Bloodgifted

by Tima Maria Lacoba

  ‘No need to thank me Mrs Sommers,’ Alec replied.

  A weepy smile curled her lips. Her daughter, Clare, moved up behind her. ‘Our whole family thanks you.’

  ‘Me too, Doc,’ Matt said as he extended a hand to Alec, who gripped it in return.

  ‘Maybe Mum and I’ll go for a coffee, so you can talk,’ Clare suggested.

  ‘Good idea,’ Evelyn said. ‘Laura, you stay and talk with Matt and jog his memory.’ She looked hopefully at me, eyes glistening. Before I could reply, she had ushered me to his side.

  Clare touched my arm. ‘Good luck,’ she mouthed and together they left the room.

  Matt regarded me blankly. There was no sign of recognition; no welcoming warmth in those icy blue depths. I was torn between giving him a hug or standing motionless by his bedside to wait. I decided on the latter.

  ‘Hi Laura. I’ve been told you’re my girl.’ His expression belied his words. There was no smile, no dimple. He scrutinised me head to toe like I was a suspect in a police line-up. This wasn’t the Matt Sommers I had known for several months. The man lying in that hospital bed looking up at me was a stranger.

  ‘You really don’t remember?’ I asked.

  ‘Just said so. Pity. I couldn’t help Dave, who’s on this. You talk to him yet?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘It happened in your flat, I’m told,’ he said in a way that demanded a response. Why couldn’t he stop being the detective, just for once?

  ‘Uh huh. You drove me home after a family event. I was knocked out the second the door opened.’

  ‘Didn’t see anything at all?’

  ‘I’ve already gone through all this with Dave. I didn’t come here to be interrogated but to see how you were.’

  Alec touched my arm.

  ‘As you can see,’ he waved absently to his bandaged head, ‘not all okay, but getting there. They want to keep me here for few days. I don’t mind.’ He smiled up at Dr Cardacci then looked back to me. ‘How badly were you hurt?’ he asked, almost as an after thought as he glanced at my bandaged arm. Alec had insisted I keep up the pretence as long as we were coming here.

  ‘Not as bad as you. I’m okay.’

  ‘They told me you lost a lot of blood so it was bad. Could be the same guy who’s been—’

  ‘Matt stop it, please. I don’t want to talk about it.’

  I looked away from him and focused on the Get Well cards sitting on the table by his bed. ‘Nice collection of cards.’

  He cracked a smile. ‘Sometimes you’ve got to get yourself half killed to find out who your friends are.’

  There was an awkward silence after that. Neither of us knew what to say. Alec hadn’t said a word since greeting Matt and Dr Cardacci stood silently watching the three of us. The old cliché, slicing the atmosphere with a knife, was never more apt.

  ‘Did I give you that ring?’ Matt said, his voice as blank as his stare.

  I followed the path of his eyes down to my hand. ‘No. It’s a family heirloom. Got it on my birthday, last Friday. You were there.’

  ‘Sorry, don’t remember. Didn’t think it’d be something I’d give you.’

  ‘How long do they want to keep you here?’ I asked in an attempt to change the subject.

  ‘Few days, not sure.’

  It was enough chit-chat. I wanted to get this done and mentally framed my breakup speech. I turned to Alec. ‘Could you please give us a few minutes alone?’

  He hesitated before replying, ‘Are you sure?’

  I nodded.

  ’I’ll be just be outside.’ His fingers briefly touched mine before he turned and walked out.

  I glanced at Dr Cardacci. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. ‘I’ll come back later,’ she said and made a move as though to leave.

  ‘No, I’d like you to stay,’ Matt said and grabbed her hand.

  I noticed she didn’t pull away, but looked at me half apologetically, half—what? She held his hand and glanced down at him, almost… protectively!

  Well, well. She’s attracted to him! And the way he looked at her completed the picture for me. I should have felt jealous. Only a few days ago he looked at me like that. Now…

  I clasped my hands behind my back, afraid he’d see how much they shook.

