by Tara Brown
I gazed back up at the window and knew the phone call had been something to do with me. He had waved.
My skin tingled as anger rippled through me.
The change was building within me, but I needed to know. I paced in the cold backyard, trying to calm down and come up with a plan.
When I had one, I hiked up to the window he stood at and wrote something down.
I dialed his phone number.
“What are you doing?” He gave me a confused look through the window. “I can see you, Hanna. Come inside. I want to show you something.”
“Have you been giving samples of my blood to the Dark Ones to make a weapon?”
“What?” His face dropped as he stammered, “Ha-Hanna, love, come inside the house.”
I took a step back. “I have my answer, Marcus.”
The cell phone crushed in my fingers as my skin stretched until it ripped apart. For the first time, I let the beast take over. I didn't fight the change.
Marcus jumped through the window, landing on the ground in front of me as I changed.
“Hanna, don’t do this. Let me explain. Stay calm, Hanna.” He put a hand up.
I screamed as the transformation occurred.
Marcus’ face darkened as his forehead grew distorted and his fangs dropped from his teeth. He screamed, “HANNA, DON’T DO THIS!”
The beast turned and ran into the woods.
I ignored everything, letting her have her fun.
I woke next to a dumpster, the paranoia setting in. I didn’t know where I was.
The ripe stench of garbage and something else filthy surrounded me. I glanced down, seeing a hand next to my leg. I reached for it but stopped, seeing it wasn’t attached to anything, and muffled a cry.
Had I killed someone? Had I ripped a hand off?
Shaking and weak, I got to my feet by gripping the side of the disgusting dark-green dumpster. My fingers touched things I ignored. I stared down at my ripped pants and torn shirt. My feet were bare again. My right toe was bleeding heavily. It didn’t sting until I caught on that the blood was mine, seeing a shard of broken glass sticking out of it. I pulled it out, gagging at the blood pouring from the large gash.
My trembling fingers felt my bra for my cell phone. It wasn’t there. I recalled it crumbling in my fingers in the courtyard as I changed.
Again, I peered down at the hand, noting it was a man’s with a platinum band on the right finger. And it was his left hand. I shuddered, imagining what kind of horrors I had inflicted on the poor stranger and how his family would be devastated.
I didn’t deserve to live. I didn’t deserve to be saved.
I limped and hobbled down the greasy alley until I came to a park at the end. I knew where I was. I knew how to get home, but I had to make a stop first.
When I got to Lydia’s, Aleksander was fighting with Aimee’s friend in the yard. He gripped Shane by the throat.
Aimee sobbed. “I’m sorry.”
Aleks let go of Shane. “She’ll die now, Aimee.”
“Aleks, that’s not Aimee’s fault. Marcus is evil. Dude, you made a deal with the devil. What did you think was going to happen?”
I hobbled across the crunchy grass. “Get Giselle.”
“Hanna!” Aimee winced.
“Oh my God, are you all right? Are you hurt?” Aleksander ran to me.
“I’m fine. I need you to get Giselle and take me back to Marcus’ house.”
Aleks tilted his head, obviously confused. “What?”
“Hurry.”
He vanished and reappeared with her in his arms. She was barely awake.
Giselle appeared to weigh nothing in his arms.
“Where are we going?” she asked weakly.
“Shhhh. Just rest against me,” Aleksander whispered.
I grabbed on to his arm as he flashed us to just outside the castle.
I limped over and rang the ancient buzzer, waiting.
Henry didn’t answer the door. Instead, it was Marcus. He looked rough. “You came back.” His eyes darted to Aleksander and Giselle. “You have some nerve coming here, Aleks. You went back on your word.”
“I never told Hanna. I never said a word. I didn’t know you were using her blood to make a weapon. She’s had Aimee working on the paper, and she figured it out and told Hanna.”
“You think I CARE HOW SHE FOUND OUT?” he screamed.
They spoke over me, but I was too exhausted to fight with either of them. My eyes fluttered as I fought the sleep I needed.
Aleks was belligerent. “How could you do that to Hanna? Use her that way?”
“I never betrayed you.” Marcus’ eyes met mine again. “I can’t do it. I can’t figure it out. I can’t save you. But I heard the others have a scientist who is a genius. I asked him for help, and he asked for your special blood to make something else.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “The only way to save you was to trick those assholes into believing I would give them what they wanted if they helped you.”
“So you are trying to help me?” I asked.
“Of course.” He flinched, his eyes flickering to the girl in Aleksander’s arms. “Jesus, she’s dying right now. She smells.”
“Save her and I will believe you are trying to help me.”
Without even contemplating it, he bit his wrist and walked to Giselle, leaving a trail of his disgusting blood along the cobblestone. He grabbed her face and shoved the wrist into her mouth.
She choked, but he held it there, not looking at Aleks or me.
After a moment, Marcus bent to her throat, sinking his teeth into her tiny fragile neck.
Aleks cringed when her thin body stiffened against the pain.
Marcus drank until Giselle went limp in Aleks’ arms.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Marcus but took Aleks’ arm again.
Marcus sighed. “Come inside, Hanna. You need rest.”
“No.”
