I just swallowed loudly. I didn’t know how to respond to that, didn’t know if I wanted him trying to wake me up. I had a very good idea what his technique might involve, but I also didn’t know that I didn’t want him to try. Oh man, was I confused.
“So what have you two been talking about while I was in my coma then?”
I went with ignoring the whole comment William made; that always made things easier. Right?
“We’ve been working on a plan to kill you,” Ana said tensely.
“What!” I spun around to look at her and could see she was pissed at William and me both.
“You said you wanted to give your family some closure, that they needed to move on, so we’re going to give them that; we are going to kill you.” She said this with a little too much satisfaction as her lips turned up into a half smile.
“Look Ana, I know you’re pissed at me – I can’t really say why, but I’m sorry okay. You don’t need to kill me. AGAIN!”
“Oh, stop being so dramatic, we aren’t going to really kill you, just give your family a body so they can move on. Though now that you mention it, I am a little angry with you. . .”
“What the hell, do you just decide to kill me on the days you get bored or what? Freakin’ vampires.”
“Jules, do you ever say a real cuss word?” William was trying not to laugh again.
“Hell is a cuss word, and I use it all the time. Like now, go to Hell.” This time he did start laughing at me all over again.
“Ughh! Ana what’s the plan? I want to get this over with.”
“Alright well, I have two plans really; I guess you get to pick which one you want to go with. I still have your car in the storage shed, so what I want to do is dump it for the police to find with a few bits of you in it. That along with the amount of blood they found at the scene of the crime will give the police enough to hopefully declare you dead, even though they won’t have your body.”
“Ok, yuck. What do you mean exactly by ‘a few bits of me’?”
“We can pull a few teeth since they’ll grow right back, some hair, maybe some skin –"
“Alright, you’re seriously grossing me out! Stop, what’s plan two?”
“Plan two, which is far less safe, is we dump the car near to the police station as soon as you wake up. We dump it with your body in the trunk. We do it as close to sunset as possible so it will give them enough time to get you out of the car and into the morgue before sunrise. You breathe all the time now, but you do it out of habit not necessity. Your heart rate is so low that it is almost non-existent, and you are becoming paler every day. As long as you can remain apneic and unmoving around that many humans, you will appear for all purposes dead. As long as we dirty you up, they won’t notice at the scene that you are actually healthier now than you have ever been.”
“What about the medical examiner? Won’t he try to cut me open, find the cause of death? Won’t they notice the lack of wounds on me when they find my body to have caused that much blood loss?”
“I’ll be going in as the M.E.; I already have an alias set in place for just such an occasion. I’ll be a transfer from another county working the night shift,” William said a bit solemnly.
“The real concern is, like you said, the wound, and also the sunlight. I can protect you during the day. I’ve already gone in and modified one of the body refrigerators so that it can be locked from the inside and out. This way if they should cut off my lock, which I doubt, you’ll still be locked in and safe from the sun, until I can get back at sunset. We just have to make sure they get you to me before sunrise.” All playfulness was now gone from William’s features as he tried to emphasize the seriousness of this.
“What about the wound and what will William do to get safe during the day should things cut too close?”
“We both know that head wounds bleed the most profusely and are the easiest to hide. They also cause the most life threatening injuries. If we cause enough of a wound that can be hidden by most of your hair, it won’t be immediately discernable how bad it is or isn’t. If you’re covered in dried blood it will automatically make it appear worse than it really is. You know this from the patients you see at the hospital; they rush in because they think their scratch is a major wound because of the amount of blood they see.” Ana was explaining in her best doctor voice.
“I’ll be turning in a fake Cause of Death report that will state that the wound was severe and the cause of the death due to blunt force trauma and hemorrhaging. Your family will think that you passed quickly and will be given a body. They will have their closure.”
“Yes, let’s just hope that you never told your husband that you wanted an open casket funeral at full noon and we should be fine. William will convince your husband to go with a cremation, and there will be no need to worry about a daytime service risking you.”
“Wait- why is William going to be talking to my husband?”
“He is going to want to see you Jules – if he comes to the morgue, I can talk him into a cremation. It will give him closure to see you; he won’t truly believe it otherwise. Trust me.”
His eyes held a sorrow that went beyond my own. I wondered if he understood me more than I realized and if I would ever know the truths that lie in the hidden depths of his deep brown eyes.
“So, he agrees to the cremation, and I get out of there before anyone realizes what happened, or rather, didn’t happen to me?”
“Yes,” they responded in unison.
“Whose body are we going to give them to cremate?”
“It doesn’t matter, it won’t be you,” Ana said in her off handed way.
“It does matter, it matters to me. It matters to someone else’s family if their loved ones body is suddenly missing. The reason I am even in this situation to begin with is because you in your long life have yet to understand that other people DO matter. These people aren’t your play things to do with as you please then throw out when you’re done.” I snapped back through clenched teeth.
