She curled her fingers into Caius’ tattered tunic and gulped down the bile that rose in her throat. Her fear made her feel delicate. Her mortality made her feel delicate. Caius’ vampire power made her feel delicate. He could crack her like a china doll by simply hugging her too hard. Yet she let herself be held by him.
Her nerves were shot and the pulse of her racing heart thumped almost deafening loud in her ears. “Is the door shut?” she managed to whisper, hoarse and broken.
“Yes. Don’t worry.” He smoothed down her hair. Not like a shut door would keep out Nico away. Not like it would keep the memories away. How many men had Caius just killed?
“Did you give them your name?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Just Evie and I gave him your first name.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. The house is under your alias anyway.”
“They won’t find us?” Her voice came out shrill and desperate.
“No. They won’t find us,” he replied softly and pressed his lips to the top of her head. A long silence followed. Evie stayed enveloped in Caius’ arms, feeling too fragile to hold but also to terrified to be let go. All she could hear was her heart pounding. That thing that wasn’t there before. That thing that she was starting to get used to now and, despite everything, she was starting to grow quite fond of it. With her ear pressed against Caius’ chest, the silent emptiness within him chilled her.
“Thank you for saving me,” Caius finally broke the silence, brushing his lips across her forehead.
“It’s not like I had a choice.” She looked up into his pale blue eyes. Bloody tracks ran down his cheeks from old tears and blood was still mangled into his growing beard. “You are my everything.”
He smiled, a motion that used every muscle in his face and caused the blood tracks to crack and flake away like old paint. He slipped his hands from her back to behind her head, cupping it. “I don’t ever want to be apart from you ever again. I love you so much.”
A lump swelled in her throat and the backs of her eyes burned. “I love you, too.” She lifted herself up onto her tiptoes and pressed her forehead against his. They both closed their eyes at the contact and exhaled a relieved sigh. Caius’ skin was so cold against hers. Like stone. “We still have a few blood bags in the fridge. Do you want one?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m fine.” Before she had a chance to insist, Caius’ lips were on hers. She moaned softly into his mouth and melted into him, her hands slipping up to his neck. She pushed him back, suddenly getting a surge of life pouring through her – of relish. They’re alive. Both of them, alive. And together again. No barriers separating them. No Nico looming over them.
Evie pinned him up against the door, her body now trembling for a different reason. The buzz of adrenaline hummed through her veins and made her face hot. He laughed at her forcefulness and deepened the kiss, his tongue exploring hers. She smiled against his lips and pushes off what’s left of his blazer.
Caius’ hands slipped under her pyjama shirt and gripped onto her sides. Her skin burned at his cold touch. She messed her fingers in his hair and pulled him down to her height. The kiss was perfect, frivolous and passionate up until a sharp pain sliced through her and she squealed. Caius gasped as their lips broke contact. His eyes widened and he covered his fangs with his hand. The inky black of his oversized pupils shrank back to their normal size.
Evie stepped back and puts her finger to her tongue. “Woo yust wit me,” she slurs out after seeing blood on her fingertips.
Caius retracted his fangs. “I’m sorry.” His eyes shifted to their kitchen. “Maybe I should have a blood bag.”
Evie stared down at her bloody fingertips. At her human blood that looked so much like her old dead, vampire blood, but was entirely different.
She was alive and Caius was undead.
The sudden, daunting realisation of how severe that difference actually was hits her at full force.
“I’ll be in bed,” Evie said quickly before turning and heading up the stairs.
Evie closed all the shutters upstairs before changing into her own pyjamas. It was then she realised she no longer had the set of keys. She must have dropped them in the hurry to escape.
Her adrenaline had worn off and exertion took its place. She sunk under the familiar covers and closes her eyes, unable to stay awake for Caius. In the silence, her heartbeat was the only sound. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and clung to her vest at her chest. The image of her tearing her way through her own ribs to snatch that beating sack and throwing it across the room had Evie’s emotions running wild. Her breath hitched and her eyes darted around in the darkness. She didn’t want to lose that constant thump in her chest, the feeling of warmth and cold on her skin, even the way her terror altered her breathing and made it hurt.
On top of all of that, she couldn’t believe she was back home. It felt too sudden. It felt too fast. It feels too easy. Nico’s hubris was his weakness. His security was lacking because he didn’t think a vampire would ever escape his special cells. He never expected someone to help them from the inside.
But even though they broke out, Nico wasn’t gone, Evie knew that. He wouldn’t give up. She wasn’t free of him. She was his prize possession. He would come looking for her.
The thought made her heart sink. Possession. She had once been Caius’ possession. His progeny. And now she was Nico’s breakthrough. Was she even her own person?
Her head pounded at the dizzying shifts of her own psyche and the exhaustion of trying to somehow make sense of them sent her into a deep, well-need sleep.
Chapter 8
Evie roused from her slumber to the sound of running water. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar and she could see movement behind the steamed-up glass of the shower. Knowing was Caius probably trying to wash away all the ground in grime, she sank her head back into her pillow and drifted back to sleep.