“You said you believed me.” He swallowed hard. “I’m trying to save you.”
“I do believe you. I don’t trust you.”
“Fine, leave.” He turned and walked back into the house, slamming the door.
Aleks flashed us to a mountaintop. I shivered and slumped to the cold ground.
“Where are we?” I yawned and huddled into myself.
“Home.” The frozen ground beneath his shoes crunched softly as he walked. He carried Giselle to a graveyard with ancient-looking gravestones. “I buried my family here. This is the Nærøyfjord.” He said the word like I might know it.
He dug the hole with his bare hands.
He laid Giselle in a shallow grave.
“So she died anyway?” I was lost but barely able to keep my eyes open.
“No. Vampire blood is like blowfish poison—the heart seems to be stopped and the person appears dead but in reality they’re alive and changing.”
“Changing?”
“Marcus made her the same as him. She’ll be a vampire when she wakes.” He covered her with the dirt. “I have to stay here until it’s completed. It’ll be three days.”
“Can you take me home? No one will know she’s here. It’ll take a second.”
He brushed the dirt off his hands and held one out for me. “Of course. Thank you.”
“It’s okay.” I reached out, letting him pull me up. I closed my eyes and savored his scent. “She won’t thank you for this. She won’t like being made into a monster.”
“I know.” He held me to him. “I’ve been through this before.”
He flashed and we were in my driveway. He stepped back, leaving me there, and the warm wind took him away.
Chapter 18
Out damn spot!
The Tudor never looked so good. I hobbled along the gravel driveway, remembering climbing out of the trunk and hobbling the same path only months before.
“My dear girl, come inside immediately.” Roland rushed out onto the gravel and scooped me up. He smelled clean like Old Englis
h polish.
“Roland,” I sobbed.
“We will talk about this, but right now you need a shower. You stink and you’re filthy.”
I owed him a huge apology. “I’m sorry I went to Marcus’ when you told me to go to Lydia’s.”
“It’s nothing, Hanna.”
“I really will go there.”
“You should stay here and get better first.” He placed me in the bathroom off the garage. I had never seen inside it, but knew what it was immediately. It was my father’s decontamination chamber. “Towels are below the sink. Throw out your clothes and everything else.”
I turned on the shower as Roland closed the door.
The shower had a seat in it, thankfully. I sat, letting my feet rest. Everything seemed out of control.
There were too many emotions inside me.
My attraction to every guy I met was so annoying.
The hand of the man I’d obviously maimed or killed would haunt my days forever.
My strange liking of Marcus and the desire I had for him to touch me and make me feel pretty, regardless of the grotesque monster I was. I trembled, seeing his face in my mind—his face screaming at me as my beast ran off into the woods or the defeat in his eyes when I chose Aleks over him. Why did it bother me so to hurt him when he was evil?
His saving Giselle for me had softened him in my eyes.
Maybe we were soul mates, evil and vile soul mates. A match made in hell.
The water ran dirty from my body as the filth was washed off. No amount of water would take the blood from my hands. I suddenly understood Lady Macbeth.
I sat in the shower, letting the water soothe me. I really could’ve gone for one of Annabelle’s baths. I longed for the smells of the oils and soap mixed with the haunting songs Annabelle would sing. I barely knew her, and yet instantly loved the ghost.
I thought about Lydia’s house, deciding I didn’t completely agree with their actions, but I understood their beliefs and justifications. I would never want something such as myself out in the world.
The hand with the platinum wedding band filled my mind. No matter how long I stayed in the shower, I would never rinse that off. I had taken a human life.
I climbed into my bed after the shower, donned my favorite fleece pajamas, and wrapped up in the blankets.
Roland came in with a small kit.
“We need to bandage that toe. I have got a few things left over from treating your father’s injuries. This is his old kit.”
“I’m sorry.”
He sat and inspected the toe. “No, my dear. You’ve had a difficult few months. I cannot imagine what it’s been like.”
“Something is wrong with me, Roland. Beyond the other stuff. I have never been one of those girls. You know, the ones who, uhm, date lots of guys? Did Dad have this as a side effect where he wanted to be with all different people, sort of girl crazy?”
“Hanna, we don’t need to have this conversation.”
I gulped nervously. “I know, but I feel weird.”
“It happened to your dad. He often felt off or odd.” He patted my leg and stood from my bed. “It’s all better.”
“Thanks.”
He walked from the room. “Sleep tight.”
Lying back, wondering how it had all changed in such a short amount of time, I closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” someone whispered.
The shock of a random voice in my house scared me. I sat up to see Marcus in my doorway.
“I’m too tired, Marcus. I can’t do this right now.”
He walked toward me slowly with worry on his face. “I came to explain.”
“Another day.” I closed my eyes, not wanting to hear him out, and rolled over away from him.
His weight shifted the bed near my feet. “I have fed off women. I know you said you didn’t want to talk about this, but I have to explain. From the moment I met you, I have not been with anyone else. I have bitten them and that’s it. I never give my blood to anyone. What I did for you today, I have not done for hundreds of years. I made a vampire today, something I swore I would not do.” He sounded stressed. I wanted to ignore the pain in his voice. “I turned that girl for you. I want to be a man worthy of you, and she was an innocent who was dying because of men I created once upon a time.”
