Blood Debt

by Heather MacKinnon

  “Nicholas!” the high-heeled person squealed.

  A tall willowy woman with pitch black hair marched past me, knocking into my shoulder on her way by. Stumbling forward, I caught myself before I fell. I looked up to find her long pale arms wrapped around Nicholas’ neck, her thin body pressed along his. I glared so hard I was surprised her peacock blue barely-there dress didn’t go up in flames.

  “I haven’t seen you in so long! I’ve missed you,” the woman said too loudly, finishing with a ridiculous looking pout. I couldn’t keep my eyes from rolling.

  Nicholas extracted himself from her hold and simply said, “I’ve been busy.”

  “I was going to call you. The annual ball is coming up, and I was hoping you’d ask me to accompany you again,” she simpered, her eyelashes fluttering.

  Nicholas looked at me before answering. “I don’t think so, Victoria.”

  Victoria.

  So, the waif had a name.

  She turned and acknowledged me for the first time. Her heavily made-up eyes raked me up and down and it was clear she found me lacking.

  “Victoria, this is my new progeny, Adrienne,” he introduced us.

  “You’re what?” she yelled, louder than necessary.

  Nicholas’ jaw tensed. “My progeny.”

  “But Nicholas, you never change vampires. Why start with her?”

  “Well, he didn’t–”

  Nicholas cut me off. “It’s really none of your concern. It was nice seeing you again Victoria, but we have places we need to be.”

  He grabbed my elbow again and propelled me toward the elevator. I turned to see Victoria still standing where we left her, eyes narrowed, and shoulders tensed.

  Nicholas rushed us into the open elevator and pushed the button for the thirteenth floor.

  “Wait, you have a thirteenth floor? Isn’t that supposed to be bad luck?”

  He smirked at me. “We’re vampires, Adrienne. We don’t worry about silly superstitions like black cats and the number thirteen. In fact, thirteen plays a big role in the Vampire Parliament. There are thirteen board members, thirteen districts for each headquarters, and thirteen headquarters around the world.”

  Wow, vampires sure didn’t do things halfway, did they?

  The elevator opened to a room with enough beauty to rival the ground floor’s. This room, however, was circular with gleaming black marble, and thirteen doors interspersed along the walls. Nicholas turned to his left and walked to the third one from the elevators.

  I followed him through the door into a medium-sized office decorated in blacks, whites, and grays. This decor was familiar now. At a small desk in the center of the room was an older woman with a tight salt-and-pepper bun atop her head, and a pair of glasses attached to a chain around her neck.

  The woman looked up when we entered the room. “Good evening, Mr. Talbot. I wasn’t expecting to see you here for another week or so.”

  “Hello, Mary. I’ve just stopped by to check in briefly. This is my progeny, Adrienne.” He waved his hand toward me.

  Mary turned her gaze to me and her face lit up with a warm smile. She rose from her seat and approached me. “Hello, Adrienne. It’s so nice to meet you.” She reached out and clasped my hands in her weathered grip.

  The pleasant welcome threw me. “H-hi, Mary. It’s nice to meet you too.”

  “Come with me, Adrienne,” Nicholas beckoned from an elaborate doorway behind Mary’s desk. “I’ll show you my office.”

  Office? He worked here?

  I followed him through the doorway and into another black, white, and gray room. Nicholas clearly had a style and stuck with it. There was a large wooden desk reminiscent of the one in his house, but grander. Bookshelves lined both walls to my right and left with little in the way of decor. There was also a small seating area with two stiff looking white leather chairs and a low coffee table.

  “Have a seat if you’d like. I’ll be just a minute,” he explained as he made his way to the desk. I watched him sit down and boot up the shiny black laptop before I took a seat on one of the white chairs.

  I tried to take stock of the room, but my gaze kept traveling back to Nicholas. The laptop screen highlighted his high cheekbones and aristocratic nose. His eyes gleamed in the bright white light, and I watched as they rapidly scanned the words on the screen. I shifted a few times but couldn’t find a comfortable position.

