occasion like this didn’t present itself very often. Besides, racing Samson’s sports car was the perfect outlet for his frustration.
The kiss with Maya had turned him inside out. If she hadn’t accidentally bitten him – and he was certain it was an accident since she was still unaware of her true strength – he wasn’t sure where things would have stopped. Well, he was lying to himself. He knew exactly where it would have stopped: with him fucking her until she’d used her new strength to fight him. Until she would have looked at his naked body and called him a monster.
Gabriel turned off the freeway and headed down the steep road into Sausalito, the once sleepy artist’s enclave where these days no struggling artist could afford the rents or the high home prices. It had become a playground for the rich. No wonder: the views into the city were stunning.
He looked out to his right at the sparkling lights. He didn’t miss daylight. In fact, he welcomed the absence of sun in his life. Nights could be beautiful. They concealed the ugliness of the world and only showed those things that sparkled and gleamed. In the shadows of the night he could hide the ugly side of his face and be respected for the man he was, not the monster some perceived him to be. In the night he could pretend to be an ordinary man with ordinary desires and dreams: for a loving wife, a family, a welcoming home. He knew he would be a good husband, gentle and loving, if only he was given a chance.
But in all the years since his transformation he’d never met a woman who hadn’t looked at him with horror. He’d never even tried to make advances on any of them for fear of rejection. As a human he’d dealt with enough rejection, one that had destroyed one side of his face.
Despite what Jane had done to him, deep down he knew he couldn’t even blame her. He should have prepared her for what she would see.
Gabriel blinked the gruesome memory of his wedding night away and looked at the street signs. He was at the other end of Sausalito and had left the quaint little downtown behind him. To his right was the Bay and a small colony of houseboats. He slowed down, looking for the correct turnoff. At the last pier, he brought the Audi to a stop and killed the engine.
The witch’s houseboat was the last on the mooring.
He’d crawled back to Drake after the kiss with Maya, and he’d made a deal with the devil, giving the doctor what he wanted: the use of his gift. He hated himself for it, for giving into his baser urges, because that’s what it was. Because he desired Maya against all reason. Because he hoped against all hope that there was a chance she could accept him if only he dealt with his predicament. Because her kiss had awakened that hope.
Gabriel wasn’t sure what to think of Drake’s connection to a witch, and he didn’t really want to speculate. But it was odd, to say the least.
Vampires and witches were sworn enemies. To have a witch amongst one’s acquaintances or – God forbid – friends was dangerous for a vampire. If other vampires found out about the connection, one could be called a traitor to one’s race. Repercussions would be severe. But at this point Gabriel didn’t care anymore.
When he’d heard from his old friend Amaury that a witch had done some research on his own problem for him, hope had risen in Gabriel.
Now it was time to see if she could help him too.
Admitting one’s vulnerability to a witch was dangerous because their spells could be powerful, and a vampire had little protection against spells. But frankly, Gabriel didn’t think he had much of a choice.
He’d tried everything already, and still his problem hadn’t disappeared. No, it prevented him from taking a willing woman into his arms and making love to her. He didn’t want that to happen with Maya.
He didn’t want her to run from him in horror. He wanted her to kiss him again, to roam her hands freely over his naked body, to caress him. If he was made whole, maybe she could look past his external scar and accept him. Or why had she kissed him in the first place?
“Get off my property, vampire,” a female voice came out of the dark.
Gabriel raised his head and saw the witch standing on the upper level balcony, leveling a cross bow with a wooden stake at him. Her thin figure was silhouetted against the moonlight, keeping her face in the dark. But Gabriel’s vampire night vision compensated for it. It was sufficient enough for him to determine that she was an attractive woman in her thirties.
Gabriel understood her hostility only too well. If she showed up at a vampire’s house, she wouldn’t be made any more welcome either. He didn’t take it personally. “Miss Leblanc, you were recommended by Dr.
Drake.”
A little snort indicated that she didn’t give a damn about the recommendation. “To do what?”
