First, her muscles began to ache and spasm. Then her head throbbed with excruciating pain. Then came the fatigue, the feeling like she could sleep for a thousand years, all while her veins felt as if they were collapsing in on themselves, empty and pulsing in a search for the lifeblood that was no longer in her body.
Consciousness began to slip from her when she heard a great, inhuman cry. The last thing she remembered seeing was Gavin’s face, distorted with animalistic rage, and red eyes focused on Terrance. Chloe heard a gut wrenching shrill cry as she tumbled to the forest floor and had the feeling of being soaked.
The scent of blood was everywhere mingled with sulfur and death.
But before she could find out whose blood it was that she smelled, her eyes rolled back in her head, and everything went blacker than the night.
Chapter 18
Gavin stood in a pool of his enemy's blood, his chest and arms drenched in the same dark liquid that caked the ground around his feet. Blood dripped from his lips and rolled down his chin to join the rest. The ground here would be forever stained by the death of this vampire. Nothing would grow through the seasons for centuries to come.
How did he know? Because when he ingested Terrance's blood, he also took upon himself the memories and knowledge that his enemy possessed. He saw the faces of his prey as they were in the throes of death. He saw places and people he had never laid eyes on before. He didn't possess his power and skills, but Terrance held true to his promise that he would somehow teach Gavin all that his mentor taught him before.
So much knowledge, and so many facts and images flashed through his mind. All he could do was stand there and process it all little by little.
His senses were aflame, and for several long, agonizing moments, he could neither see, hear, nor smell anything. It was as if for a moment, he didn't exist. He was lightweight and floating with a rekindled strength that he hadn't known before.
The world moved on around him, and with one less evil being in the world, the animals of the night emerged from where they had been hiding to once again fill the forest with their calls and daily activities.
But Gavin couldn't go on as before.
In the span of just a few days, he had tasted the blood of his love and the blood of the one he hated. He had never met Terrance before, but after he deceived them in the cruelest way, Gavin had never hated anyone more in his life. Not even himself.
Once his mind began to quiet and adjust to all that had happened, he became aware of himself and the one heartbeat that lay close by. Though his eyesight was strained and blurred momentarily, he could make out Chloe's figure lying in the grass.
Terrance's blood was splashed over her body, just as it was on his, but not near as heavily.
He’d never intended to kill Terrance and take his blood. But here he stood, his hunger gone, and the detox plan ruined by this one battle. How could he tell Chloe? What would she think of him now? Would she still think he wasn't a monster? He was thankful that she was unconscious so she couldn't see him this way.
But as his hearing tuned to the sounds around him, he heard that she was more than just unconscious. Her heartbeat, once strong and rhythmic, was softening, and its pounding was more sporadic in her chest.
One sniff of the air told him that she was not well. Terrance had drunk deeply from her but did not kill her.
With halting steps, Gavin sloshed through the blood and carnage towards Chloe. He did not feel the usual compulsion to feed as the hunger was gone. Since he had tasted her blood, he wanted nothing more than to take her and know her in the way that was forbidden to them.
All he ever wanted was to taste one drop, just one sip from her each day. And to kiss her deeply, feel her body in his hands, touch her soul somehow.
But seeing her lay here, motionless and on the brink of the abyss, he wanted none of that.
He listened to her shallow breaths and watched her chest spasm as if her lungs were trying to expand but lacked the strength.
Gavin pushed back the fear of losing her. If he let it consume him now, he would never be able to do what was necessary to keep her alive. Instead, he clenched his jaw tight and scooped her into his arms.
With inhuman speed he navigated his way up the mountain, whizzing past trees and shrubs until he reached the cabin. Paying no mind to the way his boots tracked in dirt and residual blood left on the soles, Gavin brought Chloe inside and up the stairs.
Like a machine that cared only for her wellbeing, Gavin laid Chloe down onto the floor of her bedroom and stripped off her soiled clothes before tucking her into bed.
The wound on her neck was deep but no longer bled as it did when Terrance had first cut her. The same went for her wrist, but Gavin would not let them fester in the open air.
He retrieved her first aid kit from downstairs and bandaged both her wrist and the cut on her neck as tenderly as if she were awake to feel every touch. Checking her pulse with his keen ears again, he found that it was growing fainter. She wouldn't last much longer without more blood circulating through her body.
Gavin stood there for a moment, watching her and wondering.
Terrance had given Gavin so much through his blood. One thing was the knowledge of how to create another vampire. A human must be in a state, just like Chloe, and ingest a bit of the vampire's blood. Gavin had the full knowledge of how to sire another vampire, and Chloe could be his first convert.
He remembered that Chloe had offered her neck to him that night they first kissed, inviting him to change her into a bloodthirsty creature like him. He had refused, but things had changed. Chloe was about to die unless he saved her.
Gavin lifted his wrist to his mouth and let his fangs pierce the skin, making black blood ooze from his veins. But when he bent low to let Chloe drink, he stopped.
Chloe had been so willing to join him in the dark. It might be the one way they could be together for all eternity without having to worry about growing old and dying the way humans did. Perhaps this would be easier than Gavin going through detox.
