The Embrace

by Jessica Callaghan

  “Who was that?” I asked. Judging by his sombre impression I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know who had been on the other end of the phone.

  “It was Dahlia, the lawyer.” He said.

  I was stunned. I hadn’t expected a phone call from her at all and I had no idea what she could possibly want. I didn’t say anything in response. I didn’t feel like talking at that moment.

  “She said she’s been talking to your aunt about the will. Penny wants to meet with you.”

  That was another statement that completely knocked me aback. I didn’t want to think about her anymore, and being in a room with that woman was almost too much to bear thinking about. I had lost my connection to my human life, but Penny’s disregard for the human Louisa made me furious.

  If I was honest, I didn’t trust myself to be in a room with her. I was certain that the red curtain would come back and I wouldn’t be able to control my rage. If I did lose my cool, then I would be no better than Emma had once been.

  Gabriel didn’t press me on the matter. I think he understood why I was so infuriated by the situation and he didn’t want to anger me any further. It had been a stressful few weeks for me, with thoughts of Emma firmly planted in my mind, and I didn’t need any more stress.

  There was a small notepad on the writing desk and Gabriel wrote down a series of numbers.

  “That is Dahlia's number. Phone it if you change your mind okay?” He kissed me gently on the forehead in an attempt to calm the rage bubbling under the surface.

  I stared at the number, focusing all my hatred on it as I tried to wipe Penny from my mind. Gabriel left and waited for me in the living room. I was glad he allowed me some time alone. I was in a blind moment of rage, and I didn’t know how much of a hold I had on my emotions. The last time I had felt such anger, I had thrown something at Gabriel’s head. I didn’t want to risk a fight with him over a pathetic human, especially after our recent reconciliation.

  When my anger subsided I joined Gabriel for our hunt. I was in a foul mood, but I thought it might help to channel my anger into finding my victim. I felt rage rippling through my body in sharp waves and my focus was now on the oblivious prey waiting for me somewhere in the city.

  Gabriel and I left quickly. As he looked at me I was sure he could spot the determination in my eyes. That night we hunted with the kind of passion I hadn’t felt since my first kill. I forced 3 victims to submit to me over the course of that night. I felt powerful, with a sense of freedom that hadn’t been there before.

  Yet even this couldn’t make me happy for long. After the last kill, Emma popped up in my head again. I hadn’t exhibited this much brutality since the embrace of death and my enhanced blood lust had me thinking of Gabriel’s enigmatic former lover once again. I had been thinking about her so often that I feared I was turning into her.

  We reached the apartment before sunlight but I still hadn’t made my mind up about whether I should meet with Penny. I was desperately trying to escape thoughts of Emma and Gabriel and so I was willing to do anything to keep my mind occupied. I knew it was childish, but part of me tried to figure out what Emma would have done, just so that I could do the opposite.

  I eventually decided to phone Dahlia. It was very early in the morning and I knew she wouldn’t be up at that hour, so I decided to leave it until the next night. I didn’t tell Gabriel about it as I didn’t want to reveal the worries whirring under my skin, but I had made my mind up.

  I didn’t want to meet Penny but I had decided to talk to Dahlia. I didn’t know what I expected to find in a conversation with the lawyer, but something about her ferocity comforted me. At that moment I would have tried almost anything to banish Emma from my mind.

  As I fell asleep that night I began to form a plan of action. I would have to get up the moment I felt the sun begin to set so that I could avoid any awkward conversations with Gabriel. Then I would tell Dahlia how uncertain I was about the situation. Maybe she could give me a clue about Penny’s attitude towards me.

  I fell asleep confused and uncomfortable. Although Emma was drifting out of my mind I wasn’t at peace yet. I felt that prickly feeling of being watched surface one again. Initially my stalker had seemed a distant memory, but since his reappearance after our move to London I had felt his stare every night. This was no exception. It seemed that I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep peacefully no matter what happened.

