To Cure A Vampire (To Cure Series Book 1)

by Jade Farhill

“Not a chance, Hunter. I can’t cure vampirism if I’m dead.”

  Silence.

  “I’ll let you consider what I’m offering, and return in three weeks to hear your answer.” Escaping now, while she still could, was probably a good idea. Abby ran as hard and fast as she could.

  ***

  Abby stayed away from that warehouse district. In the meantime, she investigated other avenues. She fixed up the shack on her property and got some solar panels installed. She spent her time moving between the hospital lab and the abattoir.

  Three weeks later, she returned to the warehouse.

  Abby approached the open skylight and identified the hunters by their scent and steady heartbeats—more than twelve now.

  “Hello, Hunters. Have you thought any more about what I suggested last time?”

  “Come and talk to us, face-to-face.”

  Abby broke out into cold sweat. “No. Like I said before, I can’t find a cure if I’m dead.”

  “We’re not going to kill you, Vampire,” said another hunter.

  The voice was threatening. If they weren’t going to kill her, they’d surely experiment on her or torture her for information—after how they’d treated Sharon, she wouldn’t put it past them. Abby shivered. “You may not kill me, but I don’t believe for a minute that you won’t harm me, Hunter.”

  Silence—as good as an admission that she was correct.

  “I won’t work with you unless you treat me well. I can’t find a cure unless you let me search for one.”

  “We can find a cure, Vampire. We don’t need your help.”

  So that was that. “Very well, Hunters. I understand your position. I’ll leave you to it then.”

  As Abby turned to leave, she heard heated whispering beneath her.

  “We can’t let her go!”

  “How are we supposed to treat a vampire well?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, that’s not possible. She’ll kill us the moment she gets to HQ.”

  “She’s just looking for a way into the hunters’ organisation!”

  “I won’t harm any of you,” she called down. “I don’t want to infiltrate your headquarters, and I genuinely want to find a cure. I’ve already developed a partial vaccine.”

  There was a long pause. Finally, someone spoke.

  “We need proof that you’ve done this,” said an older, female voice.

  Shivers went down Abby’s spine—the voice was Annette’s.

  Did that mean Kenny and Louise were here too?

  And if they were here, it meant the hunters knew who she was. Time to drop the pretence. “I am proof, Annette. I’m sure you remember that night as well as I do. How I saved Kenny’s life. How she took me instead of him.”

  The sound of blades being drawn came from below.

  “Stop!” snapped Annette.

  “But she knows your name!” spat the first hunter to respond. “And one of your hunters. What makes you think she’s not just using that night against you?”

  “I get that you won’t believe me, but think about it. Vampires, especially those as young as I am, would have attacked you by now. Vampires also don’t remember their human lives—”

  “Which is why your story is suspect!” shouted a hunter. “There’s no such thing as a vaccine—”

  “Ask Annette if there’s such a thing,” Abby snapped. “I’m sure James showed her my research.”

  A tense silence.

  “And besides, she wouldn’t be here if the hunters didn’t believe that vaccines were impossible,” Abby added.

  “She has a point,” muttered Kenny.

  Abby knew it! He was down there. “I’m sorry about that night,” she said. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt—including my sister.”

  “Good people died that night!” Annette cried.

  Abby closed her eyes. “Yeah, they did.”

  “How many did you kill before you came to us?” Kenny asked.

  Abby frowned. “None. Older vampires are terrifying. Young ones hang out in groups. The only time I got close to attacking a group was when they were feeding off a girl, right in front of me—”

  “Wait, are you saying you attack your own kind?” shouted a male hunter.

  “I’m a partial vampire—not a full one. And no, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that I want test subjects, but they’re too hard to get!”

  “What happened to your sister?” asked Annette.

  “She left.” Her chest tightened.

  “What he meant,” said Louise, “was how many humans have you killed?”

  Abby blinked. “Oh … I see. None. Same answer as before. Why would I want to murder a human? There are much easier ways of obtaining blood.”

  “What ways?”

  “Like I’d tell you, Hunter. I know you’ll just use it to track me down.”

  One tightened the grip on their knife handle.

  “No point tracking you down if you join us,” said Annette.

  “I saw the way you treated my sister—I don’t want to be treated like that.”

  “Then we won’t.”

  Abby narrowed her eyes. “And I also remember how you threatened my sister to motivate me to work on the vaccine first—even after you’d agreed to my terms. I’m not daft, Annette. I won’t fall for that again.”

  “We can’t use her against you—”

  “But you can change the terms of our agreement the moment I come into your custody.”

  Silence. An admission—again.

  Abby nodded. “As I thought. I’m not working with you unless you guarantee you’ll treat me well.”

  “This vaccine you speak of,” asked Annette, changing the subject. Clearly trying another tactic to get Abby into her clutches. “Other than allowing you to keep memories of your human life and resisting the siren call of blood, what else does it do?”

  Asking if Abby could walk in the sun, perhaps? She was not about to reveal that information; it meant she wouldn’t be safe during the day.

  Abby gave the only thing she could think of that seemed significant: “My hair grows.”

