Beautiful Monster
The Exchange
Book One
Jeanne Bannon
Text copyright © 2015 Jeanne Bannon
All Rights Reserved
~ Dedication ~
This book is dedicated to my husband, Dave for his support and encouragement.
~ Acknowledgements ~
“Vampire” — a mythical being who subsists by feeding on the life essence (blood) of living creatures.
Without you, dear vampire, this novella would never have been written. I want to thank creatures of the night everywhere, from Lord Ruthaven, attributed as one of the first vampires in English literature, to Vlad the Impaler, who it is said inspired Bram Stoker’s, Count Dracula, to Elizabeth Bathory, an authentic seventeenth-century countess, said to be one of the most bloodthirsty vampiresses of all time. And thank you fellow authors for bringing such creatures to life. To name just a select few — Bram Stoker (Dracula), Anne Rice (Interview with a Vampire), Stephen King (Salem’s Lot) and, Stephenie Meyers
(the Twilight saga).
Thank you to my dear friend and fellow author, Sheila Dalton for her encouragement, her kindness,
her generosity, but most of all, for her friendship.
Thank you to Helena Newton, editor extraordinaire, who knows firsthand of my inability to properly use commas and semicolons.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
There is a high road to Heaven which few people travel; Hell hath no door, but many manage to burrow their way in.
Chinese proverb
Lev moved swiftly through the hallways, darting in and out and around what, to him, were slowly moving nurses and orderlies—those unfortunates working the midnight shift. Faster than any human eye was capable of detecting, he made it to Carly’s room in a flash. In fact, he made it there just in time, nostrils plucking the acrid scents from the air better than any dog’s.
He sat on the bed beside her in the dimly lit room and noticed, thankfully, she had no roommate. The bed beside Carly was recently vacated. The scent of death still lingered heavily and sadly.
Taking her delicate hand in his, Lev noticed a monitor clipped on an index finger. It seemed it measured her pulse and heartbeat. He noticed too that her heart was beating slowly, though he didn’t need a monitor for that. He heard its throb, and it made him think of a dying battery.
However, relief settled on him as he realized he was the first to arrive after the accident that had left her comatose. Carly’s family was nowhere near yet. It would take hours for them to get here from the other coast. He had time, plenty of it. Stealthily, Lev glanced into the hallway from his perch in the darkened hospital room. The occasional nurse strode past, but it was late, or perhaps the better term was early. In the wee hours of the morning, there would be fewer staff than during the day.
With a sigh, he took Carly in. Her blonde hair was matted and dirty, even though it looked as if someone had tried to clean her up, perhaps finger combing her thick mane and tucking it behind her head. Her face was still perfect. Not a single scratch had sullied her beauty.
A knot twisted in his belly. Why hadn’t he known? He could have saved her if only he’d known. But even Lev couldn’t know everything. It was his brother, Alexei, who’d given him the news moments ago.
“Brother,” he’d said, “there’s been an accident. Go now to the hospital or you’ll never see your precious Carly again.”
He hadn’t asked the how, the why, the when. Alexei had dropped his mental barriers. Lev felt them fall like a drawbridge. His brother had let him in. It was easier than speaking—Lev was able to glean whatever information he needed in an instant. But with the simple facts of Carly’s accident came the realization his brother was happy for the turmoil. A hint of a smile had curled Alexei’s full lips, and his eyes were bright. Lev was not surprised.
He pulled his thoughts from Alexei and looked down at his beloved’s hand in his. The pallor of it matched his own. He listened to the slow rush of blood through her veins, willing it to grow stronger.
Moving close, he whispered, “I can save you.” He brought her dainty wrist to his lips. She smelled like death already—like the musk of freshly turned earth. It was now or never. His fangs pricked at her delicate skin, drawing a bead of crimson. It tasted of iron and copper and of her. Carly’s very essence was in that droplet.
He stopped himself, knowing she wouldn’t want him to go through with it. They’d talked about it many times, about the possibility of him turning her, so they could be together, not for just the blink of an eye that was a human lifetime but for eternity. She would be furious if he turned her, and he wouldn’t blame her. Lev knew the pain and sorrow of being changed into a monster against one’s will.
But at least she would still exist. We could still be together. He shook off that small, but oh so inviting thought. No, he would not make a monster of her.
With a flick of his tongue, he licked the droplet away. A shudder of pleasure shot through him, and as he pushed her wrist to his mouth, like a child ready to bite into a ripe peach, the monitor blared a warning. He dropped her arm. Panic filled him. Carly’s pulse rose and fell suddenly. The stagnant tone of a heart that was no longer beating blared from the machine, stabbing sharply in his ears, but the growing silence of blood no longer pulsing through veins and arteries seemed louder. Hesitation had cost him. His compassion, as his brother would say, was his one true downfall.
Two nurses and a doctor were in the room now, buzzing frantically around Carly. Lev had disappeared through the pane of the window unseen and watched from outside where the moonless sky hid him. His jacket flapped in a breeze that also tousled his long black hair. It whipped and slapped against his cheeks.