  **

  I woke up the next night certain of my plan. Gabriel wasn’t up yet but I knew I had to act quickly. I felt guilty for keeping such important information from him but something deep in my mind was begging me to keep this to myself. I don’t know where this sudden lack of trust came from but I knew that this had to be my decision, with no interference from Gabriel.

  6 months before, just around the time I turned into a vampire, I would have relished telling Gabriel my thoughts and hearing his opinions. Despite our newfound happiness something in our relationship had changed. I was keeping several secrets from him: my reckless killing of Ben, my encounter with my anonymous vampire stalker, and now my plan to talk to Dahlia and tell her the truth about my hatred of Penny.

  The notepad bearing Dahlia’s number waited for me on the writing desk and I picked it up before I snuck out of our bedroom. I didn’t know where Gabriel had left his mobile but luckily the home had a landline for me to use instead. I dialled the numbers and Dahlia picked up after only a few rings.

  “Hello. This is Dahlia Elton’s office, how may I help you?” A chirpy voice sang from the other end of the line. I guessed this was Dahlia’s secretary. She had the bubbly attitude, bordering on the irritating, that perfectly suited a bright eyed secretary.

  “Hi, this is Louisa Reed. I’m a client of Dahlia’s. I was told to phone her about an urgent matter. Is she available?” I asked cautiously, trying to tone down my naturally commanding tone with a bit of charm.

  I could faintly hear papers rustling on the other end of the line before the girl answered.

  “Um, yes, actually she said she was just leaving but I have a note here saying your case is of urgent priority so I will put you through Miss Reed.” The girl said in her sickeningly pleasant tone.

  Within a second I was passed on to Dahlia. I immediately recognised her authoritative tone, a drastic shift from the sing song style of her secretary.

  “Miss Reed, hello. I’m so glad you decided to call. How may I help you? I assume Gabriel passed you the message?” She said, oozing contempt even down the phone.

  For some reason I enjoyed how unimpressed Dahlia seemed with me. She was as close to a vampire as a regular human being could ever get.

  “Yes he did.” I replied, still unsure of what I was going to say to her. “I’ve thought about it, and I don’t want to meet with Penny. I can’t do it, I’m sorry.”

  I heard Dahlia sigh on the other end of the phone. “Of course I understand, Miss Reed. I will pass the message along to Mrs Grove. I’m sorry to hear your decision, I have to be honest. Mrs Grove was insistent on meeting with you.”

  I felt the terrible rage building again. I didn’t want to see her. I had lost my humanity the second Gabriel had taken my life, and any remnants of attachment I had to her had collapsed the moment she refused to add me to her will. It was the gesture that was more important than the actual money she would have given me. I had given Penny my childhood home and she had returned the favour by cutting me out of her will. It was nothing more than a cold betrayal.

  “I just can’t face her, Dahlia.” I said, surprising even myself at how comfortable I felt calling her by her first name. “Did she give any reason for why she cut me out of her will?”

  “She just said she hadn’t seen you in a long time. She said she felt as if she took care of you for years and you cut her out of your life. She wants to teach you a lesson, I suppose.” She replied.

  After that the conversation began to fade. Dahlia and I said our goodbyes and I sat on the sofa, waiting for Gabriel to get up. I ha
d a lot to think about before I could talk to him. I didn’t want to be part of Penny’s life anymore, but I was still confused by how badly I had taken her betrayal.

  I hunted that night with other things on my mind. I couldn’t focus on choosing my victims or savouring the kill. I had resigned myself to not going back to my home town, not facing Penny or my family again, but I still felt blue. I felt like the situation hadn’t resolved itself one bit.

  Gabriel and I returned to the nest. Despite my full veins I felt empty. I was hollow, emotionally and mentally, but Gabriel didn’t seem to notice. He had found a particularly tasty specimen that night and he was still recovering from the intoxicating power of her blood.

  Just before we went to sleep Gabriel seemed to realise something wasn’t right with me. The thrill from the night’s hunt was wearing off and he was finally becoming aware of his surroundings again. He wrapped his arms around me and I felt myself tense up, terrified that he would realise I had been keeping so many secrets from him.