  “That’s it?” asked Louise. “Your hair grows?”

  Abby tried to calm her voice. “It’s significant enough to give me hope that there’s a cure or a real vaccine just waiting to be found. Preferably both. If I had the full vaccine, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.” No, she’d be dead. “I’d have gone to James and asked him to contact you for me.” Although, after that night with Sharon, she wasn’t so sure about this.

  “You must understand that we can’t just take what you say at face value,” said Annette. “If you want our help, you’ll need to submit to some tests.”

  Abby grew nervous. “I get that you want some safeguards in place. But if we’re negotiating here, then I’ll say right now that, once I’ve finished the cure and vaccine, I want to leave with the cure so I can hunt down my sister and make her human again.”

  “We’re not in the business of releasing vampires into the general populace,” said a hunter. “If you find the cure, you’ll be released as a human.”

  “Then we don’t have a deal. I need to be a vampire. I need to find my sister. I can’t walk into a den of vampires, if such things exist, as a human. It’s a suicide mission, and something I doubt even you’d do.”

  Abby made to leave again.

  “You need us, Miss Rormton,” Annette said sternly. “Remember, you’re the one who contacted us.”

  Abby ignored this. “Leaving hunter HQ as a human is a deal breaker, Annette. I can find another way to discover a cure. But you can guarantee that I’m not about to search for a vaccine for vampirism anytime soon.”

  Abby heard fast, calculated movement. Suddenly, hunters swarmed out of the skylight, others appeared all around her like ninjas. They ran towards her, swinging their chain whips high overhead, ready to lasso her.

  Abby jumped from roof to roof, hearing the hunters behind her, the clanging of silver chains hitting the roof wher
e she’d been just moments ago. More hunters emerged from the shadows of the roofs she was running on. All of their heartbeats remained calm.

  Abby looked over her shoulder and saw Annette, her jaw set, her eyes determined.

  She’s going to catch me! Abby thought, her chest tightening.

  There was no way out. A breeze rushed at her, lifting her hair. She looked up.

  The night sky was clear of clouds and, more importantly, hunters. Abby put all her strength in her legs and vaulted high into the air. The wind ripped at her jacket. Knowing that if she went back down to the warehouse, the hunters would catch her, she spread her arms and legs wide, letting the wind propel her forward. When she came back down to earth, she was at least a kilometre from the hunters. But she still didn’t feel safe.

  She ran as fast as she could.

  CHAPTER 13

  A few months later, Abby headed down to basement under the hospital and stopped in her tracks.

  There were smells here—humans she didn’t recognise. She stepped closer and heard the steady, calm heartbeats of the hunters from inside the basement.

  Widening her eyes, she pressed the emergency button to destroy all her data. The electromagnets hummed to life, wiping all the computers within range.

  The room exploded into shouts. Hunters came running outside, saw her and moved their hands to their silver blades.

  Abby’s cover was blown. She turned and ran, but pain erupted in her arms.

  A long, silver lasso had caught her.

  Her legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground.

  The hunters were dragging her closer, their eyes as hard as their blades.

  Blades.

  Silver.

  They’ll kill me!

  No, she thought, they wouldn’t kill her—they needed her. But they would torture her.

  The hunters heaved at the lasso and dragged her closer.

  Abby’s eyes darted around the hallway, searching for something—anything!—to help her escape. There was an old wrought iron ventilation grill in the wall.

  Abby reached over and ripped it out, then smashed it into the silver chain whip, slicing it clean through.

  The chain snapped and the taut end went flying off towards the hunters.

  Abby wriggled out of the lasso and jumped up, ready to bolt.

  But then the hunters all fell backwards, piling up on top of one another. The silver chain whip slashed the one on top, almost tearing him in two.

  Fresh blood filled the air; Abby salivated. The silver burns along her arms threaded with pain.

  Her body demanded blood.

  And soon.

  She had to leave, or she might attack a hunter—or worse, a hospital patient. Breathing heavily, she turned towards the staircase.

  But as she did, the scent of the hunter’s blood intensified. Almost as if this whole hallway was bathed in his blood.

  Abby looked over her shoulder. The injured hunter was Kenny, and he was on the ground, pinching his face in pain and trying to breathe as blood poured from his chest wound.

  The other hunters were looking at him in concern and trying to get out from under him without causing further damage.

  He couldn’t survive an injury like that. But would the hunters blame her for his death?

  Abby remembered the night Sharon had Turned her. Kenny had almost died then too.

  Despite what the hunters had done to her, she saw Kenny as he truly was: a man just trying to make the world a safer place.

  Her chest constricted. When she was human, she’d saved him. But could she do it again when she was craving his blood?

  She didn’t have time to overthink it. Abby ran for the hunters, grabbed Kenny before any of them realised what was going on and dashed up the stairwell, taking him to the roof.

  His eyes, blue and wary, were trained on her as she rushed upwards.

  But the light was fading from them.

  Finally, she got to the roof—an easy place for her to escape from if the hunters caught her while she was trying to save Kenny. She bit into her arm, opened an artery and put it to his mouth. “Drink,” she compelled him.

