by Emily Reese
For a while Mike sat in silence and sipped from his first blood bag. He tried to shut out the noises around him. From the sound of things, more than a few of the women were going the way of Grace. He couldn’t, wouldn’t look around to see the results. They’d all been told what would happen; it was going to have to be enough for Mike.
“Why did you decide to do this?” he asked Drew. Her eyelids fluttered in response. “I don’t expect you to answer me right now, it’s just… I can’t imagine being at a point in life where you’d take these kind of odds. It’s such a gamble. Then again… we are in Vegas.” Mike took a deep gulp and finished off the first bag. “When I was turned, it wasn’t anything like this… at least that’s what they tell me.”
Before he realized it, Mike was pouring out every last detail of how he came to his Second Life. He told Drew about Meghan and his parents, swallowing back the bile that threatened to rise any time he thought of Jimmy’s family and what his sister did to them. Better to leave that part out for now. She has enough shit going on without me adding to it. He went on about how he found a book that took him to New Orleans. He described Texas to her, then Baltimore, unsure if she’d been to either of them. She was a captive audience while he imparted all the details of the warehouse and the terror of being one of Collin’s victims. Most of all, he talked about Claire. He remembered every detail about how she looked and acted when they were on their quest for Collin.
“You should have seen her, Drew.” He finished the last blood bag and continued. “She just strolled into this creepy warehouse with three other vampires like it was nothing. They threatened to kill me and take her back to that bastard Collin. And still, after everything he’d done to her, she wasn’t scared. She just smiled at them. And when she came for me in New Orleans… I’d given up hope that she’d ever find me… she fought him like a demon. No, like an angel. Like all those stories you hear in Sunday school about archangels? That’s what she was.” Mike paused. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” he finished quietly.
“This is your idea of not interfering?” Ben whispered. Once again he had snuck up on Mike from behind.
“I’m sorry, Ben. Honestly. There was just so much going on and everyone else was busy. Tommy looked like he might pass out.” Mike turned over his shoulder to Ben. “I had to do something.”
“And so you have,” he replied softly. Mike looked at him quizzically and Ben nodded in the direction of Drew.
Her eyes, an unreal mix of green and gold, opened and stared straight at him, pinning him to his seat.
Slowly, she brought her hands to Mike’s arm and removed it. Once it was clear, she smiled weakly at him.
“Hey, Drew.” Mike felt flooded with warmth and relief; for the first time he saw something truly good about being a vampire. “How ya feelin’?”
“Like shit,” she managed. She wasn’t 100%, but there was a sparkle in her eye. That was something. “I heard you,” she said turning serious. “You talked to me.”
“Well, you know… it would’ve been creepy if I just sat here and stared at you.”
“Thank you, Mike. You kept me sane.” Drew yawned wide and winced in pain. “Ugh, I’m going to sleep now. But you and me… we’re gonna talk again.”
“Anything you want, Drew. Get some sleep.” Mike covered her with a blanket from the foot of the bed.
“Well done, Michael,” Ben smiled in approval.
Mike opened his mouth to reply, but his words were cut short. There was yet another scream, this time coming from the last woman, the one who looked like Susan. Not only was she screeching, she was charging toward them with her fangs bared, curving her thin fingers into claws.
Ben wouldn’t have time to turn around; she was nearly on top of them. Grabbing him turned out to be more of a reflex than a conscious thought. Pulling Ben with him, Mike jumped to the side and taking them both out of her path… for the moment.
“What the hell?” Ben asked, and Mike couldn’t think of a way to answer him. Thankfully, Bear knew what to say.
“She’s mad! The change didn’t kill her but…,” his deep voice broke. “Oh, Miranda.”
A feral snarl was all he received as a response. Following the sound to its owner, Mike did a double take. Miranda was hanging upside down from the domed ceiling, her fingers and toes embedded in the stone as if it was only dirt. After everything that changed in his life, this was finally too much. Mike could only stare; he heard the others speaking, but it was far off and hard to understand. They might’ve been trying to talk her down, they might’ve been telling him to run. To him it was just noise.
The same could be said for Miranda; despite the activity going on around them, she had eyes only for Mike. As animalistic as her actions were, her eyes burned with a seething hate. Mike deprived her of her target and by the looks of things, she planned on making him pay for it.
“Michael!”
The sound of his name finally pulled Mike from his trance; Ben was talking to him.
“Did you hear me?”
“No,” Mike shook his head to clear it. “What’s happening?”
“She’s going to come after you first,” Ben explained with a forced calm. “You are the weakest.” Mike couldn’t even be miffed; it was the truth.
“So what do I do?”
Before Ben could answer, Miranda stopped snarling. Did she understand what Ben said? It was impossible to tell, yet she turned her fiery gaze from Mike to the beds on their left.
“I’m not the weakest!” Mike yelled. Without further explanation he sprinted across the room just as Miranda dropped from the ceiling.
Several things happened at once: he pushed the hospital bed in which Drew slept across the room with such force that its occupant was thrown from the bed. Drew’s resulting groan was drowned out by a bitter shriek: Miranda had been thwarted again. Instead of landing on her intended victim, Mike put himself in the way. He now cursed and clawed desperately at his shoulders, trying to dislodge the she-demon on his back as she bit and clawed him like an animal.
