by J. C. Diem
“Thank God,” Barbara said with a shaky laugh. “I’ve never been afraid of the dark before, but after those rat-things tried to eat me, I’m not a fan of it now.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Wayne said, patting her hand comfortingly and sending us a meaningful look. We took the hint and exited from the room. The poor kid had had enough excitement for one day.
Just as Stephanie had warned me, the storm was bad and raged long into the night. I stood at my bedroom window, watching lightning light up the sky and illuminate the forest. It was beautiful, but I was exhausted by the time the maelstrom was over.
Climbing into bed, I fell into an uneasy sleep, aware that my entire world was going to change tomorrow. Once I dropped Connor off at his destination, nothing would ever be the same again.
Chapter Eighteen
My eyes had dark circles and bags beneath them when I dragged myself into the bathroom the next morning. I’d barely slept at all and I felt as terrible as I looked. My energy levels were alarmingly low and I wondered if I was getting sick. If so, maybe I wasn’t as monstrous as I’d believed, since vampires couldn’t catch illnesses. The only thing that could really affect them was not drinking blood. They could be starved to death, but it was a long, slow, agonizing process.
Shuddering at that thought, I noticed how hollow and gaunt my cheeks were. Although I’d eaten well during the past few days, I seemed to be losing weight. Heading downstairs, I discovered Wayne making breakfast. He’d gone with the traditional hunters’ food of bacon, sausages and eggs, but he’d added hash browns as well.
Everyone else straggled in and we piled our plates high. I ate with grim determination, hoping the meal would boost my energy. Wayne studied me as he ate. “Are you feeling okay?” he asked at last. “You look a little peaked.”
“The storm kept me awake most of the night,” I replied. “I’ll be fine once I catch up on some sleep.”
“I’ve cleared the driveway of fallen branches,” Jimmy informed us. He looked sickeningly awake and cheerful.
“Thanks,” Connor said with an appreciative nod, probably glad he hadn’t been roped into helping.
“Make sure you say goodbye to Barbara before you leave,” Stephanie said.
“We will,” I promised.
She checked her watch, then pushed away from the table. “It was a pleasure meeting you both,” she said. Once again, she was dressed in a dowdy suit, but it was dark brown this time. “I hope I’ll see you again one day.” She seemed to share a meaningful look with Connor, but it had to be my overactive imagination. She left and Wayne and Jimmy weren’t far behind her.
I’d eaten far more slowly than usual due to my lethargy and was the last to finish breakfast for once. I placed my dishes in the dishwasher, then trudged down the hall to the medical room. Barbara looked a lot brighter already. She grinned at me when I entered the room. Connor appeared behind me and stood at my side. “We’re heading out,” I told the teen and her face fell a bit.
“Thanks again for rescuing me,” she said and held her arms out.
I suffered through a quick hug, but Connor allowed her to hold him for a bit longer. Clearly, he had better people skills than I did. “Look after yourself,” he said at last and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Her face went bright red from embarrassment and pleasure. She ducked her head shyly and nodded.
With a final wave, I left the room and headed upstairs for my gear. Connor had already retrieved his belongings and was waiting for me in the hall. Everyone was busy with work, so we left without a fanfare. I trudged wearily to my car to see it was coated in leaves and mud, but the storm thankfully hadn’t damaged it.
“Why don’t you let me drive?” Connor suggested when we’d stored our gear in the trunk. “You look dead on your feet.”
I almost let out a hysterical giggle at his choice of words, but controlled it at the last moment. Too tired to argue with him, I wasn’t sure I was up to driving anyway. “Try not to crash,” I said, tossing him the keys. He sent me an affronted look as he caught them, but I ignored his indignation and plonked down on the passenger seat. Buckling myself in, I was asleep even before we reached the end of the long driveway.