  “Nicholas, can I ask you a question?”

  He looked up immediately. “Of course.”

  “Why is all of your furniture uncomfortable?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I can’t sit here or on your couch at home for longer than five minutes without my ass falling asleep. The only comfortable seat in the house is in your library. I just wondered why you bothered to buy furniture you couldn’t sit on.”

  His brow furrowed, and his lips pressed into a tight line. “I never realized my furniture was so uncomfortable. I guess I haven’t spent much time sitting on them.”

  “And no one’s ever complained about a sore ass to you before?”

  He laughed loudly. “No. No ass complaints to date. Although, I’m terribly sorry to hear about yours.” His eyes gleamed as they traveled down the length of my body.

  Heat scorched my cheeks. I hadn’t meant for this conversation to center on my rear end. “I think I’ll survive. I’m a vampire now, after all. That has to fortify my ass at least a little.”

  He laughed again. “I’m glad to hear you’ll make it.” His face turned serious as he studied me. “Would you like to replace it?”

  “My ass?” I asked with mock seriousness.

  A barking laugh escaped him. “No, the couch at home. We could order a new one if you’d like.”

  I thought about that for a minute. The man had opened his home to me and now I was trying to redecorate it? I’d been taught better manners than that.

  “No, Nicholas. That’s not necessary. I’m sorry I said anything. I shouldn’t be complaining about anything after you took me in and all.”

  “Adrienne, I told you to stop worrying about that. My home is now your home,” he insisted. “I haven’t redecorated in some time and I daresay the apartment could use a woman’s touch. Would you please pick out a new couch for us? And anything else you’d like? I want you to feel comfortable there.”

  The sincerity in his face gutted me. How could this man be real? I really had no choice here.

  “I’ll look around,” I promised with a smile.

  Seeming satisfied with my answer, Nicholas returned his eyes to his computer. I stood and perused the books lining the shelves in his office. These were more official looking than the books in his house. Titles like Vampire History: The Dark Ages sat alongside books like Parliament Law: Volume I.

  There was a loud knock on the office door and Nicholas called, “Come in.”

  Mary entered, wringing her hands, her face pinched in worry. “Mr. Talbot, one of our doctors at the hospital, just called.”

  Nicholas stood from behind his desk. I didn’t know what that meant, but clearly it was serious. “What did they say?”

  “There’s been what looks like a vampire attack,” she began. “There were no puncture wounds, but her red blood cells were dangerously low, and her injuries don’t explain the blood loss.”

  Nicholas hurried back to his desk, shut his laptop and packed it into a bag. He stuffed a few papers into the outer pockets, slung the bag over his shoulder, and strode toward me.

  “We need to go,” he informed me.

  I followed him and Mary out of his office. Before we reached the outer door, Nicholas turned to Mary.

  “What hospital are they in?”

  “Mount Sinai,” she answered.

  “Do you know the patient’s name?”

  Mary shuffled a few papers around on her desk, finally coming across a yellow sticky note. She held it up in front of her face.

  “Her name is Charlotte Wakefield, age twenty-on
e.”

  All the blood drained from my face. I turned wide eyes to Nicholas. “Charlotte Wakefield is my old roommate. You met her the other day.” My mind was like a tornado, thoughts whipping and pulling against my brain, none of them sticking around long enough for me to examine.

  With a grim expression, Nicholas pulled the door open and ushered me through. “Let’s go find Alexander and get to the hospital.”

  Chapter 9

  We made it to Mount Sinai Hospital in record time. As soon as Alexander screeched to a stop at the curb, Nicholas grabbed my hand and wrenched me from the SUV. We walked quickly, but only for human standards. I ached to move as fast as I knew I could, but held back.

  A young woman with golden brown skin and short curly hair looked up when we arrived at the front desk, her eyes widening in recognition when she saw Nicholas.

  “Mr. Talbot,” she addressed him, sitting up straighter in her seat.

  “Charlotte Wakefield,” he responded, completely bypassing the pleasantries.

