by D. N. Hoxa
“Ms. Vaughn, your cousin is not in a hospital. He is here, in our custody,” Ross said. All this time, he spoke to me about vampires and shifters and whatever, but this was the most ridiculous thing of all.
“Whatever you say, Mr. Ross. I’m ready to leave.” I stood up so that they saw that I really meant it, and this time I didn’t intend to sit back down.
When both Ross and Foster stood up, I was surprised, though I’d been expecting it.
“Please follow us, Miss Vaughn,” Ross said and made for the door.
“Gladly.” My smile was so big, my cheeks hurt.
It was over. I was done with all of it, and I couldn’t wait to get to Luke.
Chapter Five
I was wrong.
It wasn’t over. This was just the beginning.
Ross and Foster took me through the door to the right. The other side was as white as everything else in that place, except, at the end of the corridor, there was a transparent box mounted on the wall. Ross and Foster opened it and began to take one of each of the things that were in there: A green mantel, a mask and a pair of white latex gloves. Were we in a goddamn hospital?
“Miss Vaughn, if you will,” Ross said, and he waved at the box. They wanted me to put those things on, too?
It sure looked like it. With a sigh, I got a mantel, a mask and a pair of gloves and put them on.
When Ross and Foster—both looking ridiculous—saw that I was ready, they went for the door.
I thought nothing else I saw in that place would surprise me anymore, but I was wrong.
The room was square and large. No windows, but the light floor to ceiling panels on the front wall gave you the impression that the sun was shining brightly outside.
The beds set in perfect formation to my left tied my stomach in knots. Not all of them were filled—only seven of the twelve. A dark veil fell in front of my eyes as Ross made his way to the last bed. The ground began to shake—or was it just me? Someone grabbed my arm and pushed me forward, but I wasn’t in control of my body. I have no idea how my legs even held me.
The people lying on the beds looked sick. Worse than sick. Their eyes were closed, their skins pale. Two of them looked like corpses, and four of them looked close.
The last one looked like he was sleeping.
It was Luke.
Was this a trick? Were they messing with my mind the way Naomi Cruz had in the interrogation room? Because Luke’s face was right in front of mine and I could feel his breath blowing on my cheeks. My hands shook badly as I reached out to touch his face. The second my skin connected with his, a cry escaped me.
He was real.
“What have you done to him?” I whispered and pulled down the mask, my voice a mess, my heart all over the place. Tears kept streaming from my eyes but I didn’t even bother to wipe them.
“We didn’t do anything, Miss Vaughn. You saw the man who did.”
Red Tie’s face came to my mind in a rush as I kissed Luke’s forehead. That guy had bitten him on the neck. I couldn’t see the wound because bandages were all over his neck, and I was thankful for that. I didn’t want to see blood, ever again in my life.
“Luke, wake up,” I said to him and caressed his face. He looked so peaceful, exactly like he did when he was asleep. I didn’t care what anybody said. He was going to wake up, right now. “Please, Luke. Wake up. I need you.” The sound of my voice was going to guide him back to life, just like his would guide me. All I had to do was tell him. “You won’t believe what’s happened to me. I think I’ve lost my mind. Remember when we tried to imagine how crazy people thought? I can tell you all about it now. All you have to do is wake up.” My voice was cheerful, so full of hope.
But Luke didn’t move. His eyes didn’t pop open like I expected. It didn’t worry me, though. He was coming back to me, I was sure of it. Any second now.
“I need you, Luke. I have no idea what to do. Please, just help me get you out of here,” I told him. “I’m begging you, wake up so we can leave. Las Vegas is waiting for us, remember?”
I kissed his cheeks and his temples, I kissed his eyelids, but he still didn’t move. If it wasn’t for the breath blowing slowly against my face, I would’ve thought he was really gone, just like I had back at the club.
“Please, Luke! Wake up,” I shouted. My tears had made a mess out of the white shirt he was wearing but he wouldn’t care. “Come on, I need you. You can’t leave me alone here. Please, open your eyes.” And when that didn’t work, I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Wake up!”
Someone grabbed me from behind. “Miss Vaughn, we need you to calm down.”
“No! Let me go. He’s going to wake up. I just need to tell him,” I cried. “Just let me go!”
“I can’t,” Ross said. “I’m sorry, but if you don’t calm down, we’re going to have to make you.”
Without warning, a woman with blonde hair, black eyes and a white mask on her face, appeared in front of me with a syringe in her hand. My heart almost leaped out of my chest. They were going to knock me unconscious until…when?
Pulling my lips together and ordering my body to stand still in those moments was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Luke was right there and they wouldn’t let me even talk to him. But it was okay. I could see him. He was alive and breathing. The rest, I’d figure it all out. I just needed to convince these people that I could control myself so that they’d get that fucking needle out of my face.
“I’m okay,” I breathed after a deep breath. Ross let go of me. I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hands and slowly walked over to Luke again. Because I was no longer crying and calling for him to wake up, nobody stopped me.
“Please try not to touch him,” the woman with the needle said. She sounded bitter, like she regretted not being able to use the syringe on me.
