by Mandy Lee
Chapter Twenty-One
Sergei’s brain snapped back online in an overwhelming rush of sensation. Noise crashed all around him, smells assaulted his nostrils, and an electric charge in the air made his skin prickle almost painfully. Confusion reigned. He’d been gutted like a fish, burned, sliced and diced, clawed and bitten. The memory of his torture spun like a tornado through his mind causing a violent shudder.
His eyes snapped open, but all he could see were blurring streaks of light. He started to panic. His eyes weren’t working! What had happened to his eyes? He covered his ears as the noise hammered into his skull. This was hell on earth and he was stuck in it.
Suddenly the chaos stopped. He focused on the pretty redhead whose face was level with his, her hands gently resting over his. Her eyes were hypnotic, a swirling mixture of jade and gold. As he stared into them his panic dropped to a low simmer. She nodded at him calmly, assuring him that he was all right. The scent of roses wafted over him; he realized it was coming from her. It was a calming scent, beautiful, simple and pure.
As his panic abated, Sergei took stock of his body and realized, to his surprise, that nothing hurt. He must have made a face of some kind as the woman tapped on his hands, still clamped tightly over his ears. Sergei removed them, but continued to stare into her magnetic gaze. She spoke softly and calmly, her voice had so many layers…he’d never heard anything like it before. “You’re safe now, Sergei, and your injuries are healed.”
He reached down to his stomach, needing to reassure himself that his entrails were indeed inside and not outside. “I noticed nothing was hurting,” he frowned at the sound of his own voice. It was the same, but with so much more depth and nuance than he'd ever heard before.
The woman gave him a nervous smile as she twisted her hands together. “I need to explain what's happened. I hope I didn't make a mistake, but there wasn't much time...” She trailed off as though unsure of how to continue.
“Go ahead,” Sergei prompted.
The young woman steeled herself, then plowed on. “You were almost dead. I turned you…I’m a vampire. Well, you are too now.”
Sergei could only sit and stare at her blankly. His brain was giving him the blue screen of death like a fried computer. He sat there for what seemed like an eternity until he was snapped out of his stupor by the sound of her voice.
“Sergei? Do you understand what I’ve told you?”
“Yes,” he whispered in response.
“Okay. Do you have any questions for me about what happened?” she asked.
“Um, yeah...not quite sure where to start...how did I get here? Who are you?”
“My name is Mara. A fallen angel named Baal brought you here and asked me to turn you. I met your friend Katia a while ago, she was so relieved that we’d been able to save you.”
“Katia,” Sergei whispered. “Is she all right? That demon didn’t get to her, did he? He took my phone, he wanted to track her…”
Patting his hand comfortingly, Mara replied. “Katia’s fine. The others have made arrangements for her to stay in a safe place. She wanted to be here when you woke up, but it wasn't safe for her to stay. We’ll get word to her that you’re okay.”
“Thank you.”
“I need to ask you something,” Mara said anxiously.
“Sure, anything.”
Steeling herself, Mara went for it. “You didn’t have a choice…about your turning. I just need to know if you’re angry. Did I do the right thing? Should I have let you go?”
Sergei’s initial reaction was one of surprise. Of course he would rather be alive than dead. What kind of a question was that? On the heels of that first thought, the reality of his situation crashed into him. He was a vampire now. Vampires drank blood. Vampires were capable of extreme feats of strength and speed, always having to be wary when in human company. The thought of drinking blood made him want to gag. Immortality sounded great, but at what price? Would he be alone for all eternity? If he fell in love with a mortal woman he would literally have to kill her to be with her...was he capable of that?
Sensing his inner turmoil, Mara sighed and gave him a sad smile. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. There are some obvious drawbacks, but I can assure you that there are a great many wonderful things you can experience as a vampire. I’ve had the chance to witness the changing of the ages, the dawning of new inventions, and the rise and fall of empires. On the flip side, I’ve had to watch friends grow old and die, and I have to move every decade or so to fly under the radar.”
“How did you learn to control yourself around...humans?” Sergei asked, stumbling over the idea that he was no longer human.