  The woman, whose name badge read “Tina”, quickly tapped a few keys on the computer in front of her. Without lifting her eyes from the screen, she said, “It says she just got out of surgery. She’s in room 562. Dr. Thomas was assigned to her.” Tina’s eyes widened again, trying to convey an unspoken message to Nicholas.

  Nicholas nodded, muttered his thanks, and dragged me to the wall of elevators. He was still holding my hand, and I reveled in the comfort of his grip, my thoughts still hectic.

  “Nicholas, do you think she was attacked because of me?” What other connection to vampires did she have? It had to have been because of me. My stomach clenched.

  He turned, eyes soft with concern. “Adrienne, we know nothing yet. She could have been attacked walking home like you were. This may not have anything to do with you. Let’s just remain calm until we find out more.” His hand gently squeezed mine.

  The elevators opened on the fifth floor and we marched out, following the signs on the walls to Charlotte’s room. When we arrived, Nicholas reached out to knock twice on the wooden door.

  Before long, a tall, sandy-haired man in a white lab coat opened the door. He nodded to Nicholas. “Mr. Talbot.”

  “Can we see her?” Nicholas asked the doctor.

  “She just woke up. I was trying to learn more about her attack. Who’s this?” he asked, jerking his chin in my direction.

  “This is Adrienne, my progeny. She also happens to be Charlotte’s old roommate.”

  Dr. Thomas’ eyes lit up at that bit of information. He stepped out of the room and motioned for me to enter. “You might get more information from her than I did since you two have a history,” he explained.

  I looked to Nicholas, uncertain about what I should do. He smiled softly, “Go on in. I’ll speak with Dr. Thomas out here.”

  I stepped through the door, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dim lighting. In front of me was a thin curtain drawn around a hospital bed. I could hear the beeping and whirring of machines and took a deep breath before drawing the drape aside.

  I let that breath out in a violent whoosh when my eyes found Charlotte. She looked so little in the big, white hospital bed. My heart broke for her.

  There was a thick white gauze wrapped around the top of her head, right above two black eyes. Her face was so swollen I almost couldn’t recognize her. My eyes roved to the sling supporting her right arm and down to the cast encasing her left leg. Those were just the injuries I could see from where I stood. Who knew what kind of internal damage was done?

  My eyes found the machines on the side of her bed, noting that everything seemed to be whirring and beeping along at a steady pace. At least she had that going for her.

  I took a step closer and Charlotte’s eyes opened, or tried to. She gasped and immediately cringed. I stepped up to the side of her bed and looked for a safe place to offer comfort. Her left shoulder looked unharmed, and I patted it gently.

  “Ssh, Charlotte. Take it easy.”

  “Adrienne?” Her voice was rough and broken.

  My heart clenched in my chest. “Yeah, girl. It’s me.” I tried to smile.

  “You have to go.” Her chest started to heave, her eyes going wide.

  “Go?”

  “He can’t find you here. You need to go.”

  “Who can’t find me here? What are you talking about?”

  Her head whipped back and forth on her neck, surveying her surroundings. She looked like a cornered animal. With a grunt, she struggled to prop up the top half of her body and I used my hand on her shoulder to easily restrain her.

  “Charlotte, you need to stay still. You’ve been attacked and you’re in the hospital.”

  She stopped trying to get up, and I breathed a sigh of relief until the tears started streaking from her swollen eyes. “You have to go, Adrienne. He can’t find you,” she said again.

  A beeping sound brought my attention to her monitors that were now going crazy. She needed to calm down, or she’d hurt herself further. Having no other choice, I called her name. The moment her eyes met mine, I cast my mental net and watched the slits of her eyes glaze over.

  “You need to relax. You’re safe and being looked after now.”

  “Safe now,” she intoned.

  I nodded, glad to see the numbers on her machines slowly dropping back down to normal.

  “Charlotte, do you know who attacked you?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before.”

  “Did he tell you his name?”

