“Wow. I didn’t realize there was so much power there,” breathed Alex.
Michelle nodded, yet reluctant to go on. But then she swallowed, building up her nerve and began again. For some reason, Alex thought the reason Michelle was having trouble telling the story was not because of the memory, as much as who she was telling it to. “After that, all my bravado just seeped out. I looked at him lying there and just burst into tears. I shouted and pleaded and tried to jostle him as gently as I could. He roused a little, coughed up some blood, and fell back again. I felt so helpless.”
“I don’t get it. Why didn’t he just heal?”
“It doesn’t work like that. Vampires do all their healing during the day. It’s like the slate gets wiped clean from the night before. In saying that, they are really hard to kill, especially the older ones, but not impossible. Bleeding to death is a common cause. If you can keep an injured vampire full, for want of a better word until daybreak, they will wake up looking as if nothing happened. You need to get them blood for their wounds to close.”
“And lots of it, if they don’t heal,” Alex said, more so to herself.
“I couldn’t possibly help him,” Michelle continued. “He was dying and needed more blood than I had in me. I tried to lift him to my neck, but I was way too weak. So I offered him my wrist and he just shook his head. Finally he says to me, ‘I just had to see you again.’ And then he slumped down and stopped moving. I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and went back, cut open my wrist and let the blood drain into his mouth.”
“Oh…god!” said Alex, feeling shocked and a little sickened. “Why?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“I told you, I’d do anything for him. From there things got very hazy. I must’ve blacked out. I woke up in bed. Every part of me ached. I looked down and had a fresh bandage around my wrist. Suddenly, I remembered what had happened and tried to get up and run to find Dante, but I was so dizzy, I just fell back. I was going nowhere. I woke up awhile later and there he was. I’d never seen him so furious.”
“Furious? Why?” asked Alex. “You’d just saved his life”
“He’d been ready to die. He thought that he’d set me up in a nice house for life and that I could just forget about him. I let him know how stupid that was, and after a major screaming match, which shook the walls, he finally saw how much he meant to me. Just goes to show how stupid boys can be, no matter how long they’ve been around,” she said with a hint of sadness.
Alex could see Michelle was leaving much unsaid and simply waited in silence for her to go on.
“We had come very close to losing each other. It was guilt that brought the emotion out of us. I don’t even want to think about how he would have felt if I had died trying to save him. He feels that because a human life is so short, it is more special than an immortal’s. To him, the idea of a human dying to save a vampire is lunacy. But that’s not the real issue. He would have viewed it as his fault for wanting to see me one last time.”
“Wow, so you guys can rip into each other when you want to?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Were you scared to say that stuff to him?”
“Nope. I told you I am not a tweenie that lets her man walk all over her. If Dante is being a prick I let him know, but it rarely ever happens. That was probably the biggest and last argument we ever had.”
Michelle rose to clear the plates before Alex took over, letting her sit back down.
“How old is he?”
“Thirty-two.”
“No, I mean… How long has he been thirty-two?”
“He was born in 1759, so what’s that—” Michelle counted in her head. “Roughly two hundred and fifty years.”
Alex closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “Amazing.”
“That is actually middle of the road for a vampire. On average, taking in world-wide age statistics, he would be considered a teenager. But in Australia he’s probably one of the ten or so oldest.”
“How long has he been here?”
“Well, he came here in 1790. He was a part of the Second Fleet.”
“You’re kidding me. He was a convict? Was he a vampire then?”
“Oh, no. He was turned after he got here. That happened in January 1791.”
“What did he get sent over here for?”
Michelle paused before answering and suddenly looked uneasy. “Murder.”
“Oh,” said Alex. She shifted nervously, not sure if she wanted to ask the next question. But she found herself unconsciously leaning forward, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Did he do it?”
“Yes. But,” she cringed, looking at the change in Alex’s face. “It’s not the way you think. Oh hell…” she said. “Okay, look. Dante was born in Spain. His birth name was Alejandro, and his family was extremely poor. He actually doesn’t remember much of his early years. In fact, he told me once that his first strong memories were of his time in the military. He excelled and became a knight—for want of a better word—extremely quickly because he saved the life of a wealthy landlord’s daughter. And he was only a kid. Maybe five or so at the time,” Michelle said, giving Alex an ‘impressive huh?’ look. “So as a reward, I guess the landlord paid for him to go to the best schools and study under masters of combat, eventually landing him the cushy title. But the thing was, Alejandro never cared about any of that. He cared about the daughter, Rosa Lita,” Michelle spoke the words with an air of mystery, spreading the fingers of her hands out. She had heard this name quite a bit, Alex guessed.
“He studied and stayed with the landlord because he was helplessly in love with her. The landlord found out, though, and warned Alejandro to keep away. You know how it goes. ‘No daughter of mine will end up with a common soldier’ blah blah. Anyway, Alejandro left the decision up to the daughter. That only if she did not love him, would he leave.”
“Did she love him?”
