Tommy’s dark eyes widened as he absorbed that. He grinned than let out a low whistle, slightly shaking his head. “Part human, huh? Fascinating.” He cocked his head at Teren’s chest, probably noting the absence of a heartbeat. “Born? But, you’re dead?”
Teren nodded. “I recently died. One side effect that even humanity can’t overcome for long.”
The man shrugged, not too moved by hearing that. “Ah, well, I’d sympathize, but I died over fifty years ago.” He grinned and rocked back on his heels. “I’ve been vampire longer than I’d been human. And being human was no picnic, I was happy to give it up.” Teren frowned and I saw some of his defensive posture return. Tommy’s eyes shifted back to Halina, a slow smile spreading as he took in the wild beauty crouching in front of Ben and me. “You though…” he inhaled deep, taking her scent in as well, “are pure vampire, like me.”
Halina hissed again, not looking like she was in a friendly mood. The man chuckled at her and then cocked his head at her still protective posture in front of us. Confusion passed his face as he looked between Teren and Halina. His finger came out of his pocket and he pointed in my direction. “Are you protecting …humans?” His drawl couldn’t have sounded more surprised by that. “And I’ve seen you with these humans several times.” He gave Teren an odd look as he gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. “You do know there’s an ocean of them out there, don’t you?”
The man seemed truly baffled as to why two humans would warrant such a strong reaction in his kind. My stomach twisted as I realized he didn’t share Teren’s views on mainly eating livestock. Ignoring the throb in my hand, I shifted slightly behind Ben. My movement brought Tommy’s eyes right to me and I froze.
“Ah, and one with child…my favorite. No blood is sweeter than a woman filled with life.” His grin turned into a leer and my heart shifted into triple time. He heard it and smiled wider. That was all the reaction he got though.
Teren was on him in a flash, his hand securely around the man’s throat, his fangs extended now too. I prayed no one happened to walk past this tension-filled parking lot while the supernaturals were being, well, supernatural. “She’s mine,” Teren growled.
Tommy batted Teren’s hand from his neck like Teren was a child, his strength superior to Teren’s mixed blood. That made me swallow, but Halina stepped forward to stand closer to him, to back him up if needed and I relaxed a little. Two-to-one odds were better.
Tommy glanced at her and then back to Teren. “Relax. It was just an observation. It’s not like there aren’t more like her out tonight.”
He rolled his eyes after he said that, like he didn’t understand why Teren was being so rude. I hated the feeling of being looked at purely as dinner, and wanted this…creature, gone. Teren seemed to share my feelings. “It was nice to meet you, but we have somewhere to be.”
Tommy frowned as both he and Teren retracted their fangs. I relaxed further as the sudden tension started dissipating. “Oh, I was hoping we could get to know each other better. I do get bored being on my own all the time.” He tilted his head at Teren. “And you…fascinate me.”
Teren smiled tightly as Halina stepped up to his side. “Another time perhaps? When it’s just you and me.”
As the vampires seemed preoccupied, I pulled Ben’s hand, urging him back towards the car. He didn’t move though, his perfect face glued onto Tommy’s. He was shell-shocked, too scared to do anything. I silently cursed my luck at being pretty much glued to him and whispered his name repeatedly, to try to break him out of his stupor.
Tommy flicked a glance at me, a disappointed look on his face. “Yeah, alright, since you’re busy with your…humans. I was about to get something to eat anyway.” His eyes lingered on Ben, contemplative. Bringing his attention back to Teren, he casually asked, “Do you need both of them? Since you seem so partial to the female, can I have the male?”
He’d asked that as if we were nothing more than Thanksgiving turkeys at a store, being divvied up between customers. Ben beside me groaned softly and finally took a step back with me. As quietly as we could, we started walking backward. Teren tried to distract Tommy by stepping into his line of vision, but Tommy looked around him, watching our slow retreat to Teren’s car.
