by Shayn Bloom
She looks at me like I’m stupid. “You know what I am, don’t you?”
I nod. My heart is beginning to race.
“Well done,” she says, her expression satisfied. “Ignorance often comes before death. For you it will just be death!”
“I’m not frightened,” I lie, staring into her bright red eyes, at her flyaway face paint. “Kill me if you’re going to!”
The vampire’s expression grows tight. She looks angry. “Oh no,” she begins dangerously, her tone drenched in heated patience, “I have no reason or desire to be swift. You won’t steal my fun, human!”
My breath is catching in my throat. Oh geez, this is it. The end. I’ve arrived. Everything I will know is in the past. Doom alone waits. The question is whether I will meet it with grace or not. I must – I realize – for no other end befits me. I must show the world death is not the end.
Red eyes reflect flames. I’ve encouraged her. Slinking around the fire, the vampire comes to me. The closer she comes, the wilder she appears – the brighter her eyes glow, the more dazzling her dress of feathers becomes. She looks like a demon from a far off world. Long finger-nailed hands reach for my throat. Before she touches me I see her nails are of deepest maroon.
“You’re sassy,” she tells me, grasping my throat. The feel of her touch is ice cold. “I hate your type,” she scorns. “Stealing away my pleasure. Death is not to be met with courage and chivalry but fear and cowardice!”
“No!” I gurgle.
“No, ma’am,” she instructs. I can’t do it. I can’t bring myself to formalities. She doesn’t deserve it. Nor do I deserve the indignity of addressing her as such. She thinks differently. “I have so little patience,” she says angrily, grasping my throat still harder, “for noble humans. Address me as ma’am,” she demands, “or die!”
Struggling, I manage, “No!”
I’m thrown to the ground. My head bangs against dirt. My thoughts are spinning around stars and tree branches. This is it. I’m dead. This is when she bites me. The question is whether she will eat. Yuck!
“Stand!” is the order. “Face me like a man!”
My head is pounding from being thrown. But I stand up and face her, my eyes darting around the campsite. I’m so alone. But sarcasm is instinct. “I’m not a man,” I say to her. “So how can I face you like one?”
“Nor am I,” she retorts. “But you’ll have no mercy from me! Fortunately for you, I haven’t worked up my appetite yet. Finding a meal isn’t usually this easy,” she says by way of explanation. “So this is our itinerary. You will talk to me until I’m hungry enough to eat you. Understood?”
You have time, my alter ego instructs. Put it to good use.
I will try, I respond wildly.
“I understand,” I tell her, my brain whirring.
Fucking fuck!
What do I do now? Easy, I realize. Keep her talking as long as possible. Must buy time. No idea where Gabriel is or why he’s taking so fucking long. I can’t take this uncertainty. This doubt of his existence.
“Sit!” the vampire instructs. I sit by the fire. “Good,” she purrs, taking a seat beside me. “I’m so glad you lit this fire! Otherwise I would not have been cold,” she remarks, smirking as though this is hilarious. I don’t get it. “My name is Amoretta,” she says, eyes burning brighter than the flames.
“Oh,” I say. My brain is white noise. “That’s an unusual name.”
“You think so?” She’s cocking her head to one side. “I think it’s an extremely unusual name. So unusual I’m bound to be unique. As though my parents gave me no choice. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes,” I say automatically. “Totally.”
She narrows her eyes, then relaxes them determinedly. “You seem very comfortable with the idea that vampires exist,” she says. “Unusual for a human. I suppose your wizard buddy clued you in. I’m displeased. I like it when a human can’t believe it. When I taste the shock in the flesh – a tenseness that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Seems like you will be a subpar meal.”
I shudder.
“There we are,” Amoretta says gleefully. “That’s the reaction I like. That’s the reaction I can taste on my tongue. You haven’t told me your name yet, sweetie. Tell me – I like to say it in my head as I chew.”
“N – Nora,” I stutter.
Panic is filling me.
Where the hell is Gabriel? Why is he taking so long? What could he be waiting for? Doesn’t he realize I could die at any minute?
Maybe he does, my alter ego suggests, yet doesn’t care. You’ve been abandoned.