It was said creatures like him could feel no pain. That they existed only as predators—takers of life—but Lev’s world had just crumbled. If he had a beating heart, it would be broken in two. Tears welled in his eyes, and he longed to let them fall. No, more than that, he wanted to scream, wanted to rip his cold dead heart from his chest and stomp on it.
Lev gathered himself as best he could, pinching the tears from his eyes and staring up to the heavens, but there would be no help for him there. For Lev Baranovsky, there was no God, only this perpetual hell he lived in. Love may come for him again in time, though he wasn’t sure he wanted it to. Would he ever get over losing his precious Carly? The vicious cycle of love and heartbreak was enough to drive him mad.
He should go now. Carly was gone. There was nothing he could do. Even though his brother would be at home, he needed the comfort of his own space to grieve.
He looked down at the ground two stories below, and when he peered back up for one last glimpse of his beloved, his brows lifted and his dark eyes grew to the size of poker chips.
Carly was dead, but she wasn’t gone.
CHAPTER TWO
Confusion reigned as Lev fled back to the home he shared with his brother, Alexei. He couldn’t have seen what he thought he did. Carly’s was dead and lost to him forever, he told himself, but another, deeper part of him wasn’t so convinced. He’d seen her. More to the point, he’d seen two of her. One lay in the hospital bed; the other stood at the window, a sad smile playing on her lips a
s she stared out at him.
Alexei met him in the hallway as he entered. He leaned his lanky frame against the wall, arms crossed. “Is she…?” He let his words hang in the air, though that slow smile from earlier was back.
Lev shook his head in disgust and pushed past his brother through the double doors of the parlor, where he found refuge in the softness of an old chair. The room was dimly lit. A soothing yellow glow emanated from matching Tiffany lamps on antique end tables. There was something about the parlor that always brought Lev comfort, perhaps because it was Alexei’s least favorite part of the house.
Alexei followed and took a seat on the couch in front of a large picture window. He sneered up at the stained glass tableau that arched across the top of the old glass depicting an image of St. Francis of Assisi, a crucifix in one hand, the Bible cradled to his chest with the other, and a white dove perched upon his shoulder. Alexei had threatened more times than Lev could count to throw a rock through the ancient stained glass. It unsettled him, but Lev didn’t mind it. Even the crucifix didn’t bother him as long as he didn’t stare at it for too long.
“Why do you do that?” Lev asked, finally addressing his brother. Anger colored his voice. “You smile when I’m in pain. Do you enjoy seeing me in agony?”
Alexei’s smile blossomed. “Brother, this is not the first and it certainly won’t be the last time someone you love dies. I smile only because I wonder why you haven’t learned your lesson yet.” He sounded almost jovial, like a giggle lived just beneath the surface of his words.
Lev’s dark eyes narrowed to slits. “And what lesson is that?”
The giggle finally emerged and, Alexei covered his mouth with a hand. “Why do you keep falling in love?” He tucked long dark hair behind his ears and crossed thin legs.
Lev’s brow furrowed, and a grimace replaced his frown. “Because I’m not like you.”
“Another lesson! Wouldn’t it be easier to be like me?”
Lev thought of his brother and his endless string of lovers. Every week a new someone would be in his bed, usually a young, good-looking man. Sometimes he’d turn them, sometimes feed, but mostly he’d kill. It bewildered Lev as to why these humans were so willing to give themselves to Alexei. Yes, his brother was handsome. Some might even say extremely so, but he, Lev, was no slouch in the looks department either. They were so similar with their dark hair and eyes, their tall, lean frames. The real differences were in their characters; where Alexei craved variety and excitement, Lev sought stability. Foolish, he knew, to search for something he could never have.
Carly was different from the other women he’d loved. The others thought of him as a dalliance, a toy, a dangerous plaything, but Carly had something he’d never seen—something precious. It was innocence, and it compelled him to protect her.
And there was something else. She treated him as if he were normal. He loved that especially. But if he’d wanted to keep her in his life, he would have had to steal from her those very things he loved most. If he turned Carly, her innocence would be shattered. She’d become something not quite human, a creature like him. Lev would never be able to forgive himself for being so selfish. As much as he yearned for her to be by his side forever, he knew it would change their love.
The shock of what happened to Carly clung to him like a guilty conscience. He’d thought they’d have more time. Much more. She was only twenty-five! A human could live to be eighty or even older, but would he love her when she was an old lady and he still a young man in his prime?
Alexei broke into Lev’s thoughts. “Would you like to go out?”
For Alexei, going out signaled he was either hungry or horny. Lev shook his head. “You go and leave me be.” He yearned for solitude, but his brother was insensitive, not able to pick up on cues, or maybe it was simply that he didn’t give a shit.
Alexei was now at his side, one long-fingered hand on Lev’s knee. “You need to get out, to take your mind off her. She was just a silly human after all. Nothing to get depressed about.”