  ‘Matt, I… I need to speak to you, privately.’

  ‘She stays.’

  I looked at her. She blanched. This was a side to him I’d never seen before—inconsiderate and callous. Had he been hiding it these last four months?

  I took a deep breath and thought of Alec waiting for me out in the corridor. ‘Matt... Alec—Dr Munro—and I met a few days ago. We… um…’ My hands began to sweat. This had to be one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. Matt’s gaze bored into mine, his mouth a tight line. Perhaps if I don’t look at him, I can do this, I thought. The word coward followed hard after.

  Do this! I mentally yelled at myself. ‘I’m so, so sorry Matt, but I can’t be… with you anymore. Something’s happened to me and I can’t pretend that’s it’s going to go away.’ I took a deep breath and blurted, ‘I’m in love with someone else.’ There, I’d said it.

  ‘So you’ve come to say goodbye,’ he said flatly.

  ‘I’m sorry. It just happened.’

  ‘He must’ve made quite an impression in those few days. It’s Munro, isn’t it?’

  ‘What? How could…’

  ‘I may have lost my memory, but not my sight. It’s obvious from the way you both looked at each other and the way he touched you.’ The muscle in his jaw ticked.

  I stood there, biting my bottom lip. What could I possibly say?

  He shrugged. ‘You know, it’s just as well I have no memory of our time together or this would probably hurt like hell. As it is, I really don’t care.’

  I don’t know why, but that comment stung and for a moment I was speechless. ‘Well, since you don’t remember me…’

  ‘Obviously our short time together wasn’t memorable enough.’

  Dr Cardacci gasped. I was stunned. This was not the Matt I knew. It was as if he was being deliberately cruel—pushing me away from him. Or maybe this was the real Matt Sommers.

  Okay, I probably deserved that, an accusing voice in my head said. After all, it continued, you’re the one leaving him for another man after he nearly died trying to save your life. Until another voice in my head said, He was planning to kill your family and the man you love! Say goodbye and walk out.

  I felt Alec’s presence before I saw him. He’d strode back into the room and grasped my hand. ‘I can understand your anger, Sommers, but don’t take it out on Laura. If you want to level blame where it’s due, then here I am.’

  Matt tried to sit up. The action only made him grimace in pain. Dr Cardacci persuaded him to lie back.

  ‘Please, Matt…’ I began to say.

  ‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Do what you came here for and… go!’

  I swallowed hard. ‘Goodbye Matt. I wish you all happiness.’

  I turned and walked out of his life.

  Chapter 50

  Eternity

  LAURA

  ‘How are you?’ Alec asked me. We stood at the end of the corridor, waiting for elevator.

  ‘Sad but relieved.’

  Just like that, Matt and I were no longer a couple and the sting of his parting words played in my mind. I blocked them out as I rested my head in the hollow of Alec’s neck, inhaling his scent and mulling over the last week. My whole life had changed, so had my world. Now at least I was free to love the man who truly claimed my heart and with that came a sense of acceptance and peace.

  Neither of us spoke for a while, until Alec lifted my face to him. ‘Goodbyes are always painful.’

  I laughed bitterly. ‘I didn’t realise how nasty he could be.’

  ‘Forget about him.’

  ‘He has every right to be angry, though.’ I thought of his mother and sister downstairs in the hospital cafeteria, so full of hope my presen
ce would restore his memory; full of expectation our relationship wouldn’t be affected by this. How on earth were they going to react when they discovered otherwise?

  I dropped my head onto Alec’s chest and sighed.

  ‘He’ll survive, Laura. They all will. You’ve done nothing wrong.’ He paused a moment as if carefully structuring his next words. ‘You don’t belong with him—in his world—but the one you were born into and destined to share with me. This is where you belong, my darling’ —his arms tightened around me— ‘and the promising millennia that stretches before us.’

  I was struck by the intensity of his words and angled my head to look up at his face. The depth of love I saw written there caused my heart to leap and in that instant I realised with absolute certainty that no man could ever love me the way Alec would; a love that eternity would not, could not, erase.