Strange dreams assailed me as I slumbered restlessly. I dreamt of draining people of their blood and reveling in their helplessness. Countless men, women and children died at my hands. Each one that fed me sustained the dark magic that powered my undead corpse. Without that precious red liquid, I would grow weak and I would surely die.
Washing my hands in a stream, I stared at my reflection when the water stilled. Seeing pale white skin, dark brown hair, empty brown eyes and an aristocratically handsome face, I jerked awake. I’d been dreaming that I was Alakay, which was a nightmare all in itself.
“Bad dream?” Connor asked, reminding me that I wasn’t alone.
Dragging a hand over my face, I tried to wake myself up and nodded groggily. “You could say that.” I could almost taste the blood that had coated me in the dream and had a sudden craving for the salty substance. Checking my watch, I saw it was after midday. We’d been driving for five hours. “Where are we going, exactly?” I asked, looking around. We’d just passed through a moderately sized town.
“To meet with some hunters,” he replied.
“Who?”
“You don’t know them.” His reply was almost clipped.
“How do you know I don’t know them? I’ve met hundreds of hunters.”
He slanted me a look and almost smiled. “Trust me, you’ve never met this team.”
“Well, you don’t have to introduce me to your secret society of special monster killers,” I said crossly. “Just park out the front of their place and I’ll leave without bothering them.”
“They want to meet you,” he said. “I’ve already told them we’re on our way.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered sourly. The last thing I needed was more hunters to avoid. I could tell by the set of his shoulders that he wasn’t going to be dissuaded. “How much longer will it take us to get there?”
“Another four hours,” he replied.
I blinked at him, but he didn’t react. Nine hours was a long drive just to be ‘dropped off’ somewhere. For a moment, I toyed with the idea that he was kidnapping me, then dismissed it as being paranoid. I don’t know what had happened to his ride, but I was just a convenient way for him to reach his destination. “Can we stop for lunch?” I asked. “I’m starved.”
He flicked me another glance and it lingered on the hollows of my cheeks. “We’ll reach another town in half an hour or so. Can you wait that long?”
“I think I can resist chewing your arm off,” I joked, but the muscles of his jaw clenched. He didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor sometimes.
Hunger was gnawing at my stomach by the time we reached the next town. Connor pulled up at a drive-thru and ordered us burgers, fries and sodas. I didn’t wait for him to pull over at a park before diving into my meal. I’d already devoured the burger and was working my way through my fries by the time he parked.
Shaking his head at my ill manners, he climbed out and sat down at a picnic table. I joined him, dabbing at a mayonnaise stain on my shirt with a napkin. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were starving,” he said, watching as I stuffed a handful of fries into my mouth. Shrugging, I devoured the rest of my meal, then stared longingly at his fries. “Take them,” he said with a sigh, handing them over. “I’m afraid you really will try to chew my arm off if you don’t fill that hole in your stomach.”
Giving him a sour look, I ate his fries and still didn’t feel full. Something was horribly wrong with me and I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what it was. The dreams about bathing in human blood had been my first clue. Craving the taste of it had been my second. Apart from dining on Gerald, the necromancer, I hadn’t had any blood at all. Vampires needed blood to stay alive. It seemed I shared that trait with them, which put me firmly in the category of being a monster. W
hile I didn’t have the urge to kill and maim people, it might overwhelm me if I continued to starve my inner fiend.
Slurping down my drink, I should have felt more alert from the meal and sugary soda, but I felt even more tired now. I didn’t protest when Connor took the wheel again after we took a pitstop at a gas station. Instead, I curled up on my seat and went back to sleep.
Chapter Nineteen
When I woke, night had fallen and we were slowing down. I looked around blearily to see we were driving through a tall gate. The driveway was just as long as the one that had taken us to the Archives. I caught a glimpse of a brightly lit mansion and a mountain range looming just behind it. We swung around towards an adjoining garage before I could get a good look at the building.
“What is this place?” I asked, trying to gawp at the gigantic house through the back window.