“No, the reason you are in this situation to begin with is because I thought YOU might have mattered, and I couldn’t bear to throw you out like I was supposed to. The reason we are going through this elaborate ploy to begin with, instead of making you just leave your family, is because I am trying to make it up to you by not treating them as though they don’t matter.” She countered just as quickly.
Ana was not only angry this time but also offended as well. She was trying very hard to make things right for my family. This was for me so I could feel better about leaving them; as my Sire she could just compel me into leaving them alone, though we both had our doubts about how well that would go. Even if it did cause me to leave my family alone, it wouldn’t stop me from hating Ana, which she was trying to avoid.
“Ok, I’m sorry I offended you, you are both going through a lot just to help me feel better. I just meant to say that I don’t want some other person's body taken and given to my family. It’ll be noticed very obviously that there was a missing body. We don’t need the attention. And I don’t want another family feeling that grief because of me.”
“We aren’t going to steal a body; we plan to take some ashes from a few different cremations and mix in some ashes from the fireplace in order to have enough substance to give your family. We aren’t going to take enough to go noticed. I promise.”
Ana had that look she gave me the other night right before I passed out; the one that begged me to trust her. It was hard, I wanted to trust her, I wanted to let her be the Sire she desired, but when I looked at her I still saw the face that stole my first life from me; the face that took my family.
I took a leap of faith, “Okay, how soon can we do it?”
Chapter Eight
We spent the next few hours burning logs hot enough to get a substantial amount of ashes. Though William and Ana both said they were too fine to pass off as human, they would work as good filler so we didn’t have to steal as much from others. Where they’
d gained their human ashes expertise I didn’t want to know. I did throw in some pieces of my hair, I just felt like there should be something of me given to my family after all.
Ana had a pair of scrubs for me to wear since that was what I went missing in. They were way too long, but we didn’t think that anyone would really notice because I would be scrunched up in the trunk of a car.
“Here, put these on.”
Ana tossed the scrubs to me and waited.
“Why aren’t we doing this tomorrow?”
“We need to get the blood on them now so it’s dry. Put them on.”
“Have you ever heard the saying you catch more flies with honey . . .” I muttered under my breath as I walked off. William chuckled, and Ana just called after me, “I heard that!”
“Good! Maybe you’ll learn something!” I slammed the door to the bathroom.
I wasn’t really pissed, just nervous as all hell that things were finally starting to happen and that we were really doing this. I hoped I could keep it together around that many humans; remember not to breathe, move, or react when my husband came around. That was going to be the hard part. I had been practicing ‘not breathing’ all night; I had been doing pretty well. William or Ana would holler at me when they caught me taking a breath. The yelling was coming less and less often, and it had only been a few hours. I put the scrubs on and found myself shaking a little. I was more nervous than I realized. I heard a knocking on the door, and I nearly fell over when I jumped.
“Just a minute, I’m still changing,” I called out, silently cursing myself for letting one of them sneak up on me, even if it was through a door.
“Juliana, it’s me--Ana. Are you okay? I can sense you, even though your heart rate is steady you feel like you’re panicking. Can . . . can I come in?”
She sounded unsure of herself, but I didn’t want to be alone at the moment so I opened the door.
“I’m okay -- just a little nervous about tomorrow.” I told her quietly while playing with my nails.
“We can figure out another way to do this. We can still leave your car for the police to find tomorrow. We don’t have to give them your body for them to pronounce you dead.”
I knew she preferred this way, it was the safer way. It was also less likely that Antonio would give up, that any of them would find true closure if they didn’t know where I was.
“No, I think this is the best way. I’m fine, really. I’m just a little nervous that’s all. So, what do you need me in the scrubs for exactly?” I gave her a questioning look.
Now she looked like the nervous one.
“We need to put your blood on them. The police will check it for a match, so it must be yours, and we can’t use one of our victims or even William or me. It must be all yours, and we need a lot of it; enough to justify what they found at the scene at least. The back of your car already has your blood in it from that night so we are fine there; it’s just your clothes now.”
“How do you plan on getting my blood …you don’t want to bite me again do you?” This made her eyes instantly turn black.
I guess she did want to bite me again.
I fought hard not to step backward from her knowing that would instigate her further. William had sensed the change in her and instantly flashed to her side. He put a hand firmly on her shoulder. He didn’t say anything, but it was enough to remind her that we weren’t alone, and he would stop her if it came to that.
“I’m not going to bite you. We are going to slice your arm and hold it above your head. That should give us a good enough blood flow and a drop pattern to mimic one of a head wound bleeding. But Juliana, you will heal rather quickly, and we will have to do it several times to get enough blood on your scrubs to look believable.” I noticed she avoided answering the wanting to bite me comment.
“Can you handle being around my blood? Will it affect you even though I’m not human anymore?” Her eyes were going back to her beautiful turquoise blue, but there was still enough black to make me leery.
“I’ll be fine,” she said tersely. Again I noticed she avoided answering my question about whether it would affect her not. “Why don’t you stand in the shower so we don’t make as much of a mess.”
As I was climbing in she went to the kitchen to get a sharp fillet knife. God what was I doing?
