Blood Haze

by L. R. Potter

  Without a word, Nicolas dragged her out of the room by her hair. She was too stunned to notice; almost wanting the pain against her scalp. Lynx… her Lynx, was… a monster as well. Suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore. Suddenly, she wanted it over. Nothing she knew was true. Everything was a lie. Oh, God! She’d made love to him. Her stomach roiled violently.

  “I’m going to be sick,” she whimpered.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You’ll be wallowing in it. That definitely won’t be a pretty sight.”

  He dragged her back into the dining room where the bodies were lying scattered about the room. “Let’s see Arabella. What am I going to do with you?” He looked around the room as she squirmed to get away from him, but his hold remained tight.

  “Let me go, you bastard! Let me go. You’re a monster… you’re all…” she gasped at the pain in her heart at the horror she’d just witnessed in the room where she’d experience such incredible love, “monsters,” she whispered.

  He laughed. “Monsters? Do you know the definition of a monster? No? Well, look it up. A monster is someone who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior. Who’s to say what’s acceptable? This is what we are… this is what we do. We are responsible in what we do. We could kill every one of you pathetic humans… but we don’t. We go out of our way to ensure you remain… comfortable.”

  She looked around the room littered with lifeless bodies. “How can you say that?”

  He glanced around and laughed. “As you know, things aren’t always as they appear.”

  Taking her further into the room, he dragged her through the next set of doors which opened up to the kitchen. He began opening and closing drawers until he found one with cooking twine in it. He tore off a length and bound her hands together. Shoving her back into the dining room, she tried to look anywhere but at the bodies. On the wall next to the kitchen was a brass ring mounted high on the wall, normally used to hold lanterns. He tugged her to it and threaded the rope attached to her wrists through it. He then hoisted her arms above her and tied it tight.

  With an evil laugh, he said, “Now, don’t go anywhere.”

  ~X~

  Her head was pounding and her arms ached. She didn’t know how long she’d been left there… there in the pits of hell! She shivered at the cold and her hands were numb – which was good as she’d rubbed them raw trying to escape. She hung limply from her wrists. She was having a hard time concentrating and her mind began to confuse reality with the glimpsing she’d had of this place. She swallowed hard as she could practically smell the blood that was everywhere and the metallic smell made her stomach roil. She looked around her, frantically. The bodies were scattered around her, their eyes opened and staring straight up... but there was no blood. She was really losing her mind.

  She looked up at the brass ring from which her wrists were suspended. She tried one more time to twist them out of the rope she was bound by, but winched in pain when the robe sliced into one of her wrists. In morbid fascination, she watched as the blood slid down her arm. She almost wished she could just bleed to death. She was just… so tired.

  The image of Lynx with the woman between his teeth flashed in her mind. Slowly, she allowed her body to go lax once more as her will to live faded away. She didn’t want to live knowing what she knew. She couldn’t face it. She allowed her eyes to close and waited for whatever fate awaited her.

  A snarling sound had her snatching her eyes open. She saw Lynx at the entrance of the room with Nicolas in his grasp. Fear wrapped around her like barbed-wire, biting into her skin as surely as Lynx’s teeth had bitten into the woman’s neck. Lynx threw Nicolas up against the wall. “What have you done to her? I told you she wasn’t to be touched!”

  “She will expose us! Surely you can see that. She must be taken care of. Now, you can do it… or I will!” Nicolas spat.

  As if in defeat, he slowly lowered Nicolas to his feet. “Get out,” he said gravelly.

  “Lynx…”

  “I said GET OUT!” he shouted.

  Arabella jumped at the vehemence of his tone and her heart began to beat against her chest like a drum. Nicolas straightened his jacket and cast a glare in her direction. “This is a problem, Lynx. A very big problem,” he said, before turning and walking away, shutting the door quietly behind him.

  Silence filled the room once again, the only sound being Lynx’s ragged breathing. Her heart really began to pound when he began to walk slowly toward her. What was he going to do? Would he kill her like he’d killed all these other people? Like her mother? Perversely, she couldn’t help but drink him in, she’d missed him so much – it didn’t seem to matter that he was a monster.

  He was dressed in a tux just like he’d worn the night at the Night Owl. He was so handsome, her heart lurched in her chest. She must really be losing her mind. That she could still find him attractive after what she’d just witnessed confused her. She remembered the last of her mother’s words as she stared at him with such intense longing, there is one who is not the same as the others. If you find him - trust him, he will save you. He is the only one who can. It had to be Lynx that would save her. Wouldn’t he? Her chest began to heave. But what if it was just what she wanted to believe?

  He stared at her with such sorrow, it seemed to spark her own – sorrow, at her complete devastation – sorrow, at the complete loss of her sanity. Tears spurted from her eyes. She knew she should be afraid as he approached her, but grief at her loss of him – in so many ways – took precedence. She sobbed when he reached her. With hands that trembled, he brushed his fingers against her face in that way of his. “Arabella, my Arabella,” he whispered.

