Stolen Sun (The Juliana Lucio Series)

by L. C. DeCarlo

  Ana gave me a straightforward look that said the choice was mine; she was just giving me the options. It was the first time she hadn’t tried to bully me into something.

  “I want to do this. I can do this. Ana, please just don’t let my children see me.”

  She nodded her agreement and handed me the scrubs stiff with dried blood giving me an apologetic wince as I took them.

  After getting dressed, Ana smeared a little grease on my face from the trunk of my car, a little dirt on my arms and hands, and I climbed in the back curling into a ball. William was already at the morgue, waiting. Ana was going to drive me near to the police station and make an ‘anonymous call’ to report an abandoned car that had someone suspicious hanging out around it.

  As for the wound, right before she left, Ana was going to make a cut into the side of my scalp. She said that if she used a silver knife that it would slow the healing process down, it wouldn’t stop it completely, but should give me time to get to the morgue before anyone noticed it healing. Ana was going to stay nearby the scene to keep an eye on things. If it looked like it was going downhill, she was going to come on scene and take possession of my body.

  She apparently had I.D. stating she was a big wig from the missing person’s division; she didn’t want to use it unless we had to call it quits though, afraid that someone would call in to check her credentials.

  The ride to the station took about twenty minutes. Ana was obeying every traffic law and taking all the back roads. The last thing we needed was for her to get caught with a body in the back of a car the police were looking for in connection to a missing persons’ case. It felt like hours in the back of the car.

  I was incredibly grateful that temperature changes didn’t affect me. I was practicing ‘playing dead’ with the whole not moving, breathing thing. I tried to keep my limbs stiff which would be easy to do with humans; if I didn’t want to be moved, I wouldn’t be. Finally the car stopped and the trunk opened. I didn’t respond.

  “It’s me, you can open your eyes.”

  I cracked an eyelid, “How did I look? Dead?”

  “Actually, yeah you look pretty gruesome. I think as long as you don’t respond and remain stiff, they’ll buy it.” She gave me a final wistful look. I knew what was coming, and I wasn’t backing out now.

  “Are you ready to make the killing blow?” I asked before she could try to talk me out of doing this. “I know you’ve been wishing you’d done it all along, here’s your chance to get a little of that back.” I attempted to joke with her.

  “Juliana, I’ve never regretted not killing you. I just regret the way things are between us now; I hope we can fix that once this is all over.” My mouth just sort of hung open to that; I didn’t really know what to say.

  “Ana . . . I’m sorry if I --”

  “Look,” She cut me off, “we’re wasting time; we need to give them all the time we can to get you to the morgue. Let’s finish this so I can make the call.” She pulled on a glove and took out the silver knife.

  “This is going to burn a little.”

  She gently grasped my chin to turn my head a little to the right and made an incision in the hairline about three inches long next to my temporal bone. It’s the thinnest bone in the skull, and we wanted to make a head injury believable for a cause of death without raising any suspicions. Granted we were doctoring the paperwork and they weren’t going to have my body for long, but some people were going to see it, and we wanted it believable.

  I just winced and sucked in a breath as she made the incision. It only took a second, but it was still burning like there was acid dripping in it, even after she was done.

  “I can do this, I can do this.” I told myself, while I squeezed my eyes shut tight. The burning sensation eased but never fully went away. This was going to make things a little trickier or maybe it would just give me something to focus on instead of reacting to the people around me.

  “Make the call Ana, I want this over with.”

  I lay back down in the trunk, shut my eyes, and took in one last breath, more to focus myself than anything. I could feel her gaze on me and sense her apprehension before she finally closed the lid.

  Ana must have given them a description of my car or told them something more than someone suspicious was around because it was only ten minutes or so before I heard cars skidding to a halt all around my vehicle. I was getting panicky at the thought. My head started burning again, and I was able to focus on that.

  I made sure I wasn’t breathing, my arms and legs were stiff and sort of at an awkward angel, but I kept my head bowed down into my chest. I wanted to be sure I could maintain my blank face and wanted it blocked from view as much as possible. I could hear the police outside my trunk calling in my plates.

  “What? You’re kiddin’ me?” I could hear coming from a cop.

  “That missin’ doc, it’s her’s?”

  After more movement outside, I heard tools being moved around, someone was opening and closing the doors to the car but not going in it. A loud sawing noise was at the lock of the trunk.

  Here we go.

  The lid of the trunk opened and fresh air came rushing in along with the yelps of the policemen outside of it. I guess even though they knew it was my car, they were still surprised at finding me crammed into the back of it.

  “Holy Shit! Is she alive?”

  Here’s hoping I’m dead.

  “Man that’s a lot of blood. No wonder they found so much at the scene.” A young sounding cop was saying.

  I could hear him pulling on some gloves and smell the latex in them. I reminded myself not to react at being touched while he checked for a pulse, I continued holding my breath. It was starting to become my mantra.

  I could sense the air movement around me, and I felt his fingers reaching to touch my neck. He brushed my hair aside, careful not to move me or touch anything else; he was shaking slightly as he lightly pressed two fingers to my carotid artery.

