She squeezed her hands into fists as her insides burned. Her fangs lengthened instinctively at the pain. Nico threw his hand out, ready to whack the big red button but Evie clicked her fangs back in, vibrating with agony. She wanted to shriek and claw the needle from her arm but she stayed put, only allowing small whimpers to leave her mouth.
“I’m ready. I’m not going to hurt you,” she said stiffly through gritted teeth. It felt like her blood had turned to lava. “Open the cell.”
He did and when she stepped out, he grabbed her wrists and gripped them behind her, silver handcuffs lock around her wrists. Her fangs sliced into her lower lip as she suppressed a scream. But she was going to be obedient. Poison in her blood and melting flesh was not going to stop her seeing her Maker one last time.
Tears bead in her eyes, turning his vision red as she whimpered with every step.
“How far?”
“In the next room. Where I keep all the ancients.”
She managed to get to the door with Nico practically pushing her along. He took his hands from her to open the doors. She almost collapsed as a dizzy spell washed over her.
Through the door there was a narrow, grey corridor. She noticed something black in the corner of her eye by the door but her blood tears mar her vision again so she couldn’t get a good look.
Nico pushed her onwards to another set of white double doors.
“Through here,” said Nico, unlocking them and pushing them open.
“He’s in here?”
He nodded.
Once they were both secure in the room, Nico unlocked her handcuffs, tearing her skin from bone. He passed her the coiled tube as if handing her the reins. The silver was still making its way through her system so she was still slow. Humanly slow. But she forced her way down the rows of cells, looking in the ones to her left and right. Some were empty. Some were filled with bloody vampires that were unknown to her.
And then she spotted him. He was actually there, sprawled out across the floor in a murky red puddle. Evie could only see his back and his mess of hair but instantly knew it was him. Her Maker.
“Caius!” she gushed in a whisper and made her way over to him, slower than she wanted, like she was wading through knee-high sand. She was shaking as she pressed her palms onto the glass panelling.
She felt Nico’s shadow behind her.
“Can I go in?” she asked tentatively.
He nodded. “But give me the end of the tube.”
Evie uncoiled it and handed it to him.
She opened the glass door and Nico followed, keeping close enough to her to not strain the tubing. He unlocked the cell and Evie stepped in. She was standing before Caius. He was still sprawled on the floor, unmoving. Was he in hibernation?
“Hold on.”
Nico weaved the tube through the now closed cell. When he succeeded, she dropped to her knees before her Maker.
Evie sucked in a sob and smoothed down her Maker’s hair. It was sticky and clotted with blood.
“Caius? Caius, can you hear me?”
A groan emitted from his dry lips. She pushed his hair back until she could see the side of his face. “Caius? Caius? Are you awake?”
Another groan and blood leaked from his mouth.
She grabbed onto his torn-up jacket and rolled him over so his head was on her lap and he was facing upwards. His arms dropped to his sides and his lips part more, expelling a strained sigh. His eyes were closed and tear tracks stained his beautiful, porcelain skin. He has grown a stubble and that too, was caked in old blood.
“Caius, it’s me. Evie. Caius?” She shook him a little and his eyes flew open.
He squinted at the harsh light then his pale eyes found Evie and his jaw slackened. The look in his eyes made Evie’s cold heart swell and her lips quiver. It looked as if he just laid eyes on an angel.
Tentatively, he lifted his arm and touched her face. She cried and leaned into her Maker’s cold palm.
“Evie,” he whispered hoarsely. “Is that really you?”
“Yes.” She laughed and lowered herself to hug him. His arms wrapped around her back and hers cradled his head. “Yes, it’s me.”
His body started to judder as tears poured down his face. He squeezed her close to him, curling his bloody fingers into her vest. “I can’t believe it’s you. Why are you here?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I came to say goodbye.”
He pushed her back so they were face to face. “Goodbye?”
She nodded, sniffing back tears of her own. “We’re going to die in here, Caius. I just wanted to see you one last time-”
Then something new enters her bloodstream. Something warm and different. She looked to Nico. The scientist was standing with his thumb down on the plunger. But the syringe he was holding, the liquid pouring down the tube wasn’t silver, it was another one of his serums.
He grinned. “You said I could inject you as much as I liked. And my moment of compassion has passed.”
She cried and ripped the needle from her forearm but the stuff was already inside her. She could feel it like hot syrup in her bloodstream. But it was burning. Not like the other serum that gave her the Rage. This stuff felt -- good. This time, the serum was not trying to force its way through her stale blood like a bike trying to get through bumper to bumper traffic. This new liquid inside was flowing freely, swimming through her. Her blood was flowing freely. It felt like it was fighting through the dark labyrinths inside her and bringing light. Life. Every cell in her body felt on high alert as the serum swam through her cold blood, warming it up.
She heard a thud. Caius, still cradled in her arms on her lap paused, his pale eyes wide and set on her. Then came another thud. A thud inside her. Like there was something new inside that was fighting to get out. No, it wasn’t not something new. It was something old. It was something that has been inside her all along but lost its use a hundred years ago. It was the thing in her centre that just sat there empty and barren. But it was not empty anymore. It was working.
