by Trisha Baker
"Jesus Christ!" Jimmy grabbed the wheel when Meghann bolted upright, her face devoid of color but for the emerald eyes bright with pain. Narrowly they missed a collision when the block-long Cadillac swerved into the left lane. "Maggie?!"
"My chest! My chest!" she gasped, hands fluttering up to her heart. "Oh God, it hurts... can't breathe ... feel like someone stabbed me ..."
"Hang on," Jimmy said and guided the Caddy into the breakdown lane while Meghann panted miserably, trying to force air past the monstrous pain radiating from the center of her heart.
Jimmy turned the engine off and helped Meghann stretch out on the long, cream leather seat. He pulled her T-shirt up and then said uncertainly, "Maggie, there's nothing the matter with you."
"Huh?" Meghann got her hands up and inspected the skin around her heart, stunned when she felt no wound or blood, just a slightly elevated heartbeat.
"Thank God, "Jimmy said when she sat up slowly, still feeling a nasty ache in her chest. "I thought you were having a heart attack or something. Maggie, is it possible that this was a psychic attack . . . that Mikal hurt you the same way Baldevar hurt me last night?"
Meghann started to say yes, that was entirely possible, and then she remembered the scream she'd heard just before she felt the pain—how the masculine voice calling out to her was filled with raw despair and panic . . .
"Simon!" she yelled. "Simon, no . . ."
"Maggie!"Jimmy gave her a rough shake, speaking in a firm, no-nonsense voice that cut through some of her blind fear. 'Talk to me ... we don't have time for you to faint or throw a fit. What is it? Was Baldevar hurt?"
"I think Mikal impaled him or stabbed him or something. I felt it," Meghann said and ran her hand over her undamaged heart. 'Jimmy ..."
"Is Baldevar dead?" Jimmy demanded and Meghann knew what he was thinking. If Mikal had killed Simon, there was no one left to protect Ellie with the possible exception of Lee.
"I don't think Simon's dead," Meghann replied, but she couldn't be sure if that conviction was based on the psychic link she thought was still unbroken by death or was she merely deluding herself with desperate hope? 'Jimmy... come on, dammit! We have to get to Mikal's . . . there isn't a second to waste.
Simon . . . he's dying, I know he is! And who knows what Mikal's done to Ellie? Jimmy, I can't feel her anymore. It's been hours since she called out to me! I don't know if she's unconscious or... oh, God, we have to hurry!"
"Shove over," Jimmy said and gendy moved her to the passenger seat "Keep calm, Maggie. We're about twenty minutes from Manhasset now. Five, the way I'm planning to drive."
Jimmy roared through the night while Meghann huddled miserably, straining to establish a telepathic link with her husband or daughter. Ellie and Simon ... she couldn't lose them both! Meghann couldn't conceive of living in a world where her child no longer existed.
And Simon ... Simon! This was supposed to be our time, Meghann thought, feeling bitter, salty tears run down her face and land on her lips. Simon was supposed to come back to me ... to Ellie and me . .. once Mikal was a grown man. We were supposed to be at peace; I was ready to welcome Simon back.
God, please hear me, she prayed. Maybe Simon Baldevar has committed terrible sins and you might not care if he lives or dies but I care! Please, God. I know there's good in him... look how he charged after Ellie. He can be good. I'll make him good, God, if you just help me save him. And Ellie.. .you see what a wonderful girl she is. You can't take her away when she's barely had a chance to live. Spare them both, God. You've already taken Charles, my dearest friend . . . isn't that enough?
Meghann knew her prayers were superstitious ramblings, childlike in their simple desire for some all powerful deity to fix her problems, but she couldn't help herself. What else could she do but pray when she was stuck in this car that Jimmy gunned to one taking him further and further down, Ellie's face became a sharp contrast to the darkness all around him. He saw her chestnut hair spread against the light-blue pillow cover, her flushed cheeks and gleeful eyes as he put the diamond on her finger. Ellie, he thought. Ellie...
Then he felt something like the cutting wind that blew off the Atlantic Ocean in winter months and, remembering Maggie's edict, kept his eyes firmly shut as he focused on finding Ellie.