No, I answer. He – he wouldn’t. He couldn’t have…
“Nora,” Amoretta repeats appreciatively. Raising a painted hand, she strokes my chin. “Nora – a yummy name for a tasty morsel. You’re gorgeous, Nora. Wonder if I should taste you before I eat you…”
Holy bejesus fuck! Did she just!
My eyes are wide. “What do you mean?”
“Sex,” Amoretta breathes into my face. “You can’t be that unworldly! Women can have plenty of fun of their own. If you don’t believe me…well – let me show you, Nora. Let me taste you!”
“I’m not a lesbian!”
Painted eyebrows rise. “Virgin?”
Oh geez! Can Gabriel hear us? Hopefully not. I nod once.
“Sweetie,” Amoretta sighs, her red eyes eating me, “you poor, ignorant thing. How little you know yourself. Yet so beautiful,” Amoretta tells me, her painted hand stroking me. “Has anyone ever told you?”
The answer is no. Not Gabriel. Not Wolf. Not Kiri – though why would she? The point is nobody has. Nobody but Amoretta. That knowledge is going to fuck me up later big time. She reads it on my face.
“Poor thing!” Amoretta remarks, brushing my cheek with a maroon nail. “You deserve better! I will fix it, Nora. I will fix the attention you’ve been missing. You won’t die a virgin. But you will die tonight!”
Her lips are blood red as they sink to mine.
“Nullify!”
A jet of purple light misses. Throwing herself backward, Amoretta jumps to her feet, red eyes filled with fear. “Where are you?” Her voice is a roar into the night, painted face crazed. “Show yourself, coward!”
“Decimate!” Gabriel yells, emerging from the trees, wand held aloft.
The jet of light is red. It misses, exploding off a tree behind the vampire.
Gabriel and Amoretta are staring at each other. They are illuminated in the light of the fire. Determination stretches Gabriel’s expression while recognition settles on Amoretta’s. She squints in the dim light.
“Jack?” she says. Turquoise eyes widen in confusion. He raises his wand. “Jack!” Amoretta cries loudly. “It’s me! It’s Amoretta! Don’t attack! I’m so glad it’s you, Jack! Hold your fire!”
“Don’t listen to her!” I shout at Gabriel. “She’s trying to trick you!” My joints are seized in shock, immovable. “Kill her! She was going to kill me!” I gasp, the hate filling me. I’m surprised by it. “Do it! Kill her!”
Gabriel is staring at Amoretta, the turquoise of his eyes uncertain. “Why do you call me Jack?”
Amoretta breathes her relief. “Because you are. When are we turning the game on this human?” Silence. “Fine,” Amoretta spits, “if you want to fuck her she’s yours. But she’s my dinner, Jack. You have to share, you greedy fuck,” she says, bright red eyes flashing dangerously. “Kill her! I’m hungry!”
Confusion is tearing Gabriel’s expression from him. He wrestles it back. “Torgi!” he cries, pointing his wand at Amoretta. Her feathery dress bursts into flame around her thin frame. Screaming in agony, Amoretta seizes a rock from the fireplace and lobs it at my head.
“Decimate!” Gabriel yells, pointing his wand at the rock as it flies through midair. The rock explodes, showering the night with fragments. Closing my eyes against the melee, I cough dust from my lungs.
An owl screeches nearby. Merri! Unsure of myself without vision,
I sink to my knees and wait for the kill.
“Annihilate!” Gabriel roars. “Nullify! Decimate!” Smoke fills the air. I smell it. Retching, I shudder against the ground.
“Get up, Nora.” I’m so pleased to recognize the voice as Gabriel’s. Standing, I open my eyes. The smoke is clearing, drifting up to the star-strewn sky, the remainder emanating from the fireplace. Gabriel is standing beside the fire with Merrifeather perched on his outstretched arm.
The vampire is nowhere in sight.
“What happened?” I gasp.
Turquoise eyes are furious. “She’s gone! Escaped!”
“Gone!” I exclaim. “How? Where to?”
“If only I knew,” Gabriel answers angrily. Agitated, he swipes his blond hair to the side of his forehead. “I’d send Merri looking but she hates hunting at night. Fuck!” He throws his wand to the ground. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This never happens! I never miss at this close range. I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”
I’ve never seen him so upset.