  All thoughts of Matt faded as I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  ‘Laura,’ he whispered, his voice a caress as he bent his head and kissed me.

  I thanked whatever providence had mercifully provided my escape route. The blow Matt had received only resulted in wiping me from his memory—as well as the last few months. I was sure pretty Doctor Cardacci would aid his complete recovery, very nicely. I’d said goodbye to him and the old me. This new, part vampire me had a thousand years to look forward to with the man whose arms now enveloped me. There was only one question that needed answering. ‘Alec, do you like bagpipes?’

  ‘Playing or listening?’

  ‘Either.’

  ‘Mmmmm, both. I have my own set. Why?’

  ‘Would you like to come to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo with me and Jen?’

  He stared down at me a moment before letting out a peal of laughter.

  I heaved a sigh of contentment and snuggled further into his arms.

  Epilogue

  Three days later, Detective Inspector Matthew Sommers was allowed to go home. He left the hospital that morning. His sister, Clare, and her husband had picked him up and dropped him off in front of his flat. There was no need for them to come up, he told them. He’d be okay. He needed to be alone to work some things out. One included that woman—his alleged ex-girlfriend—Laura Dantonville.

  Why had she bothered to see him if only to say they were breaking up?

  A package lay on the ground outside his door. He bent and picked it up. What had he ordered? Damned retro whatever-they-called-it. It was going to make life a misery for the next few days or weeks or however long his memory would be out. But he’d be damned if he wouldn’t try and recall something, anything. The doctors had tried some mental exercises on him, but so far, nothing had worked.

  He dumped the package on the table and went to make himself a cup of coffee. He’d been given three weeks off to recover, but he didn’t want it. Work is what he needed to keep her face out of his mind.

  Something niggled at him, something he couldn’t put his finger on. He swore in frustration and briefly closed his eyes to try and summon a memory or an image or even a feeling of the last six months. Nothing. It was as if that time hadn’t existed. Back at the hospital, he’d rifled through his phone messages and notes and then his photo gallery. There wasn’t a single picture of her, not one, yet he was told they’d been together for four months. Had someone tampered with his phone? What the hell for? There was nothing on it worth erasing!

  Sommers shook his head, took his mug of coffee into the living room and sprawled into a settee. The package on the table stared at him. He took a few sips of his coffee and stared back before he got up and tore it open. Inside was a small, sealed cardboard box. Within that, were six wooden bullets.

  What the hell had he ordered?

  There was a receipt attached. He quickly scanned it to find that this order was the completion of a previous one —twelve white oak bullets in all. Had there been an earlier one? He left his coffee on the table and went in search of the other cartridges he’d supposedly bought. But he found nothing. Where were they? At his desk at work? Would he really have brought a box of those to the station? Not damn likely.

  He sat at his computer and looked up any reference to white oak bullets and what he found made him shake his head. It seems they were the only effective substance used against vampires. It killed them by crystallising the blood.

  Huh! Nice, he thought as he downed the rest of his coffee. People actually believe this shit? He didn’t know whether to laugh and throw the damned things away or keep reading. On the other hand, he had three weeks off. Why not? It’s not like he had anything else to do.

  Another website stated that vampires had the ability to mesmerise their victims and wipe out their memories. Those who were bitten didn’t remember it to tell.

  Now that made him sit up and take notice. Instinctively he felt his neck. Nope, no bite marks. Yeah, sucked in! He laughed at his own joke. Then something caught his eye and the laughter abruptly ended. Vampires were distinguished by the unusual lavender colour of their eyes, so many had taken to wearing contact lenses.

  What the hell? He read and reread that line, then he thought back. Both his ex-girlfriend, and that doctor, had lavender-coloured eyes. But his brain had been too addled by painkillers at the time, so he couldn’t be sure.

  Ah! It’s ridiculous! he thought. But then for some odd reason he’d ordered those damn bullets.

