Holly picked up the supplies she would need to procure the last pint of blood that Ryan would need and we all followed.
Duncan lay her down on top of the covers and I retrieved a fleece throw to put over top of her to keep her warm as Holly set about her work.
One bag was hooked up to drain from her left arm, while another bag, a full one, was hooked up to transfuse the blood we were going to take.
It had been a while since I fed and the smell of the blood was all though the house. From the freshly drained blood of my daughter, to the not so fresh bagged blood of all types. My stomach churned and hungered for sustenance.
Gavin must have heard my stomach rumbling because he motioned for me to follow him out into the hallway. When we were out there alone he shut the door and offered me his wrist.
“I better not,” I said. “It might stop me from being able to…” I was going to say ‘drain Ryan’ but the words wouldn’t come. Instead I said, “doing what I have to do.”
Gavin nodded in understanding and put his arms around me. “I need to get some air,” I said. “I’ll be back in five minutes. I’m just going to go outside.”
“Ok. Don’t be too long. I think Holly will be just about finished soon.”
“I won’t. I just need to get myself together.” I turned and walked away before he could say anything and headed down the stairs and out the front door.
I sat on the back steps looking out into the woods trying to find the courage to go back inside, but I was hesitant. The longer I sat there the less real the whole situation would be.
After a time I noticed nobody had come to get me and I assumed they were just giving me my space. I stood not knowing how much time had passed, although I was sure it had been more than five minutes, and headed for the door.
Just as I was about to turn something caught my attention. A rustling in the bushes, followed by a giant hoof, then six more pairs of hooves. Aries and the remaining satyrs were standing there looking at me now.
He certainly looked better than the last time I’d seen him. He had regained his bulk and was standing straighter and taller than I’d ever seen him. His old confidence was back, but still, he seemed humbled.
“Rachel,” he said. “Have you been well?”
I didn’t answer. “How did you know?” I asked.
“He’s my son. His blood calls to mine when it is time for him to come be with me. That time is now. I know we don’t have the numbers we once did to force you and so I won’t even try, instead I’m here to reason with you and to beg you if necessary. Please, turn the boy over to us. He belongs with us now.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “He’ll never be with you if I can help it.”
He gave a sad little smile. “You’re a fierce protector, little one. You and your mate both. You’ve done well by the boy. Don’t stop doing well by him now. Rachel, it’s time to let go. Please, I implore you, give me my son before something is done that can’t be undone.”
There was the sound of the door slamming behind me and Aries startled, jumping back a few steps. “What would you know about doing well by him? You forced him into being to serve yourself.”
Aries put his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to defend himself if need be but not in a confrontational manner. “Search your heart, vampire. You’ll see that he came into being in much the same way all children do. We do not bring our children into existence for their sake, we do it for our own. You have a blood child of your own. What is her purpose for being here?”
Gavin had no answer. Truth be told, neither did I. Aries had a point. Perhaps we were being hypocritical, and more so even than him. Jade had not been brought into being simply to help us turn Ryan, but we hadn’t exactly rejected that notion either.
“What we do or don’t do is none of your business.”
“He is my child as much as he is yours.”
Gavin stepped forward, forcing Aries back a few more steps. “Do yourself a favor, Aries. Get as far away from here as you can because as soon as I am able I will be coming for you.”
“To kill me no doubt. I won’t run from you vampire. Whatever is coming has been fifteen years in the making and I have no other children. I will stay put, right here, to make sure the boy is ok, no matter what the outcome might be for me.”
Gavin took my hand and began leading me back toward the house. “All the better. It will make it easier for me to kill you when the time comes.”
With that we went back inside. I turned to give Aries a last look before heading in. He was standing with head down, leaning against a tree and mumbling something, something I assumed to be a prayer, to himself.
Chapter Four
Jade lay on the bed, deep in trance, deeper than anyone but Duncan could possibly put her under. I watched as Holly took the blood, an entire bag that equalled one pint, out of my small, now frail looking little girl. She seemed to pale and I sensed that had she been conscious her stomach would have been cramping up after the process as it normally did. Thankfully she was not feeling anything.
Holly took the last bag of blood and capped it off, handing it to Gavin. “Give him this bag first, then we’ll work our way back from newest to oldest. I think that would be best.” Then she started the process of transfusing Jade to replace the blood she had just removed. “She should recover quickly. She’s small but she’s very healthy.” She must have seen the look of concern on my face because she said, “Don’t worry, Rachel. She’ll be just fine. Are you ready?”
Whatever doubts I’d had up until that point had to be put away. This was it. I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “Let’s get it over with.”
Duncan stayed with Jade, keeping her under the deep blood influence to make sure she wouldn’t wake up while Holly, Gavin and I made our way down the hall to Ryan’s room.
Gavin entered first, followed by Holly and she seated herself on the bed, taking his vitals. When she took his temperature she gasped. “What’s wrong?” I said.
“The average human temperature is between thirty six point five and thirty seven point five Celsius. The temperature when they are ill is between thirty seven point five and thirty eight point three. Right now Ryan’s temperature is bordering on forty five point two. This is definitely it. We better get started. Rachel, come sit on the bed.”