  Please, please don’t beat.

  My heart did beat once while he was checking it, but he didn’t notice. I don’t blame him; if it were me and I had only felt one beat I would have most likely dismissed it as well. Besides the way he was shaking, he probably didn’t even notice it.

  “Nothing. She’s dead.” The officer sighed as he pulled his hand away.

  Thank you, God.

  “Alright! I want this scene taped off now gentlemen, and get forensics out here. I want this body photographed and out of here before the sun rises and the heat brings the stink! Not to mention the damn vulture reporters, they’ll be all over this one.”

  The voice came from an older man who smelled of stale coffee and grease. He sounded as if he was accustomed to being in charge and that he wanted me out of there before the sun rose made him my new favorite person.

  The next few hours were like torture, I had to remain statue still while flashbulbs went off around me every ten seconds. People kept leaning over me, to gather whatever samples they could. They were taking fingernail scrapings, leaning over me to turn and hold my head to photograph the incision Ana made. The proximity was starting to trigger my hunger. I was getting antsy to move and nervous about how much longer I was going to be exposed like this.

  “All right people, let’s get a move on. You can finish getting samples at the morgue. The Medical Examiner is here; he came to do a quick once over and is going to take the body back with him.”

  My saint of a cop was making everyone leave me alone. It sounded like my other savior, William, was here too. I wasn’t expecting him to come out. I wonder if Ana called him.

  “Captain.” I could hear William saying respectfully.

  “Hello Doctor, thanks for comin’ out and for takin’ her back with you. The body’s right over here. There’s a lotta blood, and we’d appreciate whatever information you can give us.”

  “Sure thing.”

  They stopped right outside the trunk of my car. Having William there instant
ly made me less tense. Apparently he could do that whether I could see him or not. He put on some gloves, made a show of checking for my pulse and testing for rigor mortis, which I have to say I was doing very well at faking, then examining my head wound. I heard him suck in a breath and I wondered just what Ana did to cause that kind of reaction. My tension was coming back. My hunger was getting worse too.

  “Captain, it looks to me that she suffered from severe blunt force trauma to the left temporal region of her skull. It caused major blood loss and likely internal hemorrhaging as well, but we won’t know that for sure until the autopsy. Given the amount of rigor mortis that’s set in, I’d say she has been dead for at least several days. I’ll get back to you on an exact number.” William told the captain in a crisp, matter-of-fact manner and started to move to get up.

  “Ok Doc, thanks. The boys here will help you move her.” He turned and left.

  “Just a few more minutes love, you’re doing amazing. You’re almost out of here. We have plenty of time.” William whispered under his breath so only I could hear him.

  He helped the officers move me to the back of the hearse taking the majority of my weight, which was nothing to him. He managed to get me into the morgue unnoticed by anyone else. There weren’t that many employees working the night shift in the morgue apparently. As soon as we went inside, he turned and locked the door, flashed to my side and yanked off the sheet covering me.

  Chapter Nine

  William pulled me up into his arms and just held me close to him. I looked around the room and saw that I was sitting in the middle of a cold, sterile room with several dead bodies lying under sheets. I had to spend the night here, locked in a tiny cooler from both the inside and outside. The thought was starting to make the trunk of the car seem like the Ritz.

  I couldn’t help it; I broke down crying into William’s chest.

  “Ughh, I’m always doing this to you! I’m sorry, I’m not usually this much of a girl, I swear.”

  That brought half a smile to his full lips as he said, “Yes, you do have a habit of crying all over me while covered in blood, don’t you?” I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me.

  “Don’t even think about it, I like having you here.” That brought a smile to my lips.

  “Can I please take a shower; I need to get this stuff off of me. Then I need blood, and don’t even think of spraying me down on that table, the answer is, no.”

  William just laughed, but I know he had been thinking of doing it.

  “What if someone comes in? We want it to look realistic right?” He said playfully.

  I wasn’t falling for it, and took a quick shower while William guarded the door, and called Ana to tell her all was in the clear.

  I felt like a million dollars after getting all that dried blood off me. I was clean and wrapped in a sheet. I didn’t have any other clothes, and I would be covered by one when Antonio came, so I just wrapped myself in one now.

  When William saw me his eyes started to show a small ring of black around his deep dark brown. I didn’t do anything to show that I’d noticed it.

  “Why does my head hurt so badly? Is it healed yet? It’s still burning, and now it feels bruised too.”

  I climbed up to sit on one of the metal slabs so he could take a better look at it now that it wasn’t caked with dried blood.

  As he pushed my wet hair out the way, he let his fingers stay twined in the strands. He looked pissed, and I could feel his muscles tightening in his arms.

  “Ana must have used a silver knife on you, thinking to slow the healing, which she did, but she also gave you silver poisoning in the process. Vampires can’t tolerate silver. If stabbed with it and part of the silver is left behind, it can kill us, slowly and painfully. As we age we build up a small resistance to it. She probably didn’t realize that just making an incision in someone so young could hurt them. What she did won’t kill you, but it will make you sick until it’s out of your system. Being low on blood is making it worse, and the bagged blood I brought you isn’t going to help.”