The next time she woke, the red letters on her alarm clock read 5.00am. Caius was by her side. His face was pressed into the pillow so all she could see is a mess of dark, damp hair. His arms were under the pillow and his fingers had curled over the top as if he’s holding it in a desperate embrace. Evie watched him for a moment, silent and still beside her. She ran her fingers over his shoulder and her heart sank at his lack of warmth. His lack of life. Now that she was human, she was suddenly aware of how… inhuman vampires really were. With their cold skin, un-beating hearts and impossible stillness.
She feels like she’s sleeping beside a corpse.
Trying her best to ignore the distressing thoughts, she turns her back to him and burrows deep into the covers, trying to cocoon herself from reality.
She left Caius asleep and grabbed her dressing gown from the hook behind her door after a few more hours of sleep. The sunlight bathed the kitchen in a pool of orange. She had never seen the kitchen in the sunlight before and noticed that it needed a good dust down. Dust malts floated in the air, swirling with Evie’s movements. She couldn’t believe how much she had missed sunlight and how her amazement hadn’t worn off yet. It was like seeing everything through brand new eyes. Or her old eyes? She shuddered and glided to the fridge. But of course, all she had in were a blood bag. She needed to go shopping. Shopping for food. Real human food.
Caius lay unmoving as she showered and dressed. She dried her hair at the dressing table, not even attempting to be quiet because she knew there’s no need. Vampires were practically the dead in the day. The sun pulled them into an unconscious state only very skilled vampires could pull themselves out of. Caius was one of those skilled vampires, but he’d only ever wake himself when the sun was up if his life was in immediate danger because the side effects weren’t for the fainthearted. He’d feel sick and hungry but unable to stomach blood as his own poured out. Much like what had happened to Daisy, the vampire Nico had injected, or rather Evie had injected.
Evie shoved on a pair of boots, not her work boots which Nico had taken, and
paused at the front door before running back up the stairs and grabbing a woolly hat. She tucked all her signature red locks inside it and checked herself in the mirror before leaving. She kept her head down as she walked to the nearest supermarket. Even the short walk made her miss her vampire speed. She nearly got run over by a car in the car park, and the shock of it sent her motionless for a good few seconds. The man behind the wheel honked at her and threw his arms in the air. She cringed and mouthed an apology. Her mind was all over the place. So many people. The crowd made her heart pound. Yes, that was that sickening feeling deep inside her. Heart palpitations. Sweat coats her palms and she squinted into the glaring light as she stepped through the automatic doors.
Evie was never good with large amounts of people. But that was because she had been a vampire hiding under the radar. She was human now, just like the rest of the people around her yet she still felt like she was on the outside looking in. Why? Because she had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea what she wanted to buy. She hadn’t shopped for food for a hundred years and back then there weren’t any dauntingly sized shops like the one she was standing in now.
“Excuse me, love.”
A woman skimmed her with her trolly. She grabbed a basket uncertainly, hoping she’d blending in, and started following the woman, seeing if she could copy the woman’s shopping list.
She followed her up one aisle, trying to look as casual as possible as she placed the same items in her basket as the woman. After two aisles, the woman seemed to catch on so Evie moved on and starts following an older gentleman. When her basket started to overflow, she worried so wouldn’t be able to carry it all home due to her lack of vampire strength, so she headed for the tills.
It wasn’t until she was back home when her muscles uncoiled and she finally relaxed. This was the first time she needed to use most of the cupboards in the kitchen. It was rather exciting organising her shopping and designating places for everything to go. When she opened the freezer, she frowned. It was empty. No blood bags. She could have gotten more for him if she’d known but the thought of going back outside, back around so many people – the back of her neck prickled and she shook away the cold spell.
Remembering how bland her cornflakes were at Nico’s, Evie bought chocolate cereal and poured herself a bowl of it. The thought of dinner made her heart spasm with anxiety. Did she even remember how to cook? She tried to forget everything about her old life before Caius had Turned her and even if she did bring up the past, she doubted it would help. Too much had changed. She needed to learn how to be a human in 2034.
__________#__________
“Evie!” Caius called from the kitchen.
Evie blinked hard, pulling her eyes off the T.V. After her cereal, she managed to make herself beans on toast. For the rest of the day she’d sat on the sofa watching reruns until the sun disappeared and Caius could wake. “Yeah?” she called back.
He appeared at the door in his boxer shorts and his open dressing gown draped over his lean frame. “What’s all that in there?” He stabbed his finger towards the kitchen.
“I went shopping. Had to buy food seeing as I can’t live off blood anymore. By the way, you only have one bag left. I didn’t know. If I did, I would have bought you some. But then I got a little side-tracked and completely forgot.” Her eyebrowed pinch. “Sorry.”
In truth, Evie had sunk on the sofa and immersed herself in daytime T.V dribble to drown out her out scuttling thoughts.
Caius’ eyes fogged over with rage. “You went shopping? Outside?”
Evie laughed, confused by the anger in his tone. “Well yeah. That’s where the shops are.”