I did. I sat on the opposite side of Holly as Gavin pulled up a chair, placing it as close to me as he possibly could. I pulled back the thick blankets and saw the redness of Ryan’s skin. The fever was indeed unusual and was claiming him, inside and out. I placed my hands under his back and neck and pulled his body, radiating with heat, to me, holding his perspiring large frame in my arms as I felt the slickness of his skin.
Just then he woke. Delirious with fever he said. “Mom, that man in my dreams. The one with the hoofs that I used to dream about when I was little. He’s coming for me isn’t he?”
Indeed he was. He was waiting right outside, but instead of confirming this I said, “Everything is all right, Ryan. Close your eyes and rest.”
“I’ll miss you,” he whispered.
My heart broke. He knew. He knew instinctively that his body was changing and that his time with us was growing short.
“You won’t need to miss me.” I said. “I’m going to help you. I’m going to keep you here.”
I turned his face away from me and forced my fangs to run out, my eyes filling with heat and blackening a moment later.
The instant I pierced his skin he let out a scream, followed by a soft gurgling noise as I placed my mouth over his right jugular vein. When the blood hit my stomach I wretched a tiny bit, but Holly placed her hand on my shoulder and said, “Keep going, Rachel. Quickly now.” She moved her ear close to Ryan’s chest, listening for his heartbeat, keeping a close watch to help me stop the draining at the right moment.
Ryan let out one more gasp and, thankfully, lost consciousness. His blood was sloshing around in my stomach now and all I wanted to do was stop and vomit. My
eyes watered, my throat burned and the smell of his human/satyr blood made my entire system cry out in protest. It was all I could do to keep drinking.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Holly told me to stop. Ryan’s heart beat was very faint and a moment later it stopped completely. I looked at him. His eyes closed in peaceful sleep, he looked all but dead, and effectively he was. Holly grabbed the fullest bag of blood, the one we had just taken from Jade and hurriedly cut a hole in it with some scissors she had standing by. She began the process of emptying the bag into his mouth by forcing his jaw open. After about half the bag was gone he lapsed into the same pattern all vampires have when they take their first blood from their maker. His eyes snapped open, he growled and began to drink the red liquid quickly as if he’d been starving all his life.
I watched until the first bag was done and then I could stand it no more. I ran out the door and down the hallway to the bathroom where I collapsed on to my knees in front of the toilet and vomited uncontrollably. My body was wracked with convulsions as I was propelled over, hugging myself at the waist while the precarious blood made its way out of my system.
Black inky spots formed in front of my eyes and finally I collapsed on the bathroom floor, totally spent. Some sort of commotion was taking place down the hall and I could hear voices, alternating between whispers and shouts in panic. I rolled over, determined to crawl back down the hallway to see what was happening. Had something gone wrong? Was Ryan dead? Was he alive? Had something happened to Jade?
On hands and knees I crawled to the bathroom door, looking down the corridor for some explanation as to what was happening, but still all I heard were voices and now loud stumping. The words, ‘monster’ and ‘mistake’ and ‘too late’ were being uttered, although I didn’t know in what context or if I was dreaming or hallucinating them in some way.
I leaned forward against the wall, bracing myself with my hands and attempted to stand. It almost worked for a moment and then I fell backwards. Down, down, down. I was falling as if I had passed through the floorboards of the upper floor and into some kind of a pit. Perhaps I had visited some kind of misery on my son that had caused me to be cast down into hell. If so I was sure that I was quite deserving. Just when I was sure I was going to fall forever, that I would fall and fall for all eternity, everything finally went black.
Chapter Five
Heavy breathing and loud rhythmic thumps awakened me. I opened my eyes to see that I was in a room filled with people, all of whom had their backs turned to me. One by one they began to turn around in procession and each face was the face of someone I had known.
Firstly, the woman I had fed on right after I had turned vampire. A young woman who had crashed her car outside my home. I had, without meaning to, killed her. She looked at me with large sad eyes and I knew her thoughts. She was mourning for the life I had taken from her. The friends and family she had known, the husband and children she’d never had a chance to have.
Second was James. He turned to me smiling his arrogant grin and licked his lips. He wanted to humiliate me again, to hurt me even more a second time, and finally to murder me. I shuddered.
Third, I saw Zale. His eyes so trusting and voice so soft as he once again said the words he’d uttered upon dying… ‘I forgive you.’ He held out his hand and dangling from it was the pendant he had given me. The one that had saved my baby daughter.
The fourth figure turned around and I lost my breath at the sight of him. Ryan stood, a gaping hole in his neck where I’d bitten him. Blood rushed out of it and began to pool at his feet on the floor.
“How could you do this to me?”he said over and over. “Let me be with my father. I want to be with my father. I cannot be as you are.”
A moment later his face began to dissolve and melt, the flesh peeling off the bone and slopping to the floor into the pool of blood.
“Ryan!” I screamed. “I’m sorry.”
***
Something wet was slapping me in the face. “Rachel,” somebody said.