Mara’s eyes filled with sadness and pain. “Unfortunately for me, there was a lot of trial and error. There were...accidents. I finally met up with another of our kind. He was able to teach me how to live among humans without causing harm and drawing attention to myself. It was a dangerous time for demons. I could have very easily wound up dead or ‘deader’.” She ended on a rueful smile.
“And the blood?” He asked with a grimace.
“You’re one lucky vampire! We’re living in the age of synthetic plasma and blood banks my friend.”
“Yeah, I know, but how do you handle the taste? I mean…yick,” Sergei said, making a face.
“It’s mind over matter really,” Mara said with a laugh. “Your brain will tell you what you’re doing is gross, but you’ll actually like it…it’s a real mind-fuck.”
“This whole thing is a mind-fuck, so I guess that’s just par for the course,” Sergei answered, finally cracking a smile.
“You seem calm, so I’m going to release you now. Just keep in mind, your eyes are working just fine. Things seem blurry because you’re moving at warp speed now. Pretend you’re a snail going uphill through molasses and you’ll find it easier to focus on things, okay?” Mara raised an eyebrow in question.
“What do you mean release me?” Sergei asked.
“My eyes,” She replied. “You haven’t been able to look away have you? It's a kind of hypnosis, I’ve been keeping you calm and focused so we could talk.”
“Right. Hypnotism – I read about that in the Dictionnaire Infernal, I wasn't sure it was actually real. There’s so much in the grimoires that’s conjecture.”
“Yup, lots of bullshit to wade through, but that one is true,” she replied.
Mara blinked and looked away from Sergei, releasing him from her hypnotic pull. It felt like a magic string connecting them had been cut and the world around him came back into focus. It was amazing. He could hear everything, from the dripping of water to the conversations upstairs. If he focused hard enough, he could hear sounds from outside on the street. Sitting very still, Sergei took stock of his body. He suddenly realized that he hadn’t taken a single breath in all this time. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was dressed in medical scrubs. Thank Fuck. He had absolutely no desire to know the state of his clothes after what he'd been through.
Sergei looked over at Mara. Her face broke into a huge, sunny smile, then she zipped over to the far wall in a blur. A book lay face down on the floor. Dropping onto her butt, she picked up the book and began to read, giving Sergei a modicum of privacy while he tested out his new senses.
Sergei slid down off the table to his feet. His whole body was pulsing with energy just waiting to be expelled. In a burst of speed, he crossed the room. Sergei smiled. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Baal sat staring at the cup of coffee in front of him. Making a face, he brought it to his lips and took a long sip. What he really wanted was a shit-ton of salvia so he could get himself completely fucked up. But he couldn’t do that because he’d volunteered to be a juice-box for a baby vampire, and getting Sergei shitfaced on his first trip down feeding lane would make B a complete asshole. When had he ever worried about looking like an asshole before? That’s right, never! But then again, he’d never been asked for
a favor by a gorgeous, flame-haired surgeon…who just happened to be an immortal vampire. He was totally fucked.
Glancing down at his watch, he realized it was just after six o’clock in the evening. The sun had gone down ten minutes ago and Sergei should be awake now. B rose from the table and headed toward the basement. Time to get this over with. Just knowing that he’d offered himself up as a meal to impress Mara was a mind-fuck. B was not the kind of guy that ever did anything to impress a woman. In his life, women were a "bandage on a bullet hole" solution to fighting the demons of his past - he never stuck around long enough to worry about impressions.
Dark memories began to tug at his consciousness, dragging him back into the horror and shame he masked with a flippant attitude and an irreverent smile. Nobody could ever know. Images of he and Gadreel reaching out to each other as they were tortured and violated by Satan’s minions flickered through his mind. Bloody and battered, they’d clung to each other in a desperate bid for comfort, trying to heal each other’s minds as their bodies healed, only for the torture to start again.