He swiped his hand down his face before he balled it into a fist and slammed it against the door frame. “What were you thinking? Going outside? Are you insane? You could have been noticed and…” His breath caught. “Taken back.”
Evie stood up, holding her palms up to him. “Calm down. I was careful. I wore a hat, kept my head down, stayed in crowds. I’m fine.”
“Oh, you wore a hat? Oh, that’s fine then.”
She scowled. “What the hell is your problem?”
“My problem?” He scoffed. “Do you not remember where we have just escaped from?”
A lump swelled in her throat and she fell silent. Red began to brim his eyes. He looked away.
“Evie… when I was taken,” he started, his voice soft and wavering, “the moment I regained consciousness in that cell, my first thought was of you.” His eyes shot back to her and she swallowed hard. “And how devastated I was that I’d never see you again. Knowing that I’d die in that cell, that was the only thing I truly feared.” Her vision blurred as tears welled in her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand. His thin lips started to tremble. “And then I woke and you were there looking over me.” A laugh escaped him. The sound of tremendous wonder. “I thought I really was dying and that the last thing I was seeing before I was sucked into the never-ending blackness was the one thing I loved. But you were real. You were there. I was actually seeing you again.” His eyes clenched shut, freeing red tears that streaked his pale cheeks. “It was a fluke that we managed to get out of there. But now, with you being human, when you go out there in the day, I can’t protect you.” His eyes locked onto hers. “I am completely powerless. And now we don’t have that psychic link, I can’t know when you are in danger. If something happens, if they find you and take you back --I can’t save you.”
It took a moment for Evie to find her words. The raw helplessness in his voice had dried up her throat. “But we can’t just lock ourselves in here, Caius.”
His sharp jaw set with determination. “Then let me Turn you back.”
The statement hit her harder than she expected. She stepped back, distancing herself from him. “No.” The fear in her own voice shocked her.
“No?”
She covered her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling exposed and vulnerable and completely detached from herself. The emotions welling inside her didn’t seem to fit, like they belong to someone else. She felt itchy and wrong and sick.
“Not now,” she offered.
“Then when?”
“I don’t know…” Her voice trailed off and she shifted her eyes to the night sky out of the window.
“Ever?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know.”
“Evie, what’s going on?”
Caius took a step towards her but then froze when their eyes meet.
Her lips began to quiver and she hugged herself tighter. “I like being human, Caius.”
The admittance washed over him, slackening his features and making him look half his body’s age.
She gasped after forgetting to breathe. It wasn’t happening as often now. She was starting to get the hang of breathing. Of living. “I’m cured, Caius.”
His handed ball into fists. “You sound just like him.”
She shook her head, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Vampirism is a curse. You said so yourself when you Turned me. You said you didn’t want to pass this curse down to another. But I’m not cursed anymore, Caius. You should be happy for me.” The last sentence came out as a hopeful whisper.
He looked so depleted as he watched her for a moment. “But… what about us?”
“We can make it work.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. But we can and we will. Because I love you.”
Her nerves prickled when he swept across the room and enveloped her in his arms. She hugged him back. He pressed his lips hard against her forehead. Something hot dripped onto her and ran down the bridge of her nose. It was red. Blood. Caius’ vampire tears. She choked down a sob and pressed her face into his chest.
A few beats of silence go by as they held each other, letting the reality sink in. Caius was a vampire. Evie was human. They were in love and they were desperate to stay in love. One simply couldn’t live without the other. Surely a heartbeat wouldn’t change all t
hat?
Evie sniffed and pushed herself out of Caius’ chest but kept her eyes trained on his collarbone, too afraid to see the hurt in his eyes. “Do you want to watch Friends with me? It’s the one when Joey gets the turkey stuck on his head.”
Caius laughed and dropped his arms from around her back. “They’re still playing that show?”
“It’s timeless. Fancy it?”
“Sure.”
Evie dropped back onto the sofa. Caius headed to the kitchen.
“Where are you going?”
“Cleaning my face and getting my drink.”
“Oh, well… you only have that one, remember.”
She heard the clinking of glass in the background as she watched the T.V and moments later, Caius settled down beside her with a scotch glass half filled with blood.
By the end of the episode, Evie had her knees tucked up on the sofa and was using Caius’ head as a pillow. He picked up his glass and swirled the last drop, inspecting it with a frown. “Damn.”
“What?”
“That was the whole bag.”
She pushed herself off him and looked to the glass. “You drank the whole bag?”
“I guess I’m still recuperating from being starved.”
“Well then, you’re going to have to go to the hospital and get some more.”
His eyes flicked to the front door and a slight shudder twitched his shoulders. “No. It’s okay. I’m fine.”
She gave him a doubtful look when he placed the glass back down and stared down at the blood staining the bottom. The tip of his tongue ran over his bottom lip and his veins started to cord under his eyes before he snapped them shut and coughed as if to clear his throat. Evie sighed. “No, you’re not. You’re clearly hungry.”
He shook his head. “I’m fine.”
Evie swung her leg around to straddled his lap.
The Progeny Page 9