  “Are you still thinking about your aunt?” He asked me, showing that even when he was distracted he could pick up on my mood.

  I nodded, wrapping my own small arms around him and trying to bury my worries deep inside. Gabriel pulled my head up and kissed me, trying to distract me the way he knew best.

  “Lou, I have been a vampire for a long time. I have learnt a lot in my time and the first thing I can tell you is that mortals are not worth it. We have gifts and powers beyond anything a human being could even conceive of. They are like vermin compared to us. Just because Penny was a relative when you were human doesn’t mean you owe her anything. You have given her a gift just by deciding not to slaughter her and her whole family.” He said.

  It had been a long time since I’d received some guidance from him. I felt closer to him in that moment than I had in a long time.

  “I guess you’re right. It’s not worth worrying about, not when I have you.” I said with a smile, trying to show him I was okay.

  That night Gabriel and I lay together and for the first time in weeks I fell asleep without thinking about my pile of secrets, and without the creeping fear that another vampire was watching me.

  Chapter 15I had been a vampire for six months. I had spent 21 years as a human being, 21 painful years, but those six months as a vampire had been far more intense than anything experienced during my first life. I had never experienced so much torment in such a short time, but that pain had been interspersed with moments of pure joy. It had been a difficult time nonetheless, and I knew that I had thousands more waiting for me.

  Gabriel and I had been getting along far better in the past few weeks, ever since our move to London. We had put our disagreements behind us and moved on, refreshed and enlightened by the vitality of the new city we were in.

  It had been weeks since I had felt the strange sensation, the prickling feeling of someone watching me from miles away but with the clarity of someone sitting right next to me. I felt comfortable and safe again. My previous fears of Gabriel’s potential enemies had disappeared once I found out the truth about his past pain. Emma hadn’t occupied my mind as much and I felt as if I had put her memory to rest like Gabriel had spent years trying to do.

  I hadn’t heard anything from our legal advisor, the fierce Dahlia Elton. I had expected this cut throat woman to be banging on my door and begging me to meet with my former relative, but we hadn’t even had one phone call from her. Gabriel still didn’t know that I had called Dahlia and I didn’t intend on telling him unless it was absolutely necessary. I wanted to keep my mind clear and focus on my relationship and my development as a vampire.

  I was finally returning to my roots. I was going back to cultivating the potential I had once had before thoughts of family and my safety had distracted me, or so I thought.

  Gabriel and I returned to our home after a typical night on the hunt. I had been at the top of my game. I had run through the streets of London so quickly that I almost disappeared in to the background. I seduced even the most stubborn human and drank from the blood of every person who was foolish enough to walk in to our trap.

  Gabriel told me I was beautiful after we fed together. He relished in my new found confidence and encouraged me every step of the way. I felt powerful. I felt like I had returned to the monster I was meant to be.

  Our home hadn’t changed but for some reason I saw it with new eyes. It seemed clearer and more defined than before. The little details were more noticeable and I felt as if every ornament I looked at channelled its story to me through just the touch of my fingertips. I could hear heartbeats throbbing through the walls, creating a cacophony in my head. I suppose this was similar to the high from human drugs, magnified a hundred times over.

  Gabriel left me to explore the room with my new perspective. He sat on the sofa with a newspaper tucked under his arm, ready to add to the vault of knowledge in his already rich mind.

  It had been a rainy night, probably April showers, and silvery veins of water were forming on the glass. I touched the window lightly with my fingertips. It felt as if the glass had slipped away; I could practically feel the rain falling on the other side.

  A shiver ran through my whole body, but it wasn’t from the cold surface pressing against my hand. This shiver was instinctive. I couldn’t pinpoint the details, but something was wrong.

  I turned back to Gabriel, who was now intently focused on the newspaper in front of him. I peeked over his shoulder and saw a large spread in the paper. There was a startling headline, designed to grab the attention of the reader with it’s sensational wording.