The wind died and Jimmy opened his eyes a slit, bemused when he found himself in a dark room instead of standing by the brick wall outside with Maggie. So he'd finally traveled the astral plane! It was no big deal, Jimmy thought, over so quick you hardly knew what was happening. Aside from the cold wind, Jimmy had no sense of going into another dimension, of his body breaking down into the incorporeal spirit that traveled the astral plane.
As Jimmy's eyes adjusted to the oppressive darkness, he began to make out details of the cramped room with steel walls that was no larger than a broom closet but so heavily shadowed he couldn't be certain of his hand in front of his face.
Jimmy inched forward and his foot brushed a soft lump that felt like human flesh. Jimmy bent down and pulled a Zippo lighter out of his jean pocket— this was the first time since he transformed that he encountered darkness so thick his vampire eyes couldn't pierce it entirely.
The blaze of light from the cigarette lighter revealed a short, pudgy mortal boy—couldn't be any older than fifteen judging by the peach fuzz on his face. Jimmy put two fingers on the boy's neck, surprised when he noted the kid was still alive but unconscious. Inspecting his body for injury, Jimmy felt a massive lump at the back of his skull. Someone, maybe Baldevar or Lee, hit this kid with force enough to incapacitate him but keep him alive.
But why not kill him? Jimmy frowned when he noticed a long wooden stake clutched in the boy's slack hand. None of this made any sense . . . keeping the kid alive or that he was here in the first place.
Maybe this Mikal wasn't such a threat after all. What kind of vampire was dumb enough to use mortals for defense? Sure, Maggie had trained Jimmy to slay vampires but that was only during the day, when they were insensate and vulnerable. It had been understood from the beginning that Jimmy wouldn't go near a vampire at night—he'd never have a chance. So why was Baldevar's kid keeping a mortal around, arming him with a wooden stake that would do as much good as a swizzle stick? An entire platoon armed with Uzis could come at a vampire and they'd all be dead within five minutes flat. Didn't Mikal know that?
Jimmy shrugged off his bafflement—what did it matter what Mikal knew or didn't know? Jimmy should be grateful the kid was an idiot; it would make saving Ellie and Lee that much easier.
Then Jimmy looked to the right of the mortal's head and decided Mikal wasn't an idiot at all, more like a rotten, cruel, sonofabitch that he'd kill at the first opportunity.
"Ellie!" he cried and crawled over to a corner of the room, yanking on the stark white foot he'd noticed out of the corner of his eye.
"Ellie, my God, who did this to you? I'll kill him with my bare fucking hands . . . oh, God, Ellie." Jimmy wasn't aware of the tears streaming down his face as he took Ellie's battered, naked body into his arms.
His hands shaking, Jimmy took her pulse and had a moment of serious terror when he felt nothing—but then there was a weak sort of blip ... Ellie was hanging on by a thread. Helplessly, Jimmy took in the beautiful chestnut hair hacked off to her skull and irregular bald patches all around her head. Her hair wasn't the worst of it, though. Turning Ellie around, Jimmy discovered she'd been flogged. There wasn't an inch of flesh on her that wasn't bruised or cut, blood still trickling out of some of the worst wounds like the obscene graffiti on her stomach. Opening her mouth, Jimmy was appalled to discover her front teeth had been knocked out.
"Baby," Jimmy cried and took off his shirt, not wanting Ellie to be humiliated by her injured nudity any longer. His first thought was that he should get Ellie to a hospital but another glance at her body made him discard that idea. Jimmy wasn't a doctor but he knew Ellie had lost a great deal of blood and the weakening heartbeat told him she might not survive long enough for him to get her to a h
ospital and some of her wounds, especially the deep cuts on her face, looked like they'd create permanent scars. There was only one thing Jimmy could think of that would restore Ellie's strength and heal her completely—transformation.
But Jimmy didn't know shit about transformation ... except that his own had led to a psychosis he'd never have recovered from if not for Maggie. What if Jimmy fed Ellie his blood and she went crazy? Worse, what if her wrecked body couldn't handle the shock of transformation and she died? But she was going to die anyway; he had to at least try and heal her. But maybe he should pick Ellie up and try to find Maggie ... or Baldevar. Yes, Baldevar! Jimmy might despise him but he knew Simon Baldevar was an expert at transformation; he'd apply all his skill and guide Ellie through the process safely.