  His familiar words and touch made her cry harder. She searched for something inside herself to push away from him with – fear, revulsion, anger – but she found nothing but want, need, and love.

  “What has he done to you? I’m so sorry. I never wanted you here. I never wanted you to see this… to know this. God! When I looked up and saw you… and knew you’d seen what I was doing…”

  Slowly, he reached up, and she flinched. His lips thinned, but he didn’t comment as he slowly unhooked her hands from the ring. She collapsed into him, her hands still bound. He caught her up to him. Again, she knew she should be afraid, but it was all blocked from her mind by the feel of being in his arms once more.

  “God, I’ve missed you,” he whispered against her ear.

  Her body began to shake. Immediately, he took off his jacket and placed it over her shoulders. Quickly, he untied her hands and studied her wrists. His face contorted in such pain, she flinched.

  “Damned bastard!” he muttered. Untucking his shirt, he tore a strip from the bottom. Then he tore that piece in two. He quickly wrapped her wrists up tightly.

  He pulled back and looked down into her face. Gone was the mask he’d hidden behind the last time she’d seen him two weeks ago. Now his face was etched with grief. “What’s going on?” she asked through trembling lips.

  He glanced around the room. “I don’t want to talk in here. I’m going to pick you up. I don’t want you to be frightened, okay?”

  She swallowed hard but nodded. He picked her up and moved her to a small room off the dining room. It’d probably been used as butler’s pantry at one time, but now was used mainly for storage. He sat her on a chair and squatted in front of her.

  He exhaled deeply. “I want you to know first off that I love you. I’ve loved you almost from the moment I saw you,” he said softly. “But what I am… what you are… I knew it was wrong. But I wanted you so much.”

  A sob rose up in her throat and she bowed her head against the pain of having her dream floating just beyond her grasp. “I don’t understand,” she cried. “What are you? What happened to all these people?” She struggled to catch her breath. “Nicolas killed my mother. Did you know that? Were you part of that?”

  He swallowed and shook his head. “I didn’t know until tonight.” He cupped her face in his hand. �
��I’m so sorry that my family keeps hurting you. I’m sorry you had to see what you saw.”

  She studied his face, trying to make sense out of a situation that made no sense. “What are you,” she asked raggedly.

  He blinked at her for several long moments, putting off the moment when she’d know the truth. “I’m a vampire,” he finally said.

  She closed her eyes against his words, not believing them, but the truth of his words was evident in the remembered pile of bodies, and what she’d witnessed him doing with her own eyes. But her mind still refused to believe them. “Like a cult or something?”

  Slowly, he shook his head. “No. A vampire, probably close to what your perception of what a vampire is.”

  This time it was she who shook her head. “No! It doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand. I mean, I’ve seen you out in the sunlight. I’ve seen your reflection in a mirror…” her voice trailed off as the absurdity of their conversation hit her.

  “Not those kind. Our haven at Night Shade is made up of purebred vampires. Because we were born to vampiral parents, we’re called Renatus vampires. We’re more closely related to humans than vampires infected by the venom.”

  Her brain scrambled to process his words. “Did you kill all these people?”

  He shook his head once more. “They’re not dead, they’re hazed.”

  “What does that mean?” she cried.

  “When you were in school, did you ever learn anything about the powers of the moon?” he asked patiently.

  She furrowed her brows at his question. She didn’t want to talk about the moon! With a shake of her head, she asked inanely, “Like the pull of the moon on the tides and such?”

  “Yes, like that. For vampires, especially for Renatus vampires, our very existence relies on the power of the moon. Every year on this day, July 27th, when the moon is at its biggest and brightest, we participate in what we call Blood Haze. Our bodies demand that we have what we call a ‘bleeding’, meaning to saturate our bodies with blood, lots of blood, in order to counterbalance the venom in our bodies. If we don’t do this, the venom will kill us.”

  “What happens to someone when you haze them?” she asked as she looked around the room as if she could still see the bodies.

  “We go into their minds and remove the part of the memory we don’t want them to remember. Tomorrow, they’ll all wake up and think they’ve had a really good time. All they’ll feel is a little hung over, a little weak, but very much alive... but with no memory of what really happened here.”

  She stared into his face, trying to think of any other plausible reasoning for what was in the next room. Her heart twisted as she searched his beautiful face. “You hurt me so bad,” she whispered on a sob.

  He hung his head to get away from her hurt. “I know,” he murmured.

  “Were you with that woman?”

  Slowly, he shook his head.

  “But you let me believe that you were when you knew how much it would hurt me?” she sobbed.

  “The lie was better than the truth, wouldn’t you agree?” he replied softly.

  “You told me once that the truth would set you free. You told me it was always better to know. Trust and truth, you said, trust and truth…”

  He cupped her face with one hand. “Do you remember I told you I’d been married before?”