“I have to touch him. It’ll make it easier for him to wake up.” If Luke felt my hands on his face for long enough, it was going to do the trick.
“Miss Vaughn, I’m afraid your cousin is not going to wake up,” Ross said.
“Of course, he will.” He just needed time.
“No, Miss Vaughn. He has devamp venom in his veins. He’s not going to wake up.”
“Stop it,” I hissed. How dare he stand there and tell me about Luke? I knew my cousin better than he knew himself. He was going to wake up, and that was that.
“You’re not listening to me, Nova!” Ross said, his voice slightly raised. “He will not wake up.”
Something about the way he said it made the strength run away from my body. I fell against Luke’s bed. My eyes filled with tears again, but I refused to blink. I refused to stop looking at his face. God, he was so handsome. Just the sight of him brightened up my whole day.
“The venom of a demonic vampire puts both humans and impari in a coma-like state. So far, nobody that has been bitten ever woke up,” Ross continued. “All these people here suffered the same fate. The longest anyone stayed alive after being bitten is thirty-one days.”
With every word he spoke, he shattered every piece of my already broken heart. My whole body ached and my stomach rolled so fast, I was sure I was going to throw up soon.
“There must be something you can do,” I whispered, terrified of looking at the other people, lying on the beds like Luke. God, they looked so bad, and the thought of Luke getting to that point made me want to pull all my hair out.
“I’m afraid there isn’t,” Ross said with a sigh. “Only the blood of the devamp that bit him can bring him back.”
A bell rang in my head. I stopped breathing. Even my heart stopped beating. Every cell in my body hung onto those words.
Strength came back to me as fast as it left me. Adrenaline filled my body and blood rushed to my cheeks. My eyes closed and behind my lids, I saw Red Tie’s face. I’d memorized every detail of it back at the club, where I swore to myself that I’d find him, and kill him if he hurt us.
Well, he did hurt
us. And his blood was going to bring Luke back.
I no longer cared how absurd I sounded to myself. I didn’t give a shit how impossible all of it seemed to the rational part of me. Yes, there were vampires and shifters and pixies and whatever—all of it could be true, or not. It didn’t matter to me.
What mattered was that I was going to find Red Tie, and I was going to kill Red Tie, and I was going to bring his blood back to Luke.
“I know what he looks like. I’ve memorized every detail about him. I can find him,” I said to Ross when I stood up and faced him. Now, it was okay to look away from Luke. It was okay because I knew exactly what I was going to do.
The blond woman with the black eyes behind Ross and Foster tried to stifle a laugh. It sounded like she was laughing at me.
I narrowed my brows at Ross. What the hell was her problem?
“Miss Vaughn, I’m afraid it’s not that simple. There is a lot you don’t know about devamps,” he said.
“Then tell me.” I was all ears.
“I thought you said you wanted to leave.”
Rolling my eyes, I took a step closer to him. “It would’ve spared us both the headache if you’d told me Luke was here from the beginning.” Instead, he’d wasted both our time with the stupid interrogation.
Once again, Ross looked at Foster, and Foster only nodded. Could the guy even speak?
“Like I said before, demonic vampires are a very recent breed. We don’t know where they came from, or how, but so far, only seven of them exist in the world. They are better than the normal vampire, faster, smarter, hungrier. Their venom is something we haven’t been able to study yet, but it is deadly, as you can see. I must warn you, the theory that their blood can heal your cousin and wake him up from the coma is just a theory. But we came up with it after analyzing its components with what we had to work with, which is the blood of devamp servants.”
“Why didn’t you study the blood of a devamp instead?” Why bother with the servants?
Ross looked down at his feet. “We’ve never been able to kill or catch one, Miss Vaughn. In the twenty-two years that they’ve existed, we’ve never been able to contain any.”
Holy shit. That’s why the blonde woman had laughed.
“And the guy that bit Luke is a devamp? Are you sure?” I said, then it occurred to me: I’d actually slapped a demonic vampire.
“Yes. Only their venom can do this.” Ross nodded at Luke.
“But it can be done, right? They can be killed.”
“Theoretically, yes. Decapitation does the trick for any and all beings.”
“So why hasn’t anybody done it yet? You talked about the Senior Order like they were a big deal.”
“The Senior Order is a big deal, only devamps are an even bigger one. We haven’t been able to kill one, but not for lack of trying. They are the most powerful impari the world has come across. Nothing we’ve done so far has worked,” Ross said, sadness lacing his every word.
“So what, you just gave up?” If they did, that wouldn’t mean that I would, too, but it sure would’ve been better to have some help.
“On the contrary,” Ross said, finally smiling a little. “We’ve been working with teams created with the sole purpose to defeat devamps. We’ve put all of our resources and our knowledge in those impari.” He sounded proud of it, too.
“Then count me in,” I said with a nod. A team sounded better than alone.
Another stifled laugh from the blonde woman standing by the door.
“Cadence, can you please leave us?” Ross said before I could ask her what her problem was with me.
Without a word, Cadence lowered her head and walked out the door.
“I don’t think you understand half of what we are talking about here, Miss Vaughn,” Ross said with a regretful sigh. “But if you really killed a servant the way you said you did, I think there is a chance to include you in my team.”