Jimmy gathered Ellie up, intent on carrying her out of the room and setting off in search of Lord Baldevar, when he noticed a thick, black patch on the floor next to her. At first, Jimmy thought it was Ellie's blood but then he sniffed harder and inhaled the thick copper potency only a vampire could produce.
Gently lowering Ellie back to the floor, Jimmy swirled a finger in the blood and brought it to his tongue, almost gagging when he tasted the same blood that had turned him into a vampire nearly twenty years ago.
This was Simon Baldevar's blood! So where the hell was he? Jimmy knew nothing short of death would have taken him away from his injured daughter. Reswabbing his finger, Jimmy drank more of the blood, trying to receive some psychic impression of what had happened in this room before he arrived.
As he drank, fuzzy, dreamlike images swirled through Jimmy's mind. He saw Baldevar clutching a sword and using the hilt to strike the mortal standing guard over Ellie—of course! Now Jimmy knew why the kid was still alive. Simon Baldevar had every intention of transforming his daughter; the first thing a new vampire needed was a huge quantity of fresh mortal blood. This lowlife kid helping Mikal was intended for Ellie's first feeding.
So what happened? Why hadn't Baldevar been able to transform Ellie? Jimmy drank more of Baldevar's blood but received nothing but a hazy feeling of great pain . . . that must be the pain that made Maggie scream out in the car and clutch her heart.
Now Jimmy understood everything. Baldevar had gotten into this room and plowed through the mortal watching over Ellie. But then Mikal got the better of his father somehow, injuring him before he could transform Ellie. Jimmy had no idea if Lord Baldevar was dead or not... he only knew that he was Ellie's last chance for transformation.
Jimmy's mind raced, frantically trying to recall everything Maggie or Charles ever told him about transformation, remembering the miserable circumstances of his own transformation. First, a mortal had to be drained of their own blood to the point of death or they'd reject the vampiric transfusion. A glance at Ellie's white, bloodless face and the vicious puncture wounds dotting her neck, breasts, and thighs told Jimmy that phase had already been accomplished.
Jimmy knew transformation had a better chance for success if the candidate was in peak physical condition. Poor Ellie was about to die but Jimmy hadn't been in much better condition when Baldevar transformed him so there was proof an injured person could survive the process.
The last step was to make the drained mortal drink the blood of a vampire host. Taking a deep breath, Jimmy tried to will his blood teeth out and cursed when nothing happened. Jimmy's fangs had only ever descended when he was in the grip of blood lust and now, with nothing to entice him, the blood teeth remained firmly lodged in his gums.
Frustrated by this unexpected obstacle, Jimmy pulled a switchblade from his leather hip holster and used it to cut his wrist open. An angry fountain of dark, thick blood spouted out and Jimmy forced
Ellie's jaws apart, putting her open mouth to his bleeding wrist. He propped her unconscious body up into a sitting position so she wouldn't choke on the blood pouring down her threat.
Ellie's body spasmed violently, as though he'd just applied jumper cables to her heart. Her eyes flew open, only the whites showing as they rolled into the back of her head, and the awful convulsing grew so bad Jimmy could barely keep her still.
"Ellie!" he shouted, struggling to hold her down with one hand while the other hand remained at her mouth. He wasn't sure how much blood she needed to drink to transform, so he decided to let her feed until the wound closed up on its own.
Ellie gave no indication she was aware of him, merely shaking like she was in the grip of a grand mal seizure while deep, animal-like grunts issued from her throat.
"Ellie!"Jimmy shouted again and then felt something take him over, something he'd never be able to describe to anyone else or understand fully as long as he lived.
Whenever he fed, Jimmy felt some connection with his prey, their thoughts and feelings. Maggie and Charles had taught him to focus on those emotions, saying he'd have a much greater resistance to the blood lust if he remained aware of his prey as a person with a life he had no business ending.
So Jimmy was used to experiencing a psychic link when he fed but it was nothing compared with what he felt when he allowed someone to drink his blood. Now Jimmy understood the dark intimacy behind bloodletting, why Maggie and Simon Baldevar were so eager to drink from each other while they made love.