Michelle upturned her hands. “She must have, because they were planning to run away together. They knew if they left at the same time, someone would notice and there’d be no way they’d get past the border into France. So the idea was, Alejandro would set off for London, far away from the landlord’s jurisdiction and wait a month there for her.”
“Did she make it?”
“Oh she made it, but she wasn’t alone.”
“Oh no… her father?”
“Worse,” Michelle replied, her eyebrows rising quickly. “So there he was, in the dead of night, waiting at the designated dock with flowers and an engagement ring to surprise her. He’d even paid off a fisherman to let him use his boat to meet up with a passenger ship later. Everything was ready, no one was around. Then he saw her. She was running to him. Calling out to him. It seems her father’s jurisdiction reached further than they thought,”
Michelle paused. Alex began to sense where the story was going.
“She started screaming for help. She was being chased by something Alejandro couldn’t see or hear. He ran forward, only to see that ‘something’ spring out from the shadows behind her and bite her. We know what it was, of course, but Alejandro didn’t at the time. All he saw was his beloved, dead at the hands of this monstrous thing. So with every ounce of hate, love and strength he had, he plunged his sword deep into the vampire’s chest. Which the worst thing he could’ve done.”
“It was?”
“Yes. Because you can’t kill a vampire by stabbing them, remember?”
“Oh, right. I’m still not completely clear on how this works. I mean I’ve heard of the legends, but…”
“Anyway, back to the story. People in the surrounding area had heard her screams and when the witnesses came running, they all saw Alejandro stabbing and apparently killing the unknown man, Rosa Lita already lying there in the street. So it looked like two people dead and one standing, and of course that made Alejandro the culprit. When he was arrested, Alejandro realised no matter what he said, the authorities were not going to believe him. He made up
the name Dante Delavega as a means of not giving the landlord the satisfaction of knowing what happened when news reached him. With no family to speak of, he was declared property of the British Government and sent to New South Wales.”
“The poor guy…”
“Oh, it gets worse.”
”Worse?”
“And yet sadder still. But we are late.”
“Late? For what?”
“To see your mum,” Michelle answered simply.
“That’s not funny,” Alex snapped. She leaned back in her chair and looked closely at Michelle and saw that her new friend was quite serious. “You’re not kidding, are you?”
“Yeah, now is as good a time as any.”
“That won’t be happening” Alex said. “Stop looking at me like that!” she yelled, fear and anger causing her voice to rise. Michelle did not shift her gaze.
“I’m not going in there,” Alex stated, leaning forward again, hoping that closing the distance would enforce her point.
“Alex, you have been listening to me talk for hours now. I love the fact that you have taken all this in. Believe me I didn’t take it so well when I first heard of it. I need you to believe me and listen to me now. I don’t like forcing anything on people I like, but broken rib or not, I can and will. There is a reason I am taking you there.” Michelle reached her hand across the table and gently, yet firmly grasped Alex’s fingers. “Please, Alex, I need you to trust me.”
Alex tried to talk, to refuse, but something in Michelle’s face and the affectionate warmth of her touch. She relented with a nod.
“Good girl. Now come on. Help me get in the car. I feel like an old woman here.”
*
Michelle was right. By the time Alex pulled up, the sun had been down for about an hour. Maybe she had learned to time everything by the rising and setting of the sun for Dante?
In any case, it did not make facing that building any easier.
“I don’t think I can do this.”
“Yes you can. Off you go.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“No. The hospital won’t let me in.”
Alex felt her forehead, pulling back her fingers to see small beads of sweat. It was a huge effort for Alex to get in the car. It was almost impossible for her not to demand Michelle stop the car and turn around. She trusted Michelle. The fact she was still sitting here proved it. There was quite clearly a reason Michelle was so adamant Alex had to journey to the hospital. But there was no way in hell Alex would be able to voluntarily walk into the place by herself.
“Why did you bring me here if you weren’t coming?”
“You won’t be alone.”
Just then Alex’s door opened and a large hand was upturned towards her.
“I can get us in,” a deep voice said reassuringly.
Alex stared at the hand and then to the face only partially lit by the interior light of the car. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s time you learned the truth about your family.”
Chapter Eighteen
Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
Dante opened the hospital’s door for Alex and they both stepped in. Dante made his way over to the reception desk. A young nurse, looking barely out of school stood behind the counter, flicking through files. She was obviously getting ready to go home.
“Sorry, visiting hours are…over.” She’d barely spoke the last word when she looked up to see Dante strolling over to her.
“Good evening. My humblest apologies for arriving so late, but I had to pick up this young lady from the airport. Delayed flight you see. She is only here for tonight then she is off to Brisbane for a conference, then back to Paris. Could you permit her just a small amount of time to see her mother, perhaps?”
Pretty smooth, Alex thought. Even I might have bought that story.
The nurse was clearly flustered, and stammered a little. “I—I am so sorry, but I can’t. Security is gone and I have to lock up before the next shift arrives.”
She obviously meant what she said. She was a sweet young thing.
“Don’t tell me you’re here past your finishing time?” Dante said, looking at the clock and sounding very sincere.