  Her head shook again. “All he said was he was looking for his ‘mole-yay’.”

  “What’s a… mole-yay, Charlotte?”

  She shrugged, and then winced.

  “Do you remember what he looked like?” I asked, desperate to get any information I could out of her.

  She shook her head with obvious distress. “I can’t!” she wailed. “I remember looking up at him after he’d thrown me to the ground, but I can’t recall any details.” She sniffled and hung her head.

  I leaned over the side of the bed to gently wrap my arm around her shoulders.

  “What do you remember?” I asked, desperate for any information.

  “He kept asking for his ‘mole-yay’.” That word struck a chord, but I tucked it away for the moment. “I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. He yelled and called me a liar. Said he could smell her here. He threw your driver's license at me. Said he needed to find you. That you belonged to him. I told him you moved out, but I didn’t know where. That's when he got mad...” Her voice trailed off. The matter-of-fact retelling of her story shook me to my core.

  My worst fears had been confirmed. She’d been attacked because of me. The guilt threatened to overwhelm me.

  “Is there anything else you remember?” I choked out.

  “Everything got fuzzy after that.”

  I patted her shoulder. “That’s okay, Charlotte. You did a good job. I’m so sorry this happened to you. I promise you, I’ll find who did this.”

  She nodded gently, her eyes still out of focus. “When you wake up, you won’t remember any of this. If you need anything, you can always call or email me, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Now you need to sleep.” With that, she closed her eyes and started snoring softly. I stood there for a moment, trying to piece together everything she’d said. There was a hostile vampire out there looking for me and I had no idea why. Where did he get my license from? I hadn’t seen it since the night I was attacked.

  Charlotte’s encounter prickled something deep within my mind. I closed my eyes and searched for the connection, but it felt like I was trying to grasp smoke. Tuning out the hospital around me, I ignored the beeps and whirs of the machinery, and dug deep. The word mole-yay kept echoing in my head, getting louder and louder with each passing second until the dam broke and the memories came rushing back.

  I remembered walking alone and bumping into an oddly dressed man. He’d
snatched me off the street and bit into my neck. As I lay dying, he’d paced back and forth next to my body, speaking in a language I didn’t understand. When he’d stopped abruptly and walked back over, I knew he was going to kill me. My heart raced, and my palms began to sweat as I relived the devastation of the last few minutes of my life.

  He’d leaned over and offered me blood from his pale wrist. I knew from Nicholas that this was how humans were changed. The vampire had to drink a good deal of their blood before offering his own to them. Then the human slept for three days while the change took place. When they awoke, they were a vampire.

  Just before I’d lost consciousness, I’d heard his dark voice. I didn’t know what the words meant, but I know I’d heard the word “mole-yay”. I stretched back into my memory but couldn’t recall the other words he’d uttered before I’d lost consciousness.

  I needed to tell Nicholas what Charlotte had revealed, and about the memories that just resurfaced. I turned around quickly, getting myself tangled in the hanging curtain. With a huff, I shoved the sheet aside and marched to the hallway outside Charlotte’s room.

  As I exited, I caught the tail-end of Dr. Thomas’ assessment.

  “... a few broken bones, but she should recover completely. I’m just thankful whoever he was stopped drinking when he did,” the doctor added softly, looking around to make sure we were alone. “If he’d continued just a minute or two longer, Charlotte wouldn’t have made it.”

  The finality in his tone chilled me, my muscles locked in place. Charlotte had almost lost her life because of me. This was my fault.

  “You did good in there,” Nicholas said, breaking me out of my dark thoughts.

  “Huh?”

  His lips twitched with a grin. “The doctor and I were listening to you and Charlotte. It’s too bad she didn’t remember more about her attacker.” His mouth thinned into a straight line. “I’d like to find this one and get him off these streets as soon as possible.” His hands fisted at his sides. “And he’s old enough to know better,” he mumbled so softly I wasn’t even sure that’s what he’d really said.

  I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “I can go back in there and see if I can glamour some more information out of her.”