Her heart was beating.
She let go of Caius and pressed her hands flat against her chest, feeling her heart pulsing inside her.
Now she felt cold. Not undead cold but-- she could actually feel a chill in the air. And her body was responding to it. Goosebumps covered her arms and her tiny hairs stood on end.
What was happening?
She heard a growl and her heartbeat quickened with fear. Caius’ pale eyes were as black as the night and his veins corded around them. Before she even had a chance to react, he swooped upwards and sank his fangs into her neck.
She screamed as her skin ripped. Her new life essence was slowly being taken away.
“Caius!” she garbled, trying to tear him off her. But he was strong and wrapped his arms around her back, crushing her into him like a spider trapping a fly. His mess of hair covered her face and she could smell blood. Fresh blood. Her own blood. But it smelled different. It smelled--
Evie winced as a honking buzzer invaded her ears.
There was a blinding light and Caius squealed, retracting his fangs. He fell back against the silver bars, crying out again. He dropped onto the floor as his body burned. Red, oozing sores plastered across his exposed arms and he hissed, shaking on the floor. She looked up and squinted at the UV bulb and then down at her own skin. Nothing. She wasn’t burning.
“Quick!”
A hand grabbed her and yanked her to her feet. Nico pulled her out of the cell and locked the doors behind them just before the light flickered out.
Evie was gasping for breath, checking herself for wounds. “W-what happened?”
Nico grabbed her by the tops of her arms and beamed at her, his eyes wide and crazed. “It worked!”
“What? What worked?” Her head was reeling.
Caius jumped up in a smooth, vampire quick motion. Evie turned to him, expecting to see her loving Maker but he growled, his eyes still clouded black and fangs dripping with blood.
He hissed and lunged at her, smacking against the silver bars. He howled and buckled back, the noise making Evie’s insides cringe.
“What has happened to him?” Her voice was brittle and broken as she sobbed.
“No,” Nico said in a whisper and touched her neck. She flinched at the pain and stared wide-eyed at the blood on his fingertips. “What happened to you is the real question.”
She pressed her fingers to the puncture wounds on her neck and looked back at Caius. He was still manically smacking himself against the silver bars.
“I’m…” she started but can’t carry on.
Nico smiled, looking almost drunk on happiness. “You’re human.”
He dragged her towards the double doors. She pulled back from him. “No. What about Caius? I can’t leave him!”
Nico spun around and she sucked in a breath when he stopped in front of her, their faces inches apart. She could see her own blood-stained reflection in the lens of his glasses. “He’s not your Maker anymore. He’s nothing to you.”
Chapter 5
The hot water drummed against Evie’s back as she played with the temperature knob of the shower. She squinted as she twisted the knob slowly towards the red dot, raising the temperature higher and higher until she winced at the pain.
No. Get off me! I can’t leave him! Let me go!
Her pale back was scorched as the almost boiling water hit between her shoulder blades. Her tears were lost in the jet of water. She gasped and coughed up the steamy air when she forgot to breathe.
He’s nothing to you!
So much has changed in so little time. Her pulse sang in her ears almost piercingly loud as her body temperature rose. The sound was like a physical pain after a hundred years of dead silence. She could feel everything. The throbbing of her back as the hot water pummelled against her. Her thumping heart inside her chest. The cold breeze that hit her side where the water didn’t reach. And yet – she’d never felt so empty in her life.
She sucked in a shuddering breath and hastily knocked off the water, making her skin prickle with goosebumps. Her head was foggy and her vision was corrupted by an assault of tiny black dots. She spun around too quickly and her knees gave way under her. She stumbled out of the shower and dropped against the cold tiled floor. With her knees tucked up against her, she lay there, sobbing so much it made her brain hurt. The cold washed over her like a blanket, making her shiver so hard that her teeth clattered together. I’m human now. This is what it’s like to be human. Weak, sore and vulnerable all the time.
But that was not the worst part. Evie could deal with the starburst of pain that made her burning back itch against the cold tile floor. She could deal with the sudden head-rush from spinning around too quickly. She could deal with the bruise ripening on her knee where it collided with the side of the shower. But what she couldn’t deal with was what losing her vampirism really meant. Losing Caius.
He’s not your Maker anymore. He’s nothing to you.
She gasped and threw herself up into a sitting position after forgetting to breathe again. It was something she was still getting used to. She grabbed the warm towel from the radiator, wrapped it around her dripping naked body and she wobbled to her feet. Her temples still pulsated and the bones in her legs felt like jelly as she made her way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Her clothes were gone and a new outfit replaced it, folded neatly in the centre of the double bed.
Nico is spoiling me, she thought bitterly as she lifted the plain black vest he has given her. A pair of simple blue jeans lie folded in a square underneath and a set of black underwear. The boots by the foot of the bed, she noticed, are nicer than hers but still looked tough and durable.
She wrapped the towel that was around her body, around her hair as she dresses. The bed was so plush and soft duvet beneath her. A human’s senses were heightened when they were Turned, yet Evie felt more connected to everything around her since her humanity had returned. It was as if there had been an invisible wall around her before which she had finally broken free of. That was not to say that she didn’t miss her vampire hearing, sight and speed. The loss of which would be a problem if she managed to get out of here. She was going to get out of here with Caius. She just needed to figure out how.