Answering Tommy’s question, Teren calmly said, “No, the male is ours as well.”
Tommy brought his attention to Teren again, sighing sadly as his dinner sulked away. “Didn’t think so. Fine. Like I said,” he flung his arm out to indicate the neighborhood, “an ocean of humans awaits.”
Fixing his face and his stance, Teren firmly said, “No.”
Tommy grinned, like Teren had made a joke, and then blinked his dark eyes at him. “Excuse me?”
“There is no killing of humans, in or around the city.” Teren’s voice stayed remarkably steady when he said that. I nearly expected Halina to scoff at his remark, but her face was equally as serious as she eyed the strange vampire.
Tommy started laughing and then stopped when he saw that Teren was not even remotely joking. Looking between him and Halina he sullenly said, “I’m hungry, I need to eat. What are a few cattle, in a city this size?”
I cringed at his word choice as Ben and I finally backed into Teren’s car. I tried the latch of the door behind me, but the stupid thing was, of course, locked. I cursed under my breath as Teren laid down the law for the vampire. Even terrified, I had to admit that his authority was sort of a turn on.
“You are in my territory and you do not have my permission to hunt here. You will leave every…cattle, in my city, alone.”
Tommy scoffed at that and gave Teren a once over. “Permission? I don’t need your permission, boy. And why should I deprive myself from the best meal in town? It’s not like they’re endangered. They breed like rabbits. They spread over this world like cockroaches. I’m simply doing my part, to thin the herd.” I really hated this guy referring to us as much lower life forms.
Teren took a step towards him menacingly, having a good half foot over the short, plain vampire. I knew that was misleading though, the vampire’s strength didn’t come from his size.
Halina stepped forward as well though, her strength equal, if not greater than Tommy’s. I jiggled the handle of the door uselessly as she calmly told him, “This is my city too and since I’ve been vampire longer than you, that makes me your elder. And you will listen to me when I say, back off. Why don’t you try farther south? There are some wonderful specimens in Brazil.”
Surprise flitted through me, mixing oddly with my fear, that Halina would care if he hunted here. A part of me wondered if he simply irritated her and she sided with Teren just to piss him off. Or maybe it was just a show of family unity. Either way, she was more imposing than Teren at the moment and the man paused, considering the threat of her before him.
“Well…” he sniffed and brought his hands out of his pockets, flexing them, “maybe you and I could hunt together, little minx?” He eyed her up and down, a little more seductively than he had Teren. “You could…approve my meal choice and then perhaps we could find a hole to hide up in until dusk?” He leaned toward her, running a hand up her thigh. “I’m sure you have one, somewhere.”
She scoffed and batted his hand away, crossing her arms over her chest. “I got a more appealing offer from a junky down at the wharf earlier.”
He bristled at that, anger clouding his face. “I think I will go.” He glared at Teren and then Halina. “The hospitality here is not what I expected.”
Teren stepped back, bringing an arm out to his side in a gesture of dismissal. “We’re sorry for the rudeness, but this is our home, and we do have rules here.”
The man made no move to leave, only frowned at Teren further. “You disappoint me half-breed. I was so hoping we could be friends.”
Teren raised his chin, shaking his head. “I have enough friends.”
Tommy’s lip twitched at that, and although I couldn’t see it, I thought his fangs had dropped down again. I
quietly asked Ben if his car was open, desperately wanting to be behind a sheet of metal instead of standing out here in the open. Ben didn’t answer me, too caught up in the showdown going on in front of his face. I jabbed him in the ribs, but he still paid me no attention, only grasped my hand like I was his lifeline.
Tommy heard me whisper to Ben and shot me a glance. I met his eye and froze. His lips curved up in a cruel smile. It made me think about how a cat about to pounce on a mouse would look, if their faces could show emotion. His eyes gleamed in the orange lights and his body sank down just a fraction of an inch. Halina and Teren looked at each other briefly while Tommy held my gaze. Not looking away from me, he told them, “Fine, I’ll be on my way.” He tilted his head, his mouth opening enough so that I could indeed see his fangs. “But first…maybe a snack.”