“Really?” I searched for Luke’s hand and wrapped it in mine to give me some reassurance.
“A servant is as powerful as a vampire, and to cut through its skin with a beer bottle is pretty impressive. I’m not sure exactly what you are, Miss Vaughn, but if you could kill with a beer bottle, I’m keen to see what you can do with a gun.”
I grinned. “Me, too.” If it meant getting to Red Tie and waking Luke up, I couldn’t wait to become the most skilled gun woman in the goddamn world.
“There are some procedures to be followed, first,” Ross said. He looked a bit more relaxed than before. “You need to be filled in about everything we know regarding devamps.”
“What kind of procedures?”
“You will have to take Scientia, which is basically an affinity test that will tell us exactly on which level you stand as a mage.”
There he went again, calling me that. A mage. Could it be that he was actually right?
But how could he be, when I was twenty years old? If I’d been anything else other than plain old Nova Vaughn, wouldn’t I have noticed already?
“After that comes the training.”
“Training? But you said thirty-one days. There’s no time for training.” If I didn’t make it in time and Luke…No, I couldn’t even think about it.
“There is not enough time for proper training, yes, but you will need to learn the basics. You will learn how to work with the team at the very least.”
“But—”
“No buts, Miss Vaughn. I’m afraid that is non-negotiable.”
That clamped my mouth shut pretty effectively. “Okay.” I had no other choice. Besides, training would make sure that the next time I saw Red Tie, he wouldn’t get away from me with only a slap on his face.
“I suggest you clean yourself up while we prepare for Scientia,” Ross said.
“Can I stay here for just a bit longer?” I wanted to be alone with Luke. He needed to hear all that had happened, conscious or not. He needed to know that I was going to bring him back, one way or another.
“Not for too long, Miss Vaughn. You smell of alcohol and blood,” Ross muttered, and without waiting for another word, he turned around, and with Foster in tow, they both walked out of the room.
Chapter Six
Looking at Luke without seeing his warm brown eyes was strange. I sat on the bed and I held his hand in mine, and for a while, I just listened to him breathe.
It’s amazing how one person can make your whole life better with a single smile. Luke was that for me. He was my better, though he looked nothing like me. His brown hair had that beautiful golden hue to it, and his naturally tanned skin was the complete opposite to my pale one. His eyes were a warm brown, and mine an ice cold blue. Together with my dark, long hair, they sometimes made me look like an alien, especially when I was a teenager. His thin lips and small mouth with the small, square teeth made for the cutest smile in history. My mouth was big and my teeth slightly inward, which made smiling for pictures a no-no. Looking at us, you could never tell that we were related. Guess we both took after our mothers. But we were the same where it counted: on the inside.
I remembered the first time we ever had a serious conversation when we were kids. We were six years old and the next day was the first day of school…
***
Uncle Henry had been angrier than usual that day. He’d yelled at the both of us through breakfast, lunch and dinner. Only after I grew up did I realize what had pissed him off: he’d had to buy us new things for school, because he wouldn’t allow the outside world to know what went on behind the closed doors of his house.
He didn’t beat us, though, so in my young mind that was all that mattered. When he did beat us for stupid things—like when we accidentally spilled milk on the table, or when we forgot to put the ball in the garage, or when we broke one of our toys—I usually cried myself to sleep, but that night, sleep was nowhere to be seen.
I sneaked out of my room while Uncle Henry slept, and I went into the attic. The attic was small and full of things—mostly tools—
and it was dusty, too, but it had a window that looked at the street in front of the house and it was nice to just see the people passing by and try to guess what their lives were like when they were kids.
That night, Luke found me hiding behind a cardboard box, peering out the corner of the window as if what I was doing was a crime and if I got caught, death would be my punishment.
“What are you doing here, Nova? Why aren’t you asleep?” Luke whispered. He was taller than me, and bigger, too. Because of that, it looked to me as if his father hit him twice as much as he hit me.
“I can’t sleep,” I said, hugging my knees to my chest. The attic was cold, though the weather outside was nice.
“Are you excited for tomorrow?” he asked, smiling even though I knew he was just as scared as I was.
“No.” I wasn’t excited. I was terrified.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” he whispered, looking out the window.
When I said nothing, he dragged himself closer to me until our shoulders touched. Like that, we stood still for a few minutes and just looked at whoever passed by the house.
“What if it isn’t?” I finally asked him. My stomach was a mess and holding it with my arms didn’t help in easing the sensation.
“It is. You’ll see,” Luke said.
“But what if they beat us, too?” There were a lot of people at school. That’s what the kids in the neighborhood we sometimes played with said. What if they, too, hit us like Uncle Henry?
Luke didn’t say anything for a very long time. Eventually, he moved away, and I’d been leaning my head against his, so I almost fell to the ground. But he caught me by the arm and sat me up again.
“Nova, nobody is going to beat you at school,” he said, but I didn’t believe him.
“I’m scared.” I didn’t want to cry in front of the other kids, but when it hurt, I couldn’t help the tears. Then, everybody was going to laugh at me, too.
“I’ll tell you what, if anybody beats you, I’ll beat them back,” Luke said.