“This is my home,” Connor replied simply, then triggered the garage door.
Several vehicles were parked inside the cavernous space. They ranged from a van, to a couple of SUVs and sedans. All were black and were almost sinister in appearance. In fact, they almost looked like they were government issue.
The door rumbled shut behind us and we parked in an empty spot. Connor climbed out and handed me the keys. I noted how pale, old and decrepit my car looked among the sleek collection of black vehicles.
Connor took his gear out of the trunk, then I locked the car and slid the keys into my pocket. His people might want to meet me, but I didn’t intend to stay here long and left my bags in the car. He slanted me a knowing look, but didn’t comment. He led the way to a door and it opened into a short hallway. I saw a door to the right and headed towards it.
A hidden door suddenly opened to my left and I automatically turned to peer into the dark opening. To my surprise, Connor grabbed hold of me by the shoulders and propelled me inside. A light came on to illuminate a dull gray concrete cell. “What the hell?” I asked as I spun around to confront him. He’d dropped his bag in the hallway and the door swung shut behind him, sealing us inside. There was no door handle, which meant it must be operated electronically.
“She’s secure,” he said, ignoring my question and speaking to an invisible person.
“Good,” a gruff female voice replied. I searched the cell to see a tiny camera in one corner and a speaker in another. “I’ll be right there.”
“What’s going on?” I demanded, planting my hands on my hips.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he replied almost ominously, then stood at attention when a hidden door swung open.
A tall, solidly built woman with short, white blonde hair entered the cell. Her eyes were light green and her expression was hard as she examined me. Judging by her muscular body, she worked out hard and frequently. Her clothes weren’t quite army issue, but they were close to it. She wore a white t-shirt and camouflage cargo pants. Black ankle high Special Forces type boots finished off her look. The only thing missing was a weapon.
She circled me, then came to a stop directly in front of me. Her boots gave her an extra inch of height, which put her at six foot two. I had to crane my head back to meet her hard eyes. “What are you?” she asked. I gaped at her, heart thudding harder at the question. “Connor knows you aren’t human, but he isn’t sure what sort of creature you are.”
I shot him a betrayed look, but he merely crossed his arms and stared at me. “I don’t know who you people are, but you can’t keep me here,” I said, stubbornly ignoring her questions.
“No one knows you’re here, little girl,” she said with a sneer and shifted even closer until we were standing toe to toe. “We can do anything we like to you and no one will ever know what happened to you.”
Adrenalin flooded through me at her threat. My fight or flight instincts kicked in and I put my hands on her shoulders to shove her away. I used far more strength than I’d intended. Instead of stumbling back a step, she went flying across the room and hit the solid concrete wall. Most people would have been knocked out by the blow, but she snarled, leaped to her feet and barreled towards me with murder written all over her face.
Her fist shot towards my nose, but I sidestepped to avoid it. She moved far more quickly than I’d expected and managed to punch me in the ribs. Pain flared, but the broken rib popped back into place almost instantly and slowly began to heal. I didn’t want to hurt her, but she was determined to beat me to a pulp. Using the training I’d been taught, I blocked her next punch and hit her in the solar plexus with the flat of my hand. She dropped to her knees, gasping for air, but recovered quickly and leaped to her feet again.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Connor watching us intently. He made no move to help, or hinder either of us. The blonde woman took advantage of my momentary distraction. She got me in a headlock and began to choke me. Gripping her arm, I pulled it free, spun around and kicked her in the stomach. She doubled over and I kneed her in the face. She went flying backwards and landed on her back and I leaped after her.
Kneeling beside her, I froze when I saw blood coating her chin from a split lip. The smell made me dizzy and my eyes locked on the pulse that was throbbing in her neck. She was dazed and it would be so easy to drain her dry. “No,” I said hoarsely and backed away from her, crouching on the hard floor. “I’m not going to become like them!”