“It’ll be okay, I’ll be here the entire time making sure she doesn’t do anything.” William told me.
“Yes, William, but tell me what is my blood going to do to you? Is it going to affect you even though I’m not human? Who will protect me from you if it does?” He held my eyes firmly and refused to let my gaze leave his. His brown eyes with their golden streaks were never touched by the black that would betray his hunger.
“Jules, I want you in every way – every part of you.” His eyes stayed brown, “but I will not take anything from you that you haven’t offered me, of your own free will, and because you want it as badly as me. I am not something you will ever need to be protected from. Ever.” He was holding me locked in his gaze, eyes still brown that let me trust him to be under control around my blood when Ana came back.
I turned to Ana with that shiny knife in her hand, “maybe I should do this myself.” Her eyes weren’t black anymore but still I wasn’t bleeding yet.
“You can’t do this yourself, stop being difficult. Hold your arm up over your head,” she said a little impatiently. I guess she was ready to get this over with also.
Before I even had time to register it, she had sliced a cut clean through my brachial artery near the top of my elbow and kept going up my forearm filleting the whole thing open to the veins in my wrist. Blood was gushing profusely down my arm, dripping into my hair and soaking my scrub top.
“Ah! Oh my God! Holy mother of -- why did you do that?”
I tried to pull way, but she held my arm firmly above me letting the blood flow down onto me. I was struggling to pull away from her, but I think that just helped with the blood spatter effect she was going for and didn’t try to stop me too badly. The initial pain of the cut had resided, and I stopped trying to fight her.
I looked her in the eye as she held my arm firm, her eyes were pitch black. I wasn’t going to keep backing down from her though, “Let go of me. Now.”
I could feel my arm healing; the wound was almost completely closed already.
“I did it that way so you wouldn’t be waiting for it; it’s always worse when you wait for it. I was trying to be nice,” She said through clenched teeth, her fangs poking through.
“Nice? This is you being nice? Dammit, if this is what you do when you’re nice I can’t wait to see what you do to the Retta’s!” I yelled back clutching my now healed arm to my chest, even though it didn’t hurt.
I was covered in blood, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to account for what the police found. We needed at least one more clean slice.
Shit this was going to hurt.
William had made his way to Ana’s side looking pissed off himself, “Look, maybe we can just get some blood from the hospital, your same blood type. If it’s mixed in they probably won’t catch that ...."
“No. If we are going to do this, we are doing it all the way. Ana, do it again. Just, not as ‘nice’ this time.” I said a little snidely.
William wanted to stop this, I could tell just by looking at him, he was ready to lose it and not in the way I had initially thought.
“Hey.” I said to him, getting his full attention.
“Just keep looking at me. I’ll keep you here.”
I said the same words to him that he’d told to me when I was panicking the first time I fed on someone in public. He helped me through it just by looking into my eyes. I caught his gaze, and this time I was the one holding him. My emerald eyes were bright from the anticipation of what was coming; if I could keep still we could get this done with one last shot. I was hoping.
“Ready?” Ana asked this time.
I held my arm straighter over my
head, took a deep unnecessary breath and said, “Do it.”
Ana cut a clean long line over the same path as before, it was healed now, but there was still a faint line where she had cut me. I held William's eyes as I concentrated on holding still. Blood was flowing rapidly down onto my shirt; Ana moved my arm slightly back to get the back of my top more thoroughly. William made a move forward.
“I’m okay.” I told him, “I’m okay, stay with me.”
He looked anguished as he watched me standing there bloodied in the shower as Ana cut me one last time. His fangs began to show, but I think it was because he was fighting himself, he wanted to stop Ana with everything he had, but knew he couldn’t.
His eyes looked as helpless and anguished as Antonio had when I went to go watch him; the realization was shocking to me. William was usually so guarded in his emotions I think this was the first time I had seen the real him, and without his realizing it. Being caught up in his gaze, I didn’t realize Ana had finished until she finally said it was done.
I took the scrubs off and let them hang in the shower to dry. Talk about morbid. I was going to take a shower, but Ana thought it would look better if I had old dry blood in my hair. She did say she wanted to ‘dirty me up’ after all.
This was going to be a very long night.
I slept in the basement that night where I had woken up the first time Ana brought me here. I didn’t want to get my room all bloody and dirty, so I stayed down there and slept on some towels on the bed. Ana was waiting for me the moment I woke in the morning, and she had a bucket of dirt with her.
“This just keeps getting better and better,” I complained. My hair was stiff from dried blood, my skin itchy, and I was irritable and hungry from the blood loss.
“Sorry, but we need to do this as soon as possible. We want to give them as much time as we can to get you to Will before sunrise; you need to look the part. This is your last chance to back out Juliana; we can do this without your body. You won’t be able to feed before going, you need to look as pale as can be, and the blood loss will help keep you extremely bradycardic as well. Are you sure you can do this around that many humans? William will get some blood to you after they get you to the morgue, but it won’t be fresh.”
Stolen Sun (The Juliana Lucio Series) Page 6