But Chloe had a family. She had a future. He couldn't let her throw it all away and become a vampire like him.
Gavin cursed his momentary foolishness and held his bleeding wrist to his chest, waiting for it to heal.
If Chloe did not become a vampire, how else could he save her? He racked his brain until he found the answer. Last night, he had read through a medical book describing the process for a blood transfusion. It was simple enough, but he needed fresh human blood for that.
There was a clinic in town, he remembered. They were sure to have something akin to a blood bank. If he took her there as she was, they would ask too many questions. He had to go alone to retrieve supplies.
Taking one last sniff of Chloe's wounds to make sure he would be able to distinguish her blood type amongst all the others he had to choose from, he made his way out the door, not bothering to change shirts or wash up. If he played it right, no one would even know he was there.
***
The first thing she heard was the crickets, such a familiar sound. Then she felt the pain, the throbbing achiness in every part of her. Chloe squeezed her eyes shut tighter, but even that couldn’t block it all out.
Soft sheets were under her and a warm, heavy quilt on top. Her fingertips moved along the stitched surface, and she breathed in the earthy scent of wood. It was warm but not too warm. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell a light was on to her left, probably the lamp on her nightstand.
Chloe moved her arm a bit to try and find the edge of the bed, but something pulled at her skin and stung a bit, inhibiting her movements. When she opened her sore eyelids, she could feel the bits of crust that had collected in the corners tumble down her cheeks.
She blinked a few times until the misty clouds didn’t obscure her vision anymore and then looked down at her arm. Just below her elbow was wrapped in tight bandages. Her opposite wrist was bound in the same way with white gauzy dressing.
Wit
h another tilt of her head, she confirmed that the only light in her bedroom came from the lamp beside her. Then she heard a stirring to her right.
She saw Gavin, sitting in the armchair that once resided in the living room but which was now drawn up close to her bedside.
He looked surprisingly well. He no longer looked as sickly as he had when he’d begun to detox. He was still pale but not as pale as he had been, and everything about him seemed to shine, from his eyes to the health of his hair, he appeared radiant.
Gazing into his smiling green eyes, it all came back to her. She remembered blood, a scream that she would have expected to come out of a cougar, the pain, and the feeling of being drained dry like a straw sucking up nothing but air at the bottom of an empty cup.
Most of all, she remembered the fear.
With sleep still lingering like a fog over her mind, she couldn’t speak just yet. But Gavin’s warm and encouraging smile was enough. He seemed relieved.
“You’re awake,” he stated, almost as if he needed to tell himself rather than her.
Chloe took a deep breath, though her chest ached with protest. Gavin took up her hand and held it between his warm palms. Her skin must have been cold, judging by how extraordinarily hot his felt against hers. It took her a moment to realize that his hands were that warm, so different than when she last felt them.
“What happened?” Chloe asked, her voice cracking a bit in an effort to speak.
Gavin shifted to the edge of the chair seat. “You’ve been asleep for days.”
Chloe took in his outfit–a black, long sleeve shirt that looked soft and inviting, and she could see a bit of the jeans material that covered his thighs. Then she took an assessment of herself. If her memory was correct, she wasn’t wearing this pair of pajamas out in the woods when they confronted that vampire.
The vision of a face, noble and topped with long blonde hair, came to her mind.
“Terrance,” she muttered.
“You don’t have to worry about him. He won’t be bothering anyone in Carter Lake again, or anywhere else for that matter.”
She looked up at Gavin’s face, so bright with confidence and an underlying twinge of guilt. “You…?”
But she didn’t need to finish it. Chloe might not have been the sharpest tool in the box some days, but she could put two and two together. Terrance was dead, and Gavin was the one who killed him.
The blood she saw just before passing out wasn’t hers. It was Terrance’s. Chloe couldn’t say she was disappointed. The town was safe, and the children had been avenged by the same type of creature as the one that killed them. It seemed ironic in hindsight.
“My clothes…”
“I changed them. Under the circumstances, I found it necessary.”
Chloe didn’t want to think too deeply about the fact that Gavin had seen her practically naked. It wasn’t a huge concern of hers at the time.
Using what little strength her long rest had given her, Chloe tried to push herself up, but Gavin touched her shoulder. He was gentle enough, but it felt as if she had been stabbed with a fistful of pins.
“Don’t sit up. You’re still weak from the transfusion.”
Chloe let herself slide back down as she gave him a look of utter confusion and horror. “Transfusion?”
Gavin nodded, appearing a little grim now. There was something he wasn’t telling her.
“What happened? Tell me everything. Please?” she begged.
He cleared his throat and leaned his elbows against the edge of the mattress, her hand still clasped in his.
“After you passed out, I…” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed down the harsh emotions. “I killed Terrance, then I saw how badly you were hurt. If I hadn’t done it, you would have died.”
“I brought you back to the cabin and then went to the clinic in town. I read about blood transfusions once and how they saved lives. I broke into the clinic and took the supplies I needed. The only way I could tell which type of blood you needed was by the smell. I never noticed before, but human blood types smell different from one another.