“You don’t owe me anything—”
“I lo-love you and I only gave your blood to the idiots in Boston because they have a new young chemist who is smart. He’s smarter than I am. I wanted him to make the cure for you, so I traded him your blood. I was at a dead end, as was your father before he died. The new chemist is changing the formula. He’s making progress. I will have your cure before the end of the week, I believe. If it means the Dark Ones get some weapon from your blood, so be it. I would let them amass an army if it meant I could cure you.”
I turned over to tell him I forgave him but he was already gone. I could still smell him in the air and somehow that scent was a comfort in all the chaos.
He was growing on me.
Chapter 19
So, like, can I fly?
I sipped my perfect cup of tea and watched the bats in the yard. The bats playing around the tops of the trees weren’t as weird as my new affinity for a cup of tea. I’d always been a coffee girl but Roland had convinced me otherwise.
“Hanna?”
I spun, jumping slightly when I saw Aimee.
“Hey.” I wondered if she was there to kill me because of the life I took.
“Giselle is about to wake up. Do you wanna come?” She offered me a hand.
“Sure.” I put the tea down and grabbed my jacket. “Roland, I’m going to watch a vampire be born.”
“Excellent. Text me when you’re on your way home,” he called from the other room.
“Will do.” I put on my boots and took Aimee’s hand.
“Thank you.” She smiled softly. “For saving my friend.”
“I didn’t do anything, trust me. It was all Marcus.”
She wrinkled her nose and flashed us to the mountaintop where Aleksander was staring at the dirt in the moonlight. Not eerie in the slightest . . .
“Any minute now,” he called down to us as we hiked up.
The dirt shook as if an earthquake were occurring. A small hand broke through.
Aleks jumped down into the hole and pushed dirt off Giselle’s hand, pulling her from the mound of dirt.
“What? What’s happening?” She kept her eyes closed as he brushed her off and made sure no dirt was in her face. In the moonlight, it was hard to see, but she looked the same, only healthy.
“Giselle, you can open your eyes now.”
She opened her dark-brown eyes, fluttering her long lashes. “Where are we? My stomach hurts. Is that a river? You smell good.” She was perky.
Aimee giggled. It was odd to hear.
“I’m hungry. Where are we? Is this dirt?” Giselle spoke quickly, gawking about in quick, jerky movements.
“How are you feeling?” Aimee smiled and her gray eyes glossed over.
“Weird. Better. Where are we?”
“I brought you this.” Aleksander bent over a cooler he was next to and pulled a bag of blood out. I shuddered, as did Giselle.
“What is that?” She was clearly grossed out. “Is that blood?”
“Yes, you need to drink it.” Aleks gave us a look as if to say we needed to help him out.
“Gross.” She scrunched her nose up.
“Drink this and we will talk.” Aimee stepped closer. “We need to explain some things.”
Aleks tore at the top of the bag which sent Giselle into a frenzy. She snatched it from him and sucked from the hole he’d made, guzzling the whole thing in one breath. Her red-stained lips lifted after a few minutes. “That was good. What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing.” Aleks grinned like he might laugh.
“Come sit over here.” Aimee sat down on a huge rock overlooking the frosted hillside and river and patted th
e spot next to her.
“Shouldn’t I be cold?” Giselle asked, walking to where Aimee was.
“Yeah. I’m freezing.” I was confused by her bare arms.
“You won’t get cold, or hot, anymore. After you drink blood, your body will be at its warmest and then it will cool off gradually until you eat again.” Aleksander explained slowly.
“What am I?”
“A vampire,” Aimee muttered.
“I did this to you, so if you want to hate me forever, I understand.” Aleks lowered his face.
“I feel amazing. You stopped all the pain.” She grabbed his face roughly and planted her lips on his. My chest tightened when I saw her kissing him. He didn’t exactly fight back either. Aimee lowered her gaze, unable to watch either.
“Wait!” Aleks pushed her back. “You have to listen to me for a minute before you go kissing everyone.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “God.”
“You can’t go out in the sunlight, ever. You’ll burn up. No more sunshine, no matter what. You have to eat blood. If you eat human food, you will have to use the bathroom. If you eat only blood, you will never have to use the bathroom.”
“Sweet.” She smiled, flashing her bright white fangs. “I have new teeth.”
“Try to focus.” Aleks sounded like he was going to become tired of her quickly.
“Oh my God, hurry up.” She leaned in, sniffing him. “You smell really good.”
“Focus. You’ll be incredibly fast and strong. You’ll kill people if you aren’t careful. Your strength will take some getting used to. Don’t rush anything.”
“Will I be desperate to eat every person I see?”
“No,” Aimee cut in as Aleks pinched the bridge of his nose. “She’s worse than I was with the questions.”
Aleks laughed and I missed out on the joke.
“Were you addicted to food, shoveling it into your face as a human?” Aimee cocked an eyebrow.
“No.”
“Then you shouldn’t expect to be addicted to blood like that. What you were before is enhanced now. If you loved something before, you really love it now.”