Fury finally blossomed in Lev, and he flew to his feet. He lunged for Alexei’s throat and wrapped a hand like a vise around his brother’s neck. With momentum fueled by rage, he smashed Alexei up against the wall. Books crashed from the floor-to-ceiling shelves, splatting on either side of them like huge bugs.
Alexei choked out a laugh and peeled Lev’s fingers from his throat with little difficultly. “Perhaps it’s better if we stay in tonight. The day will be breaking in a few hours anyway.” He swatted Lev aside as if he were nothing more than a mosquito buzzing around his head.
Lev turned to leave, the fight in him replaced by sorrow. The high pitch of Alexei’s laughter followed him as he made his way to the top step of the basement. Then a small voice rang out in his head, at first distant and tinny. But there was no mistaking it was Carly’s. It can’t be, he told himself. It can’t be!
It came again, an eerie whisper. “There’s no such thing as death.”
He wheeled around and saw her. It was Carly, only she was different. Translucent and ethereal, yet still his beautiful Carly, the way he remembered her when he’d last seen her alive. The night of their last date—a carriage ride through the park. They’d kissed their way through the entire thing, missing all the sights without regret.
Her hair was down, its soft curls cascading over pale shoulders. Azure eyes held the innocence he loved. She wore a silky red gown as if she were dressed for a fancy party. It clung exquisitely to her sensuous frame. He smelled her too. The lavender scent of her shampoo and perfume, the one she always wore. It wafted around him now, as she moved closer. He smiled and his heart leapt. “Carly?” Lev’s voice dropped to a breath. “Is it really you?”
Silence stretched between them like a small forever. She smiled; he smiled, but then he gave his head a slow shake of wonder. No! This was a hallucination brought on by grief. Carly was gone. Dead and gone. But when he looked again, she was still there, floating inches from the ground. He saw the swish of her silky dress as it brushed the top of her feet. Painted toenails peeked through the front of her strappy heels.
She drifted forward, and a deep tremor ran through him.
“No. You’re not real!” Lev stepped backward, lost his footing, and tumbled awkwardly down the stairs, until he landed at the bottom. A plume of dust and dirt puffed out from under him like a small cloud.
He sat still as a statue, staring as if in a trance as Carly floated down the stairs to join him.
CHAPTER THREE
“Carly?” Lev said breathlessly. Could he be wrong? Could she really be here in front of him?
She silenced him with a finger to her lips and moved closer. He hadn’t shifted even an inch from where he’d landed at the bottom of the staircase. Fear, anticipation, curiosity, or perhaps all of the above rooted him to the spot. His pants were dusted in a fine earthy grit, as were the white cuffs of his shirt, but he dared not move to brush himself off.
A terrifying thought struck him then. What if this…this being…wasn’t Carly? Could Alexei be playing a trick? He thought on this for a second and decided it would be impossible. His brother, though devious, was not clever enough to pull off something this elaborate.
She was in front of him now, growing denser and less translucent before his eyes. He could see her flawless skin, plump pink lips, and wide blue eyes sharpening and changing back to the Carly he knew before the accident. Her hair shone, as if each strand were lit from the inside out.
She sat down beside him, and for some silly reason, Lev worried about her pretty dress being ruined by the dirt that covered the floor of the old cellar. He glanced around for something for her to sit on and found nothing but cobwebs and more dirt.
She seemed to read his mind. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
They were face to face, her lips just inches from his. A moment later, a feathery kiss tickled his cheek. She’s real, he told himself, absently bringing a hand to the place where Carly had just kissed him
. Then Lev caressed her face. “Is it really you?” She felt real, alive, but he’d just seen her die.
“Yes, my darling, it’s me.” She punctuated her words with a giggle and seemed to enjoy his astonishment.
“But how can you be here? I…I was in your hospital room. I saw—”
She gave a wide smile and when she did, it stilled him. Instead of continuing with his question, he let out a sigh of relief, then got to his feet and finally dusted himself off. He reached for Carly’s hands and pulled her up beside him. They moved to the bottom step of the creaky old staircase and sat down, so close together their knees touched. He wanted to hug her to him and kiss her, but first he needed answers.
“I did die, Lev, but it’s not like you think. Death isn’t the end.” She stood and looked down on him. “I’m still here, right? I’m still Carly.” She nodded as if trying to convince herself too.
He lightly pounded a fist to his forehead. “You’re telling me that you’re a…a ghost?” If his heart hadn’t stilled years ago, it would be thumping wildly now, not from fear but out of surprise and maybe even excitement.
She shook her head. “Not exactly.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she muted him with a hand. “I’m in spirit form. I’ve left my body.”
“But you just said you weren’t a ghost.” Lev ran his hands through his hair and pulled, then got to his feet and began to pace. Did ghosts really exist? It had to be a possibility; after all, creatures like him existed.
“You can call me whatever you want. Ghost, spirit, soul, but I’m still me!”
Carly tilted her head, her eyes suddenly no longer held the innocence he loved, but something he saw frequently in his own expression: sorrow.
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