“Well…actually, yes.”
“Good lord! Here I am telling you about delayed flights and I myself am delaying you.” The both of them chuckled at that, and Alex noticed the nurse now constantly flicking her hair and licking her lips, eating it up.
“Tell me, my dear, what is your name?”
“Rose.”
Dante closed his eyes as if mesmerised. “What a beautiful name. And coincidently, my favourite flower.” He took her hand in his, stroking it with his thumb. Rose’s eyes dropped to stare at his actions.
“Do you like roses, Rose?”
“Umm…” Rose couldn’t manage to get the words out, so nodded instead.
“Which one is your favourite?”
“It’s umm…white.”
“How interesting. It’s the funniest thing, but…” Suddenly he presented his not-quite-closed fist. Uncurling his fingers, he revealed the tip of a white rose and handed it to its namesake.
“Oh my...thanks!” She gave him a big smile and started giggling, though Alex thought it sounded a bit nervous as well as impressed.
“You’re very welcome,” he said, getting his voice to be even deeper. Alex was unsure if Rose even noticed the deliberate change. She seemed awfully flushed. “Now one more time, could my friend have just twenty minutes with her mother? She has come an awfully long way. It would be such a pity if she missed her.”
Rose didn’t appear to hear the question, just bit her lip and nodded, “Sure” she said, not taking her eyes off his. Alex smirked. Rose had known him less than thirty seconds and already wanted to have his children. Then she wondered if she’d been as bad when she first saw him. Nah, it must have been at least three minutes in my case, she thought wryly.
Dante caressed the back of Rose’s hand a final time and placed a kiss where his fingers had been. “You are an angel. Much too good for this place.”
He turned and led Alex towards her mother’s room. From memory it was only down the hall, which is where Dante looked to be heading. How the hell does he know? she wondered.
Dante ducked inside the door of her room and then turned back to where Alex was, standing still just outside the room.
“Dante…I can’t. She is not going to remember me. Please don’t make me do this,” Alex pleaded, shivering.
“Yes you can Alexandra,” Dante gently took her hand. “Come on.”
Alex walked inside with him, her hand wrapped in his giving her the strength to continue. The room was just as she remembered it. Stale and foreign, a typical hospital room complete with the smell of grossly overcooked vegetables. Finally, Alex saw her mother sitting by the window, dozing. Plump, and with more wisps of greying hair sure, but it was definitely her.
“Margaret…” Dante called reverently. Alex’s mother stirred and opened her eyes at the sound of her name. “Look who I brought with me.” But Alex had never mentioned her name to either Dante or Michelle.
“Have you been here? Do you know…?” Alex began softly, but then she looked over at her mother again and a tightness came into her chest and stomach. She was torn. She wanted to walk out. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t suffer that solemn look again. She didn’t want to hear her mother scream at her to go away. Now she was this close, she was angry that Dante and Michelle had not respected her feelings enough to just let it be. And yet, with a short glance up at Dante, he seemed so calm, so resolute. With great effort, she let her eyes find her mother.
Margaret turned towards the sound of his voice and spotted the two of them. It was one second, perhaps two. She looked at Dante and then back to Alex, and broke out into the most amazed look of happiness Alex had ever seen.
“My baby…” Margaret said, her voice thickening as she got to her feet. “I have missed you so much, Ally.
”
Alex let go of Dante and covered her mouth with both hands, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Mum?”
Alex stayed still, not wanting to move. She wanted her mother to keep walking towards her, letting her know this was real. Not some vampire trick. Margaret did not disappoint her. She wrapped her arms around Alex’s shoulders and pressed against her. The moment contact was made both women wept with joy and relief. Also gratitude for this moment. That despite the past they were here right now, together.
“Dante,” Margaret said between sobs, refusing to let go of her girl. “You brought her back to me. And me to her. Thank you.”
Dante gave each woman a kiss on their heads and rubbed their backs. “I promised you I would.”
Chapter Nineteen
We Need To Talk
Alex did her best to get her thoughts under control as she sat with Margaret, smiling through happy tears on an empty bed, as she ran a hand affectionately over Alex’s face.
“I cannot get over how beautiful you’ve become.”
“I don’t understand,” Alex repeated, wiping her nose. “How is this even possible?”
“You mean how is it that I can actually remember you?” Margaret smoothed her hands over Alex’s hair.
“Yes, yes! I don’t understand.” She realized how repetitive she sounded but her brain could not form any other clear thoughts.
“I always could, honey,” her mother answered solemnly.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. Believe me it was necessary.”
“You lied all this time? Necessary? For what? Mum, I went through hell!” Alex felt a strange rush of anger along with anguish, threatening to burst through her chest. Her throat was tight and she could barely swallow. Her mother had known her all these years.
Margaret looked to succumb to tears again and mouthed. “I know.”
“Alexandra, I believe I can clear some of this up,” said Dante from behind her. “Your mother was once my donor and as such, very special to me.”
Night Walker (Undeadly Secrets Book 1) Page 17