  She nodded.

  “When she found out… what I am. She killed herself. I couldn’t take that risk with you… not with you. You were too precious to me. I didn’t want this for you,” he said sorrowfully.

  She leaned her forehead against his as sorrow at his pain ripped into her heart, “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  He gave her a small smile before pressing his lips against her forehead. A fist inside his chest squeezed his heart until he gasped at the pain. Here she was, dealing with the scariest thing in her life – because of him - and she was feeling sympathy for him. “It was a long time ago. But I wanted you to live your life not knowing about the monsters like me… like the vampire who’d attacked you.”

  “Oh, God! He’s still out there,” she cried fearfully.

  He wrapped his other hand around the nape of her neck. “No, he’s not. I destroyed him that day in the morgue. You don’t ever have to fear him ever again.”

  She sat back heavily in her chair and stared into his tortured and anguished face. Her lips began to tremble and with a hand that shook, she lifted it to tentatively touch him. She brushed her thumb against his lips – those magnificent lips which had kissed her so gently; had seared her body with such passion. Now it was gone. All the beauty they’d shared, gone… vaporized into nothingness. Her vision blurred once more as tears coursed down her cheeks.

  “You were my soul-mate… the other half of me. I felt it… I was so sure. I… I dreamt of you,” she whispered on a heaving breath. “How can this be true? I don’t know what to do. What do I do?”

  His chest expanded as pain tore through him. Sometimes knowing what had to be done didn’t make it easier. “You go out there and live the best damned life imaginable,” he said softly.

  “I don’t think I can. I don’t know how… not without you,” she sobbed as she threw her crudely-wrapped arms around his neck.

  He sucked in a breath at this torture. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed as tight as he could. He pressed his lips repeatedly against her head. “You are the bravest person I know. You deserve a wonderful life. I love you so much… so damned much! You are my heart… my soul.”

  “Is this goodbye?” she cried against his ear, her body quaking with harsh sobs.

  He closed his eyes tightly as his chest burned with what he was about to do. He pressed another kiss against her head before pulling back. He reached behind his neck and unfastened the chain suspended there. He’d not removed it since his mother had given it to him. He pressed a kiss against the pendant before carefully fastening it around her neck. “Do you remember the story I told you about this pendant, the crescent moon?”

  Her chin wobbled. “Your mom gave it to you so you would remember that life changes.”

  He nodded and once again cupped her tear-streaked face. He swallowed at the lump in his throat. “That’s right. And now, I want you to have it. Now you’ll always remember that life ebbs and flows. It will get better… with time. I promise.” He struggled to clear his throat. Raggedly he said, “I want to kiss you, okay?”

  With a catch in her voice, she replied, “Yes.”

  Slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers and pressed his lips gently against her trembling ones. He swallowed the sob which passed through her lips, trying to absorb her pain. With one last, lingering kiss, he drew back shakily. He smiled tenderly at her, and one last time whispered, “Arabella, my Arabella.”

  Then he raised his thumbs up to her temples and stared intently into her eyes. She held his gaze so trustingly, it felt like someone was reaching into his chest and ripping his heart out. Slowly, her eyes lost their focus and her body began to go limp and finally she slumped into his arms, staring up blankly toward the ceiling. He continued to stare into her eyes until every last memory of him was wiped from her mind. She would not remember anything from right before they’d met that night at the Night Owl.

  He gathered her limp body against his own as harsh, racking sobs tore from his chest and he howled against the agony. He’d not had a choice. Hazing her was the best thing for her… the only thing. While she would never remember him, he knew he’d never, ever forget her.

  ~ The End ~

  Dear Readers: I hope you’ve enjoyed Blood Haze. Rest assured the story is not over. Look for its amazing continuation in Blood Havoc due out May 2014. For questions or comments, please email at lrpotterauthor@gmail.com or on Facebook. Keep a look out for my Website page which should be available soon!

  ~~Other books by LR Potter~~

  The Hourglass Killer Trilogy:

  Dwindling Sands

  Shifting Sands

  Cascad
ing Sands

  The Hourglass Killer Trilogy – All three books together

  The Color of Snow Series: (Paranormal)

  Snow Blind

  Snow Flurry

  Memory Lapse – A Slater Vance Novel

  Flawed Beauty

  The Rush Series:

  Rush of Innocence – Part One

  Rush of Redemption – Part Two

  Masters Saga

  Master of the Game – Part One

  Collaborative Works

  Three of a Kind: Tales of Luck, Chance & Misfortune – Lucky Strike

  Summer Sizzle - A Controlled Burn

  Blood Bites – The Blood Pool

  Blood Haze (Paranormal)

  Coming Soon in 2014:

  Mastering the Devil – Masters Saga: Part Two (Due out March 2014)

  Blood Havoc (Due out April 2014)