That line brought Teren’s attention back to him, but he was too late. That plain looking vampire was fast, faster than I’d ever seen a vamp move, and that was saying a lot. I saw nothing at first. In fact, I was only aware something had changed, because I felt it. My brain couldn’t track him, and I still saw him standing by Teren. But he wasn’t. Before anyone else could do anything, I was suddenly shoved against Teren’s car, my bulging body trapped by one as hard and commanding as stone. By the time my brain could comprehend that he had moved, that he was pinning me to the car, my head was tilted so hard to the side, I thought it might break.
Before I could scream at that pain, a searing pain burst open on my neck. Then all I felt was pain; my entire body burned with it. My vision swam and faded, the orange glow of the parking lot warping and distorting, and I never did actually see him standing in front of me. The pain intensified to a level that made speech impossible and I’m pretty sure no sounds ever even left my body. I felt warmth being pulled from me, as fire burned through my head, neck, shoulder – everywhere. I heard muffled shouts, but they were distant, like everyone was suddenly miles away from me, or I was underwater. Then the pain started to fade and my vision dulled, started shifting to a sheet of black, like someone had turned off every light in the city and pulled a blanket over the stars.
As every muscle in my tense body started relaxing, and one long, raspy breath left my body, “seven seconds” kept replaying itself in my head. That’s how long an experienced killer took to drain a person dry. It felt like the pain had lasted an eternity to me, but I wondered if really, only a few seconds had ticked by. As thoughts started getting harder to keep, harder to hold onto, my very last one was, ‘I love you, Teren’.
Then I felt nothing.
Chapter 11
Life, Death, and Everything In-Between
I was dead. I was completely sure I was dead. No one survived an attack like that. No one just walked away from a hungry vampire with a point to prove unscathed, not even this, until now, pretty lucky girl. I hated that what a whacked out maniac had failed to do a few months ago, a lone CPA looking vampire had managed. I also hated that Teren would be devastated. He’d be so upset with himself, like he’d failed me again. I didn’t blame him for my death though; fast as he may be, he couldn’t have known what was going to happen. I hoped that his family helped him through my demise. I couldn’t imagine how wrenched he was, losing me…and the children, all at once like that.
A new horror struck me at that thought. They were gone. We’d struggled so hard to conceive them in time and now they wouldn’t even get the chance at life. They’d never know how much we loved them, how excited their father was to hold them. They’d never know…
As I dwelled, my thoughts turned to my family, and how much pain they were going to be in. My poor sister. I’m sure Teren would tell her the truth of what happened. I wondered if she’d have a different opinion of vampires after that. Maybe she wouldn’t want to know the truth anymore. Maybe she’d ask him to wipe her mind of all of them. I hated that Teren would lose her too. He’d be so alone.
My mother would have to be told a lie; an animal attack maybe? I couldn’t imagine how she’d get through burying another family member. That was just too horrid to comprehend. I thought of Tracey and Hot Ben – maybe their grief would bind them. Maybe Halina wiped him immediately after the incident, so he wouldn’t have to know what really happened. I’d imagine that he’d go mental with fear, if he’d watched his biggest one happen right in front of his face. That was, if the vamp didn’t get him too.
Speaking of that bastard, I hoped Halina rammed her hand straight through his chest, ripping out his heart. Drastic, I know, but we are talking about the creature that took the life of my children. No punishment could be grand enough for him. On second thought, I hope she took him to the ranch and staked him out in a field; let the sun burn away his sins.
A little surprised at my dark thoughts, I raised a heavy hand and scratched an itch on my nose. Odd. I wouldn’t think a dead person would still have the occasional itch. As my heavy hand thudded down to land on a soft, springy surface, I thought that was pretty odd too. Why was my afterlife feeling like waking from delirium?