I bolted upright to discover I was in my own bed, Duncan sitting over me with a washcloth, gently dabbing my forehead.
“Easy, girl,” Duncan said. “Lay back down. You passed out. That satyr blood isn’t good for the system. You were pretty sick, but you’ll live.”
I tried to swing my feet over the side of the bed so I could run down the hall to check on Ryan and Jade. “Lay back down. Everything is quiet for now.”
“For now? What do you mean? Is everything ok? What happened to Ryan? Is he all right? And Jade?”
He said nothing at first, simply continued to dab my cheeks with the warm water. “Gavin is with Ryan.”
“Something is the matter. Why don’t you tell me what it is? Where’s Holly?”
“Holly is with Ryan too.”
I reached out and stopped the motion of the washcloth, taking it from his hand and laying it aside. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Averting his eyes he said, “I can’t.”
“You can’t? Why not?”
“Rachel, I can’t tell you what’s wrong because, well, we don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Tell me exactly what happened, please.”
Duncan sighed and was about to speak again when the door opened to reveal Gavin standing there. Duncan patted my knee and stood up without a word, then exited. Gavin sat down on the bed with me.
“Feeling better?”
“I’m not sick anymore, but feeling better? No. Not until someone tells me what’s going on.”
Gavin took my hand. “Like Duncan said, we’re not sure what’s going on. He’s resting. He appears to be in the same transformative sleep that we all go into, but…”
“But what?”
“Can you stand? You should come see for yourself.”
I swung my legs over the bed once more and with Gavin’s help got to my feet. I was weak but not overly so and so after a few steps with his help I was able to balance well enough to walk on my own.
As we made our way to Ryan’s room I stopped to look in on Jade. Nothing bad seemed to be going on there. She slept peacefully and Holly had taken all of the medical tools out of the way. Now she just looked as if she was resting normally on any given morning.
Next we found our way to Ryan’s room. Holly was sitting with her back turned, blocking my view of his face so I didn’t see what everyone was talking about at first. Then Holly turned upon hearing us and as she rose I saw what the problem was.
Ryan was indeed in some kind of transformative sleep, but his appearance had changed. He was even bigger than he had been a few hours ago. More muscular and his long hair had grown at least another four to six inches. About three inches from his brow I could see two very large protrusions beginning to break the skin. The beginning of horns.
“What on earth? How?”
“I don’t know, Rachel,” Holly said. “I can’t say for certain but there’s a possibility he might be some kind of hybrid.”
She walked over to Ryan and with her thumb pulled back the skin of his upper lip to reveal a long sharp fang. Stumbling forward I sat down on the bed and my head fell forward onto Ryan’s bare chest. I began to openly sob. “What have we done?”
“Listen you guys,” Holly said. “I know you don’t want to think about something like this right now, but there’s a good possibility that you might have to…”
“Have to what?” I asked.
“Rachel, by the looks of things he’s not going to belong in either world, and he certainly can’t pass for one of the humans anymore. Depending on his temperament you might have to make a hard decision.”
“She means she wants us to think about killing him if he’s violent, don’t you?” Gavin said, his voice hard and angry.
“Yes,” she admitted. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, and not just violent. We don’t know what he will be like. Lots of things could happen and he may or may not have a diminished mental capacity. I suggest you prepare your
selves for every possible outcome.”
“Do you think he’ll stay under for the full three days?”
“He’s sleeping like he will, but, like I said before these are uncharted waters for me. I really can’t give you any better answers than I already have.”
I nodded and put my head back down on my son’s chest, letting the tears fall as the door clicked softly shut behind me. Gavin and I were alone now. His hand came to rest on my shoulder and the weight of it startled me. I jumped up, spun around and pushed him against the wall.
“This was a mistake,” I shouted. “We should have known all along. Look at him! He’ll be an outcast among both people even if he’s somewhat normal.”
Gavin looked as guilty as I felt. In all our research we had never come across this situation and it had never crossed our minds that something so out of the ordinary would happen. We thought we could have our boy as one or the other, not some mix of the two.
“What are we going to do?” I said.
That was the wrong question to ask because Gavin placed his hands over his face, leaned against the floor and slumped down the wall. “I don’t know.”
Nothing more was said for the better part of an hour as both of us simply sat, continuing to stare in both wonder and horror at our son. Finally I stood. “I’m going downstairs,” I said. “I need to find something to eat.”
“I’ll come with you. Looks like he’s out for a while. Holly figures he’s in a regular transformative sleep, as far as she can tell anyway.”
I nodded and we made our way downstairs to where Holly and Duncan were sitting. Holly hung up the phone just as we sat down. “Just checking on Ruby,” she said. Then she sat there in silence, as stunned as the rest of us.
“Does anyone want anything to eat?” she asked some time later. Nobody spoke up. Although I had come down into the kitchen with that intent, the thought of food made my stomach turn and so I decided to forgo it. We all continued to sit there in silence, Duncan periodically stirring his tea and peering into his tall white cup as if looking for answers.
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: Sacrificial Children Page 13