  “What do you mean it isn’t going to help, am I going to get worse?” I was starting to feel nauseous now too.

  “The bruising will spread and the cut won’t heal until the silver is out of your system completely. That means feeding on humans every day for about a week or consuming stronger vampire blood than your own right away for the healing aspect of it.”

  I didn’t think he was lying to me, but I was starting to believe that maybe this was a ploy to get something more from me that I wasn't ready to give yet.

  “William, I don’t think I’m ready for that. Besides, if I were to consume vampire blood you’re saying I would heal, and Antonio needs to see me injured right?”

  “He isn’t going to want to inspect your wound, just see you. You will get worse if it goes on too long. I’m not trying to trick you into anything.” He held my face in his hands and looked at me with complete sincerity as he spoke, “I meant what I said. I want only what you can give me freely and because you desire it. This is about making you better and nothing else; we can call Ana to have her come down to give you blood. She is your Sire and would do it without question.”

  “Yeah, well I joked with Ana that this was her chance to kill me like she wished she had all along and look what happened. I think I’d rather leave her out of it,” I told him.

  William just gave me an unreadable look, his hands dropping to my arms, “Jules, you need strong blood, if you don’t want to call Ana, I freely give you mine, no strings attached.” I couldn’t look him in the eye and instead dropped my forehead to his chest.

  I was about to agree right away but instead asked, “How did I get so comfortable with you so quickly? This isn’t normal for me, I love my husband.”

  “This has nothing to do with your love for your husband, you will always love him. I would never try to take that away from you. The fact that your love guides you and you choose the harder path when no one else would is something I admire about you.”

  He lifted my chin so my eyes met his. I found a longing there that was drawing me closer to him. “Jules, I don’t know why we are so drawn to each other, part of it is the draw of another vampire, but still I haven’t felt this strongly for someone in over a 100 years, and I don’t want to see you suffering.”

  William slowly leaned down to me and brushed his lips across mine kissing the corner of my mouth. He trailed small, light kisses along my jawline to my left ear. As he wound his fingers through my hair again, he barely brushed the bruised area around my cut, and I hissed in a breath of pain. It was starting to hurt even worse.

  “You need blood Jules --” He whispered into my ear, “take mine . . . heal . . . become stronger.” He murmured between kisses.

  “This is really making me doubt the ‘only about making me better and nothing else’ part that you said,” I told him on a sigh.

  He held my eyes in his gaze; they were almost all black, and I could feel his desire radiating off him. My sheet was making me feel really naked right about now.

  “You need this; this is about making you better. I will enjoy being so close to you, but there are no strings attached.” He leaned over me for another deep kiss, and I felt my fangs start to elongate. He pulled back slowly and gently guided my mouth to his throat.

  I hesitated for just a second and then ran my tongue along the column of his neck, before slowly sliding my fangs in. His blood hit me with an intensity and strength I wasn’t prepared for. It held an underlying strong earthy taste. I moaned out loud and opened my legs making room to draw him closer to me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and held him pinned to me as I sucked hard on his neck--harder than I ever had with any of my victims.

  “Jules!” William rasped.

  He was holding me to him tightly, almost like he was afraid I was going to let go.

  “Don’t stop,” he said on a husky moan.

  I felt him growing harder as he pressed himself agains
t me; the sheet had fallen to the sides of my legs, though it was still tied over my breasts. I gripped him firmer with my legs and moaned again. Drinking from him was pure pleasure, so incredibly intimate.

  Somewhere deep inside of me, I knew I shouldn’t take too much from him. I didn’t want to hurt him, so I began to slow my pull and as his blood stopped flowing I knew his neck had healed.

  I brought my gaze up to find him staring down at me with inky black eyes and full, parted lips revealing fangs. I’d never wanted anyone more. I reached up to untie my sheet, and William grabbed my hand a little more firmly than I think he had intended.

  “No, Jules. Not now, not here like this. I won’t take advantage of you, no matter how badly I want you – and I want you so badly it hurts right now. I meant it when I said no strings attached. . . I’ve never felt anything that strong for anyone . . . ever.”

  “Will, I want you. You aren’t taking advantage of me; I’ve never wanted anyone as badly as I want you now.”

  “You have no idea how happy that makes me, and no idea how much I’ve wanted to hear you call me Will,” he said with a pained smile.

  As he let go of my hand, he reached around his waist and detached my ankles from being wrapped around him. As he brought my legs forward where they belonged, he ran his hands along every inch of my calves and thighs until he finally settled with resting his hands on my outer knees.

  “I can feel my head healing,” I told him quietly.

  I still wanted him but was trying to respect what he had said and not do anything further. I also realized he was right, I would have felt as if he was taking advantage of me later.

  “That’s good,” he said, as he kissed me on the temple where his blood had just healed me.

  “Why don’t vampires feed off each other all the time? Why use humans at all? I’m starting to feel amazing, stronger than I’ve ever felt before; my head healed much faster than my arm did after having your blood.”