Sex was wonderful but it didn't plunge Jimmy into
Ellie's soul, make him feel almost welded to her as she devoured his blood. It seemed there'd never been anything in the world but Ellie, her mind and soul opening up to Jimmy just as his opened to her. No thought was secret between the two of them. Jimmy's shared blood mingling with Ellie's, irrevocably changing her from mortal to vampire, bonded them together forever, made them think as one, feel as one.
Jimmy felt like he was inside Ellie, almost felt like he was Ellie just as in some weird way she was him. He felt her sickness as he fed her his strength, felt her fear and forced her to drink of his confidence, felt her great pain and wrenched it away from her, taking it into his own strong, healthy body where it was broken down and banished forever.
There weren't exactly words between him and Ellie—what they shared now went far beyond that. But as Ellie continued to drink, Jimmy felt himself plunged into a gray kind of nothingness, a world of gauze and confusion . . . the world Maggie had rescued him from when she restored his mind.
No, Ellie!Jimmy thought he shouted, desperately trying to hold onto her. You can't stay here. It's dangerous! Come back to me, come back.
I'm scared, Ellie answered back in the eerie, soundless way that was the way of this world. I don't want to hurt anymore; it hurts so much ... let me go, let me go!
No! Swallowing his fear, Jimmy plunged into the chaos that had claimed him after he drank Simon Baldevar's blood. Better than anyone else, Jimmy understood this place of living death where shadows trapped you as tightly as straitjackets, using fear as their restraints. Jimmy knew what it was to be held prisoner by your fear, that the seductive appeal of this half-there world was the promise that you'd never have to be afraid again.
But you 'll never feel again either, Ellie, if you stay here. You 'll never love, you 'll never be. Your life will be over; you 'll just be an empty shell marking time until you die. Jimmy didn't actually say those words but they were the sentiment behind the emotion he tried to convey to his poor, hurting lover. Ellie, please come away from here. Come back to me. I'll love you and heal you and so will your mother. Ellie, please, you have to come back to us. You 'll be a vampire now—no one will ever hurt you like Mikal did again.
Jimmy, I want to come back, I do! But I can't find my way—I'm lost.
Come to me, Ellie, Jimmy said and strained with all his might to clutch the shivering little bit of Ellie's essence. I love you, baby. Come to me, give me your hand I'll get you out of here; I promise.
Suddenly Jimmy felt something rush at him, almost strangle him as it wrapped around his soul and clung to him. For a moment, Jimmy thought it would pull him down and he and Ellie would both drown in this horrible place but Jimmy forced him
self to concentrate on the real world, cutting through the layers of fright and panic like a swimmer attempting to break through the water and reach the blessed surface.
"Jimmy?"
Blearily, Jimmy managed to get one eye open, feeling as lethargic and weak as a mortal with a serious flu. "Ellie? Ellie!"
Shock propelled Jimmy out of his lassitude, making him sit up with his eyes bulging out as he took in the transformed Ellie. Already she'd healed so much that her face was clear of wounds, save for a few pink scratches that looked like the remnants of faded scars. Her chestnut hair completely covered her scalp again and she had a third set of front teeth to replace the ones Mikal had punched out... along with two new, sharp pointy ones that cut into the tender flesh of her lower lip.
'Jimmy, what's wrong with me?" she cried and he noticed the goose bumps covering her skin, the way she wrapped her arms around herself while she shivered uncontrollably.
Jimmy felt her sickness, her need, and a surprising pang of regret when he realized he'd have to initiate Ellie into her new life.
"It's blood lust," he said as gently as he could and wrapped his arms around her, guiding Ellie to the unconscious mortal. "Honey, drink from him ..."
Ellie needed no further encouragement. Bemused, Jimmy fell back when Ellie threw off his grip and fell on the unconscious boy, ripping into his flesh with all the frenzy of a starved vampire. Greedily, Ellie tore into his neck and drank the blood in great, thirsty gulps.
Mentally snooping for the first time in his life, Jimmy read Ellie's thoughts, knowing she felt nothing but relief as the tremors eased, the icy chills fled her body, and warm, invincible strength began to flow through her veins. Ellie was too consumed with need to feel any guilt or distaste for what she did ... Jimmy knew that feeling well. But he didn't condemn Ellie. There was time enough to teach her to resist the blood lust as he'd been taught to. For now, Ellie should drink as much as she needed to regain her strength. Besides, this mortal was no more deserving of life than her scumbag brother.