Connor hunched down beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Like who?” he asked. Seeing my anguish, empathy flashed across his face. “What are you, Arienna?” he asked, repeating the question the blonde had asked.
“I’m a vampire,” I said, then put my hands over my face and began to cry.
Connor sucked in a breath and snatched his hand away as if I’d burned him. Low murmurs sounded, but I was sobbing too hard to hear them. They seemed to argue for a few moments, then he scooped me into his arms and carried me through another hidden door. I caught flashes of a hallway, then he entered a room that looked a lot like the one Barbara had been treated in. I was placed on a bed and I pulled away from him, scared that he was going to strap me down and experiment on me. I flinched when he leaned towards me, but he was just reaching for a box of tissues on the nightstand.
Blowing my nose after taking the tissues from him, I knew I had to look like a mess. “When was the last time you drank blood?” Connor asked me. His tone was far too casual and sounded forced.
“I’ve only fed from a person once,” I replied. “That was a few days ago, when this first happened to me.”
The tall blonde strode into the room carrying a mug. She thrust it at me and I took it before she could dump the contents onto my lap. I smelled warm blood and didn’t have the willpower to resist my unholy hunger. Drinking it down, strength and power flooded into me. It didn’t taste the same as Gerald’s blood, but it was still good.
“Now that’s interesting,” the blonde said gruffly when I placed the empty mug on the nightstand.
“What?” I asked warily, wondering why they weren’t trying to stake me through the heart.
“Your face just filled out,” Connor said. “You don’t look like you’re starving anymore.”
A small, vain part of me was glad that my cheeks no longer seemed to be hollow. I’d asked the question before, but I had to repeat it. “Who are you people?”
The blonde assessed me without speaking for a moment and appeared to be deep in thought. “We’ll answer all your questions,” she said at last. “But we have a few of our own first.”
I had a feeling I was about to be interrogated and braced myself for the onslaught.
Chapter Twenty
Instead of badgering me with incessant questions, the blonde introduced herself. “I’m Quintessa Vale,” she said. “Don’t ever call me Quintessa, or I’ll rip your guts out with my bare hands. I prefer to be called Quin.”
Instantly tempted to call her Quintessa, I quelled the urge. She’d already proven she was strong and fast. I wouldn’t put it past her to carry out the threat. “Nice to meet you,” I sai
d lamely and Connor snorted out a laugh.
“I want to run a few tests on you,” Quin said and strode over to a metal table that held a few instruments. I had the feeling the room had been set up in preparation for my arrival. Connor had to have strongly suspected I was a leech, which was probably why they’d had blood on standby. She picked up a blood pressure cuff and attached it to my arm. I had no idea what the readings meant, but she frowned and noted the results down on a notepad she pulled out of a pocket of her cargo pants.
Quin tested my eyes, hearing and reflexes, then took a small sample of my blood and put it beneath a microscope. “You’re definitely no longer human,” she said as she examined it. “But your blood isn’t dead like a full vampire’s.”
“What does this mean?” I asked in dread.
Straightening up, she stared at me for a few moments. “The others will want to hear your story. Follow me.”
It was frustrating to have my question ignored again, but I dutifully followed her from the room. Connor was an almost comforting presence at my back as we entered a large, elegant living room. Antique furniture in shades of maroon and pink graced the room. The carpet was thick and the same light green color as Quin’s eyes. A tall, skinny young man with skin even paler than mine sat on an armchair, staring morosely at the floor. His hair was light brown and his eyes were only a few shades darker.
“Mirra!” Quin shouted. “We’re having a meeting.”
A woman about my height, but far curvier than I would ever be, entered from another door. Her breasts preceded her and were enhanced by a low-cut, figure-hugging black dress. She wore ballet-style flat shoes the same shade as her dress. “There’s no need to shout,” she said in an accent that I couldn’t place. I gaped at her beauty and she rolled her gorgeous brown eyes. “Oh, good,” she said. “Another feeble mind dazzled by my wit and charm.”