“Who’s Jack?”
Turquoise eyes are blank. “I don’t know,” he says, his usually confident voice hollow. “Could be anyone. Anyone at all.”
* * *
We set up a makeshift camp. The temptation to go back to Evergreen tonight is strong, but so is my determination not to exert myself any more today, the whole of which has been exhausting. So Gabriel and I do what we can to make the site as comfortable as possible for the night.
He makes a tent appear out of nowhere with his wand – a sizeable looking one, too – then conjures a leather couch from the void and sets it beside the fire. I sit and watch him walk around the perimeter of the clearing, his wand held aloft and his voice murmuring strange words. I can only guess.
“What are you doing?”
Gabriel doesn’t answer, instead proceeding to finish his chore before coming back and sitting on the leather couch beside me. “Safety spells,” he says at last, his turquoise eyes reflecting the fire. “To ward off potential invaders, the least of which are vampires,” he adds with a grin.
I’m glad to see him calm. He didn’t stop fuming for ten minutes after Amoretta escaped. He’s one of those people who acutely feel their failures. I’m not – thank goodness – for there are too many of them to count. But I was never as good at anything as Gabriel claims to be at killing vampires.
Leaning against the arm of the couch, I brush my hair over my ear. I’m endeavoring to get my wizard friend’s attention. I follow his gaze to the flames. “Why do we need safety spells? Do you think she’ll be back?”
“Doubt it,” Gabriel answers. “Not tonight. But I have a feeling she will keep looking for you, Nora. Long after tonight. You sparked in her something more powerful than the thirst for human blood.”
Oh fuck!
“What?” I think I know the answer.
“Lust. Amoretta lusts after you, Nora. She wants to have her way with you before eating you alive. Achieving that is going to require kidnapping you, which is probably what she’s planning now.”
I shudder. I still see them – a pair of bright red eyes and an elegant face carved in paint. Gabriel doesn’t pay me any heed, preferring to stare into the fire, his thoughts hidden from me. He better not be planning to use me as bait again. The whole experience was far too close for comfort.
“Is she the Newborn?”
“Amoretta?” Gabriel says in surprise. “No. I don’t think so.”
I frown at him. “How can you tell?”
“Because if she’d been the Newborn you would be dead. Newborns have a terrible time controlling their hunger. They don’t fool around with torture and rape – they just eat. Very quickly,” he adds, grimacing. “Usually there’s a lot of blood. Fountains of it.”
I’m not giving him the satisfaction of making me queasy. Besides, a roaring bout of dissonance is rising in me. “Hold on,” I say, staring at him in shock. “You mean the whole thing you said about how vampires usually play with their food wouldn’t have counted if she’d been the Newborn?”
He averts his eyes. “Kind of.”
“Gabriel!” I shout, anger pumping through me. “How could you!”
Agitated, Gabriel swipes his blond hair to the side of his forehead. “It’s not as bad as it sounds! I wasn’t going to sacrifice you to the Newborn! I was basically sure the vampire following wasn’t the Newborn! So there was no risk.”
“No risk! How could you have been sure it wasn’t the Newborn?” My tone is laced with doubt.
“The same reason,” he answers dully, his hand holding his forehead, “because if it’d been the Newborn following, chances are it would have attacked at once. Its hunger would have superseded personal safety and patience. Amoretta is restrained. Well, in some ways. She’s not the Newborn.”
Crossing my arms, I stare at him furiously. Oh no – he’s not getting off this easy. Sacrificing me. The nerve! If I knew magic I could duel him!
And fucking lose, my alter ego adds. You know you would.
Yeah, I concede. Probably.
Geez, I hate being useless all the time.
We sit in silence. My demeanor continues to be antagonistic while Gabriel’s continues to be tired and withdrawn, his gaze finding flames. What is he thinking about? I realize Gabriel is all too happy to remain silent.
“What were those spells you used?”
He looks over as though surprised to find me still sitting beside him. “Oh, those,” he remarks. “Offensive spells. Would have used defensive spells had I been dueling a wizard. Against a vampire they are hardly necessary,” he adds, his tone self satisfied. And he’s back. The old Gabriel.