  He glared at her through unfocused eyes.

  She tried again. “Drink.”

  This time the compulsion worked and he started swallowing. The smell of his blood lessened, his organs repairing themselves, his veins and arteries knitting together.

  His breathing came easier. His heart started beating stronger.

  The light in his eyes flared to a conscious intensity.

  “That should be enough,” she said and pulled her arm away from his mouth. “Your organs will be fine; you’re not losing blood anymore.”

  She steadied him on his feet, then moved back, giving them both plenty of room.

  Even though he looked pale and weak, he stayed upright through what could only be sheer force of will.

  “You haven’t Turned me, Abigail. You didn’t give me enough blood.”

  “I didn’t want to Turn you, Kenny. If I’d wanted to Turn you, I’d have taken you a lot farther away than the hospital roof.”

  He let out a laboured breath. “I guess that’s logical.”

  “I’m a scientist, of course I’m logical,” Abby reminded him.

  A breeze made Kenny’s short, dark hair float around his head. A five o’clock shadow was visible on his face and neck. His broad shoulders slumped and his hand rested on the blade at his belt. The blade that he was probably wishing he could draw right now.

  “Then why did you take me?”

  “The same reason I got my sister off you the night I was Turned. I never want someone to die because of me, Kenny. I don’t want to be responsible for your death. Even though you wouldn’t blink at seeing me die.” She couldn’t help adding that last part.

  He blinked.

  “How did you find me, anyway?” she asked.

  “You really expect me to answer that?”

  “I just saved your life! That deserves an answer!”

  He contemplated her for a moment. “You said there were other ways of obtaining blood without harming humans—that means blood banks.”

  She pulled a face—she should have known they’d find her. They always found her. Despite herself, she admired them—and in a way, respected them.

  The breeze turned and Abby got the full scent of Kenny’s blood. Her body reminded her of the silver burns and all the blood she had just lost. She started shaking with hunger.

  He tightened his hand on his dagger hilt. He knew precisely how the wind was affecting her.

  She hissed at him. “I’m leaving, Kenny. I’ll send someone up to bring you to emergency. You can tell Annette that you’ll meet her there.”

  “I won’t be able to contact her.”

  She frowned at him. “I’m trying to get you emergency help and you’re detaining me?”

  “I … I need to contact her.” He dropped his shoulders.

  “Well, I’m not about to walk up to her and deliver your message.”

  The corner of his mouth quirked up for a moment. “Tell whatever human you send me to use my phone to call her.”

  “Do it yourself!” she snapped, and backed away into the stairwell.

  But when she found the nearest person, she compelled them to bring Kenny to emergency and call Annette.

  Then she went down to the cranky pathologist, grabbed a blood bag and left, all at lightning speed.

  ***

  What the hell had she done? She could have Turned Kenny! He could have killed her! Not to mention that she could have drained him when the wind turned.

  She put her hand on her forehead. How did she know that her blood would have saved him, anyway? Was that her vampiric instinct? Or was it a guess from all the vampire romance movies Sharon loved? Or was it because Sharon’s blood had been the only thing to save her from dying?

  Abby didn’t know, and it didn’t matter now anyway. With all that happened between her and the hunters, it might be be
st if she left the city for a while and set up somewhere else.

  At least Kenny had given her some information about how they found her—blood banks. They’d probably searched every blood bank and hospital in the city.

  She had to lie low until things between her and the hunters had cooled down. She had time on her side, but they didn’t. If it took a hundred years before they agreed to work with her properly, then so be it.

  She had put most of her money into an offshore account under an assumed name. All she needed now was a plan.

  CHAPTER 14

  Abby became listless.

  And impatient.

  And desperate.

  She found a job advertised online for a virologist to help create a cure and vaccine (for what, it didn’t say), and the salary was extremely high. Abby suspected the hunters—who else would have this sort of money to pay a scientist?

  At first, Abby wanted nothing to do with it, but as time slowly crawled past, she turned her thoughts back to the hunters—and that job. Had saving Kenny caused the hunters to have a change of heart? Would they consider her bargain?

  And if they weren’t willing to do that, what then?

  And if they were, how could she get them to guarantee they would keep their promises?

  What she needed was a third party—not James, who was in it for himself—but someone who saw the benefit to both sides of this and had a vested interest in making this work.

  Someone like a solicitor, privately contracted by Abby.

  She found a suitable candidate online: Jen Kyte, who had done a lot of human rights work and advocating. She’d also worked on class actions against companies that had poisoned thousands of people. Her website described her as open-minded, determined to improve quality of life for all and willing to work hard for her clients.

  Abby decided to ask Jen just how open-minded she was. During their initial phone conversation, she explained her goal, her current position and her desire to work with the hunters because of their shared aims.

  There was a moment of silence, then, “You realise I’m billing you for this time, right?”

  “I do.”

  Jen took in a breath. “You expect me to believe there are vampires and hunters in the world?”

  “Look, I’m not paying you to ask me questions. I don’t want therapy; I want you to advocate and negotiate these terms for me. And I’ll pay you for that.”