“I need a problem taken care of,” Gabriel confessed.
“You should know better than to come to one of my kind for help.
None of you can be trusted.”
Gabriel went out on a limb. “If that was the case, you wouldn’t have told Drake where to find you. After all, he’s one of us.”
“Is that so?”
He could see her face and her frown. What was she trying to tell him? Was Drake not to be trusted, or was he not one of them? Gabriel knew for sure that Drake was a vampire – his whole aura radiated with a certain frequency and that was the way vampires recognized other vampires. Clearly the witch wanted to throw him off his game.
“I want nothing for free.”
“And I’m not doing any favors,” she countered.
“I ask none. I have means to pay you.” Gabriel already knew that she didn’t want cash because he’d read her memory – an image of her bank statement – when he’d mentioned payment. She wasn’t interested in any more than she already had. But he had to tread carefully. Giving out things other than cold hard cash could come back to bite him one day, literally. It would be better if he could convince her to take hard currency.
“Money is cold,” she answered.
“So is loneliness.” If he could get her to take his case, he would have to hook her in first.
“If you didn’t suck people’s blood, you wouldn’t be lonely. Ever thought of that?”
“I don’t bite people.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Ah, you’re one of those who think of themselves as more civilized because you drink it from a bottle. Doesn’t make a hell lot of difference to me. It’s still human blood.”
“It’s donated. Nobody gets hurt.”
“Somebody always gets hurt,” the witch claimed.
Gabriel shook his head. “We pay for what we take. It’s not any different than you purchasing crow’s feet for your potions.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Unless you have something valuable to trade, I’m not interested in helping you.”
“Don’t you even want to know what it is I need help with?”
“Couldn’t care less, vampire. Whatever ails you, I bet you deserve it.”
“That’s harsh, even coming from a witch,” Gabriel responded, not yet giving up.
“Isn’t the sun coming up soon? Maybe you should leave?”
“I always get what I want.” He gave her an intense look. He’d never tried mind control on a witch, but it was worth a try. If she didn’t want to play ball, maybe he could manipulate her. The ultimate goal was worth it.
“Stay out of my head, vampire. I’m stronger than you. Go back to your own kind. There’s nothing here for you.”
Knowing that tempting her with money wouldn’t work, he tried to appeal to her humanity. “Have you never felt so lonely you thought the whole world had shut you out?”
There was a short pause. Had he gotten through to her? “You chose this life, vampire.”
Gabriel had, but he was the exception. The majority of all vampires were turned, many against their will. Only a handful of his kind were born into this life, and those were the hybrids, the lucky ones who could live in both worlds, the human and the vampire one, walk both in the light and the shadows. “Nobody really chooses this. We all get thrown in one way or another. Did you choose to be a witch?” he countered.
“None of your fucking business, vampire.” She waved the crossbow.
“Now go back to your own kind, and leave me be. I don’t need any trouble. Not the kind you’ll bring with you anyway. People like you are bad for business.”
Gabriel squared his stance. He wasn’t leaving. “I need your help.”
And he wasn’t beyond begging either.
“Can’t take no for an answer. Fine. Then try this.”
He heard the release of the crossbow’s string a split-second before the wooden stake whizzed through the air. Pure reflex made him jump.
He landed in the murky water up to his waist, mud and silt working themselves into his boots and pants.
“Don’t come back, vampire.”
Gabriel watched her stomp off the balcony into the houseboat, slamming the door behind her.
One nil – advantage for the witch.
Eight
“No!”
Gabriel heard the high-pitched scream the moment he stepped out of the car he’d just parked outside of Samson’s house.
Maya! Somebody was hurting her.
He sprinted to the entrance, jammed his key into the lock and pushed the door open a split-second before he charged into the house without even bothering to close the door behind him. His muddy boots left a mess on the pristine floor, and his clothes were still damp from his unexpected bath. Carl would probably stake him if he saw the mess he was leaving in his wake.