I experimentally inhaled. My lungs expanded and the scent of iodine burned my nostrils. I choked on it and coughed, and that’s when the pain hit me. I forced myself to stop coughing, my eyes stinging in protest, but that was preferable to the tearing sensation that moving had seared through my neck. Why would pain follow me in death? Shouldn’t I be pain free, lounging with my deceased father and grandmother on some fluffy white cloud, while a window to earth let me keep an eye on the loved ones I’d left behind?
Unless, of course, I’d somehow survived? But that just wasn’t possible. I’d felt the hole ripped in my throat, I’d felt the warmth of life being stolen from me. I’d felt my body give in, succumb to death. There is just no freaking way I lived through that!
But I couldn’t ignore the awful sensations running through my sore body. My head felt like it might split open. My throat was dry and aching. Even keeping my neck perfectly immobile, it still throbbed where that bastard bit me. But most of all, over all of the painful sensations I was definitely feeling, was an overriding sense that my body was foreign. Maybe that’s why death had seemed a more logical conclusion; I almost didn’t feel real.
My skin felt stretched tight over limbs that were suddenly too long, muscles that were too sculpted. I felt the air in the room brushing across my flesh, like someone had left a window open. It was a tad icy and a shiver went through me. My eyes felt heavy and lidded, like I couldn’t possibly open them, and my mouth felt…full, like my tongue was too big and my teeth had doubled in size.
I stretched my body carefully and felt dull aches and tensions releasing. I opened my jaw and it cracked loudly in my ear. My jaw ached and I brought a hand to the joint and massaged it a little while I tried to open my eyes. Well, I guess I wasn’t dead. The room was too real, nothing ethereal about it. It was dark, nighttime, but light was filtering in from under the door, highlighting it in orange. The effort was too much and I closed my eyes again. I hated being in pain and a tiny, tiny speck of me, preferred the idea of me being dead, like I’d originally thought.
Confused as to how I wasn’t, I moved my hand to my neck and felt the bandage there. A thick bandage - hospital grade. I wondered vaguely if that’s where I was. If Teren had scooped me up and sped me to the local ER. Now that I was sure I was alive, I wanted to see him, and make sure he was okay too. I wondered where he was. For some reason, I felt like he was close by, and I’m sure he was. I doubt he’d leave me, knowing I was hurting.
Hurting…
That thought made me immediately bring my hand to my stomach. The skin there was tight too and worried, I pressed down, first on one side then the other. I was rewarded with a light kick and a jostling bump as the twins responded to my touch. They were alive…I was alive…we were all fine. Somehow, we were all fine.
I inhaled deep again, my nose more prepared for that hospital smell, and held it in for a few seconds before letting the exhale go. Despite the pain, I felt cleaner, more alive
than I’d felt in a long time, maybe ever, but still odd. My throat burned and I swallowed; it was hard to do. With my hand still protectively resting over my babies, I listened to the sounds of the room.
Everything was muffed at first, like my ears were waking from delirium too, but as I concentrated, clarity filled me. Surprisingly, I could actually hear Teren’s deep voice and in answer to him, a woman’s musical one. I knew the strange female’s voice almost immediately, felt instantly connected with it. He was talking to Alanna. I wondered what she was doing here at the hospital and then, for some reason, I knew that all of the vampires were here. I frowned and wondered why they’d come all this way. Knowing that even I had thought I’d died, I suppose it had been pretty touch and go for awhile. Maybe they’d all come to support Teren. Maybe my mother and sister were here too, all to grieve me with my husband, if I didn’t make it. I cringed at the thought and held my abdomen tighter. No longer wishing death over pain, gratitude filled me that I hadn’t lost them, that my horrid vision of them never seeing their father wasn’t going to come true. Tears stung my eyes as I silently thanked the fates for their safety.
Conversion Book Two: Bloodlines Page 24