  He decided to google their names anyway, just to be sure. He’d been told she was a primary school teacher so her photo should feature on the school website, and his should appear on the hospital staff list. Dave mentioned the hospital he ran.

  Their faces appeared and he magnified the images for a better view. Strange, but beautiful lavender eyes smiled back at him.

  He sat back in his chair, picked up one of the bullets and twirled it around his fingers as he considered what a session with the hypnotherapist at the hospital would reveal. It took less than three seconds for him to ring Dr Cardacci and leave a message on her answering machine.

  He stared at his keys where he’d dropped them on the table when he came in. Among them, was one he didn’t recognise. Could it be hers? His ex? Only one way to find out. Might even jog his damn memory. It’d be easy enough to get her address. He had a mate in Traffic.

  Forty minutes later, he sat in his car outside her block of units. Nothing looked familiar. He fiddled with the key and wrestled with the ethics of what he was about to do.

  What the hell!

  He strode to her door and slotted the key into her apartment door. It fit.

  END OF BOOK ONE

  If you enjoyed Bloodgifted, look out for Bloodpledge, Book 2 in The Dantonville Legacy, which will be available in 2014.

  Connect with the author at her website – http://timamarialacoba.blogspot.com

  On twitter – http://www.twitter.com/TimaMariaLacoba

  On Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/timamarialacoba

  Goodreads – http://Goodreads.com/timamarialacoba

  Here’s an exclusive sneak peak of chapter 1.

  Chapter 1 of Bloodpledge

  LAURA

  Abandoned. That’s how my apartment appeared to me after I’d been away a week. The police had been. They had even hired a cleaner to wash my ex-boyfriend Matt’s bloodstains from the doorframe and wooden floor after the forensics people had finished.

  As I sorted through the mail, Alec casually checked out the framed photos I kept on the dining room buffet. Looking at him, I had to remind myself that he wasn’t human. Up until a week ago, the only supernatural creatures I believed in were angels.

  He picked up the one of Matt and myself and looked at it for a long while. It was hard to know what he was thinking. His face betrayed nothing.

  ‘Who’s this?’ he asked as he held up another one. It was a silver-framed photo of Jenny and me taken at the Randwick races one Melbourne Cup Day. She had won a pre-cup sweep at work and asked me along.

  We went out and bought hats and dresses especi
ally for the occasion. Neither of us won anything on the horses, but it had been a great day out.

  ‘That’s Jenny.’

  ‘The one who phoned you in hospital the other day?’

  ‘Uh huh. My best friend.’ Jenny and I had known each other for years; we taught at the same primary school and had become close friends, almost like sisters. I hated not being able to tell her about Alec and the vampire side of the family.

  I noticed the way he smiled as he looked at it. I’d worn a black, knee-length, figure-hugging pinafore I’d teamed with a jade silk scarf and matching peep-toe shoes.

  His eyes lit up with a devilish glint. ‘I need to think of some excuse for you to wear that dress for me.’

  I laughed and shook my head as I turned and walked into my bedroom and rummaged through my wardrobe, choosing what to take for the few days with my biological parents. Even though the walk-in closet in my bedroom at my father’s house was brim-full of the latest designer wear especially selected for me, I still felt I needed some of my old, familiar stuff. To me it was proof I hadn’t really changed; I was still Laura Dantonville, primary school teacher, albeit daughter of Lucien (Luc) Lebrettan, millionaire real-estate magnate, vampire and Alec’s sire.

  As I began to throw a few things onto the bed, I noticed something odd. On my dressing table, next to another framed photo of me and Matt, lay the key to my unit. It was the spare I’d given him when our relationship had become serious. I’d posted my copy of his apartment key back to him three days ago.

  A cold shiver rippled through me. He’d been in my apartment, without my permission!

  ‘Laura, everything all right?’ Alec’s voice came from the living room.

  ‘Um…yes.’ I wasn’t sure whether to tell Alec about this or not. I glanced around. Nothing else in my room seemed different or out of place. Yet, there it was, the unmistakable evidence of my ex-boyfriend’s presence.