A knock on the door made her start. It was a soft, tentative knock, yet she still flinched.
“Evie, it’s me. Nico. Are you okay?” the voice is soft and tentative too, which made rage burn deep inside her. Now he was worried about her? After what he’s done?
“I’m fine.”
“Can I come in?” Oh, he has manners now? What happened to the man that had thrown silver over her and shoved her in the basement?
“It’s your house. Whatever.”
The door opened without a creak and Nico swooped in with his usual easy fashion. He looked to the drawn curtains and crossed the room. “It’s morning,” he said and threw them open. Evie cringed, throwing her arms up to shield her eyes from the sunlight that painted the cream room a vibrant yellow. A sinking feeling hit her hard when she didn’t burn. Did she want to burn? It was what she was used to. It was the whole idea that she’s changed that she didn’t like.
“Don’t cower,” said Nico. His hands were clasped behind his back as he looked out of the large panoramic window.
Evie lowered her arms and squinted at him. From the back, he looked like a schoolboy, dressed in a cardigan and smart trousers. Yet there was so much evil brewing behind that innocent façade. The fact that he looked so normal seems to frighten her more than if he did actually look like a criminal mastermind with the slick, gelled back hair and maybe a scar across his face.
Evie and Caius had been fine until he came along. Now they couldn’t be in the same room as each other without Caius wanting to rip her neck open. She was being too polite, too cordial. A part of her wanted to scream and attack him but her new humanity refrained her from doing anything besides sending him a dirty look.
Evie joined him at the window. She stood beside him and gaped at the view. It was the first time she looked upon the grounds of the mansion. Two stone stairways ran down from the front door to the left of them, creating a gracious half circle. Stylish BMW’s were parked along the front on the paved entryway. The road in and out of the mansion also ran in a semicircle around the large lawn that seemed to go on forever. Evie squinted in the light and was just able to make out the large gates at the edge of the compound, locked and guarded. It was an extraordinary place, Evie had to admit. But to her, it was still a prison.
Even through the glass, Evie felt the warmth of the sun. Warm. She hadn’t actually felt warm in a hundred years. That was why she’d done that little experiment in the shower earlier. To test her new body. To know where her new boundaries were.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Nico asked, smiling out at the view.
“What?” Evie’s voice was soft and barely audible.
“The morning sun. You haven’t seen it for a while. I bet you’ve forgotten what it looks like.”
“It doesn’t make up for what you did.” She clasped the tops of her arms, the warmth feelings too strange for her to be comfortable.
Nico exhaled a tired sigh. “You will learn that what I did to you was for the best. Your humanity isn’t a curse, Evie. Your vampirism was the curse.”
She gave him a quelling look but said nothing. His eyes, reflecting the sun, looked like two silver coins. She wondered, with a sudden emptiness, if Caius’ eyes would look like that in the sunlight.
Nico brushed a stray piece of her damp hair from her neck and she flinched. When she looked up at him, he was frowning. “You took off your bandage.”
She slapped his hand away and took off the towel so her hair spilled over her neck. “I had to so I could shower.” After Nico had dragged her away from Caius, he had cleaned her neck and bandaged the puncture wounds.
“I’ll patch it back up. C’mon, breakfast is on the table.” He headed towards the door.
&
nbsp; “What do you want with me? Why am I still here? I’m cured, you can let me go.”
“I’m not done with you yet,” he said and disappeared out the door.
Evie let out an irritated huff and followed. “What do you mean?”
Nico swept through the mansion like a shadow. Her boots clunked across the wood floor after him yet he seemed to move with such grace that he hardly made a sound at all. It unnerved her. Silent but deadly like a predator.
Finally, Evie caught up with him when he stopped at an open pair of white double doors. Inside was a long wooden table that seated ten yet there were only two plates, one set at either end. A bowl of assorted bread sat in the middle with an assortment of jams and butter. There were also several boxes of multipack cereals and fruit.
Nico gestured into the room. “Have a seat.”
Evie took the nearest seat. Nico strolled down the long room and sat on the opposite end. Silently, she grabbed a bowl, a box of cereal and the bottle of milk from the centre of the table while Nico grabbed several slices of bread.
In her early years of being a vampire, Evie had tried to vary her meals with human food. Caius kept telling her that she was kidding herself. Blood had been everything to her, anything else was insignificant. But Evie had been determined and would spend her afternoon slaving away in the kitchen, preparing a meal that she used to find delicious. Then she’d eat it and realise that Caius had been right. No matter what it was, if it wasn’t blood, it just tasted plain and pointless.
She scooped a spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth and frowned. It turned out cornflakes actually did just taste plain and pointless.
“So, what exactly am I still doing here? Why haven’t you tossed me out into the street?”
Nico smiled down at his plate as he smeared strawberry jam onto a piece of white toast. “You are very special, Evie. You are the first to be cured. I tried that very same serum on other vampires. It did not work.”
The Progeny Page 5