Shaking his head to dislodge the past, B reminded himself that he wasn’t just damaged, but broken beyond repair. He had no business staring at Mara like a love-struck teenager, nor did he have any business trying to be the good guy. After feeding Sergei, he would go back to being who he’d been for centuries. The smartass friend that smiled and joked, the salvia user who spent half his time high off his face, the fallen who had one night stands with demons who gave zero shits about him beyond saying they’d screwed him, like some kind of twisted badge of honor.
Plastering on the cockiest smirk he could muster, B emerged into the basement. Twin blurs — one dark, one red — zipped across his field of vision. As B’s eyes strained to adjust, the racing figures stopped on a dime. Standing near him completely immobile, as only vampires could, were Mara and a very undead Sergei. B’s eyes widened as he took in the man he’d brought to The Advocate torn up and bleeding only hours before. His skin, like Mara’s, had an otherworldly quality; his eyes, once a consistently warm light brown, were bleeding to red.
Vampires, B thought, really were perfectly designed predators. They drew their victims to their demise with hypnotic eyes, their magnetic appearance, and inviting fragrance. Suddenly realizing it looked like he was checking Sergei out, B snapped his eyes to the side and locked onto Mara. That was a mistake. Every time he looked at her he was struck dumb. She was truly the most beautiful creature he’d seen all his centuries of existence. Oh yes, he was fucked and he knew it. Once this feeding was done, he had to leave and make sure he never ran into her again or he was going to be at risk of developing stalker tendencies.
B cleared his throat loudly to fill the uncomfortable silence. “All right, let’s get the show on the road. Where do you want to do this?” he said curtly.
Surprise registered on Mara’s face at B’s clipped tone. Raising her eyebrow she pointed to two chairs set up near the table Sergei had woken on. “Thanks again for doing this. It will be easier for Sergei to use somebody he kind of knows.”
Nodding tersely, B headed over to the chairs, sat down, and laid an arm wrist-up on top of his leg. He sat there silently, eyeing Mara and Sergei who were standing across the room staring at him. “Are we waiting for Halja to thaw?” He threw out at them, rolling his eyes. He knew he was being a dick, but that was the plan. It would be so much easier to stay away from her if he knew she hated him. He could never be with someone like her; she was too good, too happy, and too normal. He would taint her with his past. It was best to forget about it and move on.
Sergei and Mara approached B, slowing down to a normal human pace. Clearly Mara had been teaching Sergei a bit in the short time since he’d risen, and he was evidently a quick learner. Sergei sat down in the chair beside B’s and looked up at Mara nervously. She smiled down at him. Gold began to bleed into her irises as she said, “Don’t worry, you won’t hurt him. We release venom with our bite that makes the experience pleasurable not painful. I’ll make sure you don’t take too much.”
B had to forcibly tear his eyes away from her. Even though her hypnotic power was focused on Sergei, the twenty-four karat decadence of her eyes was mesmerizing.
“He’s not going to turn if I bite him right?” Sergei asked.
“Turning someone is a bit more complicated than that. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine…both of you.” Mara gave a half-smile and knelt down beside B’s chair so she could keep eye contact with Sergei as he fed. Her breasts brushed gently against B’s thigh as she knelt. He sucked in a breath, tensing as he felt a light electric current run through him. That had never happened before.
Forcing himself to ignore the heady sensation of having Mara so close, B returned his attention to Sergei. His breath stuck in his throat. Sergei’s irises had been overtaken with a red glow, his lips were parted, and a pair of deadly looking fangs had emerged. Sergei closed his eyes and inhaled, taking in the scent of the blood pounding through B's veins. An ecstatic expression overtook his face shortly before he doubled over with a cry of pain. Lines of strain bracketed his eyes as he clutched his stomach and looked at Mara in confusion.
“The hunger always overtakes us the first time,” she said, smoothing her hand down Sergei’s spine like she was petting a wounded animal. “Drink and you’ll feel better.”