“I came back after also grabbing a medical book from one of the doctor’s homes and performed the transfusion. I admit, it was crudely done under these conditions, but it proved successful.” He gave her a weak smile. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up every since.”
Chloe turned her head to scan around the room and she now noticed the pile of used hospital equipment in the corner. An unrepressed smile came to her lips as she thought of all the trouble Gavin had gone through for her.
A million things could have happened to him, but he took the risks for her anyway. Chloe ignored the knowledge that he stole from a hospital. The supplies could have been used on someone else more worthy of being saved, but Chloe was too tired to argue or reprimand him.
But her smile faded when the rest of her thoughts caught up with her. She gazed up at Gavin’s face and saw he was still pale. He was still a vampire. But, if she had been asleep for days, that meant…
“You cheated,” she said. She wasn’t angry, she wasn’t offended. Only concerned.
Gavin quirked one side of his face and nodded. “I had to. You were bleeding so much, and I refused to partake the way that Terrance did.”
Chloe also remembered how he had played a part toward both her and Terrance. He pretended like he would bite her neck where Terrance had cut it, but he didn’t. Not even a lick. Well, he licked plenty, just not any of her blood. Her stomach went tight when she thought of the way he held her so close and caressed her waist.
“What did you do then?” she asked.
Gavin opened his mouth to answer her, but then shook his head. “It’s best if I don’t tell you.”
Chloe peered at him worriedly. “You didn’t feed on a nurse, did you?”
The tension in the room broke when he let out a soft chuckle. “No, not a nurse. Not a human.”
If his nighttime meal had been an animal of some sort, what was the problem in telling her? Unless it wasn’t an animal. Chloe’s eyes went wide.
“Terrance?”
Gavin didn’t respond, only pressed his lips into a thin line and stared. He didn’t have to speak a word to tell her that her assumption was right. Terrance had made himself useful by dying. Not only was the town safe, but Gavin had gotten the strength needed to save Chloe.
“And you feel ok?” she questioned.
He nodded. “Yes, I feel fine.”
But there was an underlying tremor in the way he said it. No, he wasn't all fine. Something else happened, but he wasn't telling her. She leveled a look at him.
Gavin tucked his chin low and avoided eye contact while he explained, "I really am fine. I just wasn't prepared for how his blood would affect me."
"How did it affect you?"
He lifted his head, his eyes wandering around the room as if looking for a way to explain exactly what he felt. "I wasn't aware that if a vampire drank the blood of another vampire, he would also take on their knowledge."
Chloe blinked. "So you know everything he knew?"
Gavin sighed. "In a manner of speaking, yes. I also shared in his experiences, such as places that he's traveled and things that he's done."
She paused to reflect on that for a moment. "Does that mean you experienced when he killed those children?"
Gavin wouldn't answer her. And in his silence, she knew the answer. Yes, he experienced the thrill of killing an innocent child.
"What else did you learn?" she asked.
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I learned everything his mentor had taught him. But I didn't find out the one thing I want to know so desperately."
"What's that?"
He looked up at her with eyes full of despair. "How to survive the seven days without blood. There is no easy way about it, Chloe."
Somehow, she knew that to be true all along. There was no quick fix to anything. There never was. There was nothing but hard work and patience on th
e journey to getting what they both wanted. But she accepted that, and all they could do was to move on.
“Did you feed tonight?”
“I’ve fed every night while you’ve been recovering. I’ve had to.”
Chloe nodded in understanding. She couldn’t expect him to continue the detox program with her lamed up in bed.
Gavin brought the back of her hand to his mouth and kissed her skin affectionately. “I’ve stayed with you every night, except when I had to leave briefly to eat. There were some moments when I could barely hear your heartbeat.”
She was touched by his declaration of devotion and concern.
“Thank you,” she whispered as her eyes began to water with sentiment.
Gavin smiled and leaned over to kiss her forehead. She must have looked a mess, having not showered or washed her face in days. Yet still, he showed his affection for her. Brent never even wanted to be in the same room with her when she was sick with seasonal allergies because of how disgusting she looked with a puffy nose and swollen eyes.
He settled back in the chair and asked, “Are you hungry?”
Her stomach answered him back almost immediately and he grinned.
She giggled. “Do you even know how to cook?”
“I won’t lie. I can’t. My wife always took care of that, and I never saw the need for such a skill afterward. However, I can procure a snack if it’s already made.”
Chloe felt the all-too-familiar sting at the mention of his late wife but brushed it off. “I guess I can go for a granola bar from the pantry.”
Gavin nodded and left the bedroom. She could hear his footsteps all the way down the stairs and the sharp smack of the pantry door hitting the cabinet frame in the kitchen. He was back at her side in no time at all, opening the orange and gold wrapper for her.
She took each bite gingerly, chewing slowly until the movement no longer hurt so badly. It was surprising to acknowledge, but even her teeth hurt a bit. All the while, Gavin sat and watched her. Surely there was something better for him to do, but when Chloe thought about it, there truly wasn’t. His whole world revolved around her now. If she wasn’t so important to Gavin, he wouldn’t have been so attentive.
Passions Page 24