  PROSTITUTE MURDER CONNECTED TO VILLAGE SLAUGHTER?

  That didn’t seem to interest me at first. There were plenty of prostitutes murdered in London, ever since the days of Jack the Ripper, and there were plenty of villages in Britain. It was the picture underneath the headline which caught my attention. It was a school photograph. It had the generic background of a school picture, but the subject had clearly made more effort in their preparation than they would for a normal photograph. The hair was neatly combed while a suit and tie had been carefully picked out to complete the look. Yet this seemingly average photograph chilled me to the core.

  I didn’t need to see the caption underneath to know what it would say, who the photo depicted: Benjamin Robert Green, promising student and dedicated voluntary worker. He was the man I had killed so carelessly. He was the only victim I had kept from Gabriel, and he was right there on the page in front of me.

  I felt my whole body tense up automatically. My muscles were stuck and my hands had tightened in to fists in an uncontrollable reflex. The thumping in my head was no longer the heart beats. Now it was the cold, hard warning noise I had always feared. I knew that Gabriel must have figured it out.

  Gabriel placed the paper calmly on the table in front of him and turned to face me.

  “Louisa, do you know anything about this boy?” He asked me with an eerily calm expression.

  I sank down to my knees as Gabriel strode up to me. The shift of power was evident by his stance. He was towering over me, the master preparing to punish the student.

  “Get up.” He ordered, still with that unsettling stillness.

  I obeyed but my legs felt weak and I could hardly keep myself steady. I didn’t speak, I was afraid of what I might say. I knew I should have told him everything even if it meant facing his anger, but I had refused and now I had jeopardised our anonymity for the sake of a few weeks of peace.

  “Care to explain this to me?” he said. His voice was quiet, in fact too quiet. It made me uncomfortable. I wanted to flee. Gabriel picked the newspaper back up and began to read.

  “Prostitute Jasmine Dennison was found dead in the lobby of the exclusive Millington Apartment Complex several weeks ago. The 27 year old was apparently trying to get out of the prostitution circuit, according to her family, and was found dead in the early hours of the morning. She received small stab wounds to the neck, chest and
arms and appeared to have bled to death. Police have confirmed they believe the victim was murdered elsewhere and moved to the apartment complex. As of yet no security footage of the murder has been located and there are no suspects.

  Today the police confirmed in a press conference that Ms. Dennison’s murder is being linked to the murder of 19 year old student Benjamin Greene, who was found dead in the small town of Edge Wood which is located several hundred miles away from the Millington Apartments. The young man’s body was found behind the stage of the town hall after he was spotted leaving his stall at the annual town meeting. The young man was found with deep puncture wounds to his throat that seem to be similar to the wounds on the arms of Ms. Dennison. No reason has yet been released for why Benjamin left his stall but sources speculate he was meeting someone.

  In Benjamin Greene’s case there was an eye witness. Jane Browning, the organiser of the meeting and chair of the town’s Neighbourhood Watch, was first at the crime scene and found the body. She reports that she saw a young, blonde woman running from the scene of the crime but it seems this mysterious woman disappeared after leaving the town hall.

  Police are searching for any information on the case...”

  Gabriel stopped reading there. I knew it was too late to deny any knowledge. The “wounds” of Jasmine, the prostitute who Gabriel and I had feasted on, were a match to Ben’s and he had been murdered in the same town hall Gabriel had found me standing in front of that night.

  I didn’t really know what to say. I was stunned into silence, desperately clutching at anything I could think of that would explain my actions.

  “Gabe...” I began but he interrupted me.

  Within seconds he had thrown the newspaper against the floor and had grabbed hold of my arms.

  “I don’t want to hear it.” He roared at me. “You risked everything we have. That stupid human saw you leaving the scene.”

  I had never seen him so angry. The rage was pouring out of him and battering me. His whole body had tensed in the position of a true predator. I could practically see the red anger flashing behind his eyes. I was horrified and quite frankly I was scared of him. I had never been scared of him before, not even in our darkest moments, and I hoped to never see this side of him again.