Sergei shook his head, his brain rebelling against what his instincts screamed for. Mara reached out and took hold of B’s hand; bringing his wrist gently to her mouth, she unsheathed her fangs. She glanced up at B as her tongue snaked out to lick along the vein running down the inside of his wrist. B shuddered; pinpricks of pleasure exploded up and down his arm. Keeping eye contact with B, Mara slid her teeth in. Instead of pain, a strange warmth infused his body, making him want to reach out and touch her, kiss her. He was falling into an abyss of bliss; he wanted to make love to her and never let her go. His skin was so sensitized that the friction of his clothing almost sent him over the edge. Her bite was a drug he could happily become a slave to for the rest of his life. He felt like he had been transported back to Heofon.
Without warning, Mara detached herself from B’s arm and glanced up at him. Her eyes were glowing like twin beacons, blood red and dangerous. Instead of the fear he expected to feel rushing through him, B found himself strangely turned on by the sight. She gentley urged Sergei toward B’s arm, his blood running in tiny rivulets from the twin puncture wounds Mara had left behind. Sergei hesitated momentarily, but ultimately gave in.
With a groan, he struck. B felt Sergei bury his canines within his arm, drinking deeply. There was no pain, but this time there was no pleasure. He looked down at Sergei, watching as he fed. His chest began to constrict, his breathing became shallow and rapid. A cold sweat broke out all over his body. Sergei’s red eyes bored into B’s as he looked up, increasing his panic.
Unwanted memories flashed in his head again, Gadreel and B being held down, sharp teeth ripping, reddened eyes glowing, blood spilling. Screams echoed through his mind as he tried to yank himself out of the downward spiral. Sergei instinctively tightened his grip on B’s arm and jerked it closer, his fangs sinking deeper into B’s skin. The baby vamp’s iron grip had B's reality splintering - he was back in the dungeon where he’d been tortured. Unbreakable wolframite cuffs held him and Gadreel to the damp stone wall. The demons bit and scratched them, feeding off of their blood. The Devourers forced images of heinous acts into their minds, making them throw themselves violently against the walls in an effort to render themselves unconscious. The demons stopped feeding and started touching them, hands everywhere. B tried to separate his soul from what was being done to his body, trying to detach himself and fly away... Distantly, B heard a heartbreaking scream, it sounded as though someone’s soul was being ripped apart. He felt sympathy for that poor fucker...
Reality slammed back into focus, and B realized that soul-rending scream was coming from him. Mara was crouched between his legs, cupping his che
eks, and trying to catch his gaze with hers. Her mouth was moving, but the words weren’t registering in B’s brain. His ears were still ringing from the volume of his screams. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to focus on her mouth to decipher what she was saying. It looked like are you…something? He squinted his eyes and tried to focus all of his senses on Mara, finally her voice started to break through the static.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Mara asked, her voice full of concern.
A flush of embarrassment crept up B’s face as he realized how badly he’d just lost it in front of both Mara and Sergei. Nothing like a complete mental breakdown in public to boost the self-esteem. B was mortified. He liked to keep his freak-outs private. How the hell was he going to explain this? Steeling himself, B wrenched his face out of Mara’s hands, knocking her off balance so she fell back onto her butt. He dug frantically in his pocket for his smokes. His fingers came in contact with the pack and he drew it out with a sigh of relief that was short-lived as he flipped it open and realized it was empty. Crushing the useless cardboard in his hand and tossing it on the floor, B leapt abruptly to his feet, knocking the chair off its legs and sending it clattering to the ground behind him.
“I’m out of smokes. Gotta go,” B muttered as he hurried back toward the staircase and freedom.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Katia sat staring at her reflection in the dressing table mirror of Amir’s guest room. She was frustrated beyond belief. They’d been here for two days now, maybe three. It was hard to keep track of time in Outer-Sheol without the sun and moon to mark the days and nights. The constant twilight was messing with her internal clock, days and hours were starting to slide into each other, and she'd had no contact with the outside world. Katia blew out a breath in annoyance.
To top it off, Luc had done his damndest to avoid her since leaving the motel. Whenever they’d found themselves alone together, he’d found an excuse to go in search of Amir. After the moment they'd shared, Katia wasn't amused. They were going to have to find a way to deal with each other, since they would be living in close quarters for the foreseeable future. Time to start adulting like champions.