His wand sits on the arm of the couch. Picking it up, he begins twirling it in his fingers. “I don’t worry about issuing a spell while holding the wand,” he explains, “because each spell requires a certain mental state as well as the incantation. Take Nullify – the stupefy curse – for example. You imagine the person in question stupefied when attacking. Makes attacking an unseen enemy difficult.
“There’s Decimate – the maim curse. With Decimate you have to want to do damage. To hurt somebody. It’s the same with Agonio – the torture curse – if your heart isn’t there, it doesn’t work. You have to want them to hurt – want them to be consumed with pain to either be maimed or tortured.”
I have an impulse to shudder again but it passes. “There was another,” I tell him. “I can’t remember – it issued a bright white light at Amoretta. It missed her but it looked powerful.”
“Annihilate.”
I frown at him. “Huh?”
“The kill curse,” Gabriel says, “Always issues a bright white light. Decimate always a red light and Nullify always a purple light. The color of a curse never changes, Nora. For most spells, anyway. Remember this just in case: You can come back from the purple light in good health. But red and white are serious. Especially white. If you see the bright white light, death is near.”
“I’ll try and remember,” I tell him, unable to keep a straight face. “Although the only person who can curse me is you.”
Gabriel shakes his head, his expression somber. “Not true. If the Bureau of Magic sends agents to investigate, you could be in danger. Remember,” he adds darkly, “the Bureau of Magic will most likely send representatives from the Bureau of Beast Control. People like me. Releasers. They will have the same license I do – a license to kill vampires, werewolves, and – yes – humans.”
Swiping my hair over my ear, I frown over at him. “Why would they send people? We haven’t done anything yet.”
“Not yet,” Gabriel begins, “but –”
I can’t help myself. I rest my feet on his lap and smile sweetly at him. “How about now? Are we crossing the line now?”
“You’re asking for trouble,” he tells me, unable to stow his smile. “But I’m serious, Nora. It’s risky what we’re doing. The Puridites have no respect for Immags, and if I – a representative of the Bureau of Beast C
ontrol – am caught fraternizing with an Immag, they won’t be pleased. They will send Releasers. We have to be ready for it, Nora. We have to be ready for the worst.”
Sighing, I look glumly over at him. He’s such a buzz kill. I scoot over to his side of the couch and lay my head against his cushion, my back resting on his legs. From this angle I can see the fire reflecting in Gabriel’s turquoise eyes. The effect is mesmerizing.
“Comfortable?”
I nod against the cushion. “Very.”
“You have pretty eyes,” Gabriel says, looking down at me.
This surprises me. Nobody says that. “Thanks. I’m wearing conta –”
“Look at the stars,” he interrupts, gazing upward. “They are so bright tonight. It’s so bizarre how we got here, Nora, isn’t it? But sometimes all you have to do is look up and everything makes sense. You wouldn’t wish for anything else. Not even with all those stars to make a wish on.”
“Totally,” I say airily, staring upward. They are bright this evening. I wonder why. I look back at my wizard friend, letting my eyes refocus. “Gabriel, why aren’t we ready to have a real kiss?”
He says, “Real kiss? Oh, I didn’t feel the right moment had arrived. No real reason.”
“Do you know Kiri?” I ask him. “My roommate?”
“No. How would I?”
I shrug against him, an easy smile drifting across my features. “Well, she – uh – she thinks you’re gay.”
Gabriel bursts out laughing, his guts ripping to the sky.
“What?” I ask him desperately.
Oh shit!
Is he going to be mad at me? Fuck! I shouldn’t have said that. Wasn’t thinking. I’m staring at Gabriel as he calms back down, a smirk growing wild across his face. “What?” I ask again. “So… are you?”
“I’m not gay, Nora,” is the response.
I seize my opportunity. “Prove it.”
“No,” he answers without missing a beat. “I shouldn’t have to.”
Can’t disagree with him there. Still, why did he find the idea so funny? Am I missing something here? Did I make a huge fool out of myself? Both? My thoughts and feelings are everywhere, strewn across my consciousness like the stars above. If only I could read his wizard thoughts!