“Down!” Tommy told him. “Get down and we’ll pull her off you!”
Laying there while a monster ripped his back apart did not sound like the best plan, but Mike was too panicked to think of another one. He fell to the hard stone floor and covered his head with his arms, praying the others could grab her before she killed him.
Thankfully, Miranda’s gory work held her attention enough to keep her from registering the strategy. Mike was only down a few seconds when he felt her being pried off of him; it seemed to take ages to dislodge the female vampire. Miranda didn’t give up her prize easily or quietly. When she finally did let go, he was too weak to do anything but stay face down on the floor.
“Forgive us, Miranda,” he heard Bear say followed by a wet sound Mike didn’t recognize. The room fell quiet again — Miranda was gone.
“Christ!” he heard Tommy swear from above where he lay. Mike turned his head to try to see more of what was going on, but the pain caused his vision to wink from black and white back to color.
Yep. Done with moving. Forever.
“Be still, Michael,” Ben urged. “We’re going to have to put you in a bed. You stay as still as you can, we’ll move you.”
“Shouldn’t we take care of his back first?” Tommy objected.
“The healing must begin on the inside,” Bear corrected. “If he’s not upright enough, he could still choke. Bring the bed.”
As the squeak of wheels signaled the bed approaching, Mike steeled himself for the pain. Yet when his back touched the bed, there was no holding back his bellow, his breathing deep and ragged. In an attempt to distract himself, Mike tried looking around the room. The first thing his eyes found was Miranda; a gaping hole now decorated her chest. Black blood and other things slowly spread out from the wound, the scene washing away the last traces of her humanity. After that Mike kept his eyes shut.
“Here,” he he
ard Tommy say, “I rinsed one of the containers in the cooler. I hope it’s enough.”
“It will have to be,” Bear responded. There was a click followed by the whisper of liquid filling a container. Earlier, the room reeked of human. Now all Mike could smell was the sickly sweet, foreign scent of vampires.
“Michael!” Ben was slapping his face. Had he passed out? Time felt a little off for Mike at the moment.
“What? What? Stop hitting me,” he managed weakly.
“You need to drink this, Michael.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Michael, this isn’t human blood. It’s Bear’s. It will help you heal faster and let us work on your back. You want to turn over, don’t you?”
“Hell, yeah.” Mike squinted at Ben and the container he offered. “Don’t guess I have much of a choice, do I?”
“It’s either that or die, kid… again,” Tommy supplied from the foot of the bed.
“That’s what they always say,” Mike muttered and painfully reached for the container. Ben helped by holding it to his lips, which was fortunate. The shock of the first sip would’ve made Mike drop it. As he drank, the experience threw him. It was like drinking emotion spiked Tabasco mixed with nature. He could taste the rain and feel the wind, strong and chill. The smell of the ocean was as prevalent as if he were on the beach, and somewhere a peat fire burned. Mike had no idea how he knew it was peat, it just was. For the first time he knew the thrill of battle and the joy to be found in the death of an enemy. Behind all this his body burned, though it morphed closer to the heat of alcohol than the spice of a pepper. Mike felt everything: terrified, amazed, intoxicated, invigorated. Most of all he was confused.
Too soon it was over. The container empty and the glass removed. When they went to turn him, it stung, but it was nowhere near the pain he felt earlier. He tried to pay attention as the other vampires discussed who would heal what parts of his body, but it was all for naught. The stress of the evening combined with the power of Bear’s blood pulled him down into nothingness.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next evening seemed to come the instant Mike closed his eyes. Blessedly, there were no nightmares. Just waking with a body at maybe 75% and a state of mind significantly less.
Looking around, he found himself in a hospital room, shared by three other patients. It appeared that two others besides Drew made it through the transition and were all now asleep. Mike attempted to get up quietly, only to fail miserably while discovering he was attached to an IV. Unlike the women being fed their first meal, his bag was black.
“Welcome back, kid.” Tommy appeared at the side of his bed in an instant; vampiric speed surprised Mike a little less every time he witnessed it.
“Thanks, man.” Mike lay back down on the bed, already exhausted. “How long am I stuck here?”
“Not long. Our doc’s on his way. He’ll clear you, then you’ll be good to go. A little woozy though.”
“Where’s Ben?”
“Wrapping up business.”
“Of course he is,” Mike muttered. Expecting a mentor who barely tolerated you to be waiting by your bedside was asking a lot… apparently.
“Don’t be too hard on Ben, kid. He was worried sick.”
“I bet.”
“He barely let Bear help heal you, insisted he do it all himself.” Tommy stretched his neck, popping bones making him wince. “Nearly beat me senseless.”
“You? Why?” Despite appearing in perfect health, a closer look showed Mike Tommy’s stiff posture and slightly labored breathing; he was still hurting.
“He blamed me for you being so weak, calling you over to help with Drew.” After a pause, Tommy spoke to his shoes rather than Mike, “He was right.”
“Hey, no harm, no foul, right?”
“I’m pretty sure what happened to you last night constitutes a foul, kid,” Tommy laughed bitterly.
“But I’m more or less healed. In a few days, no one will ever know the difference. So we’re good, ‘kay?”
“You’re alright, kid,” Tommy’s smile was back and he punched Mike in the arm gently.
“I’ll get you bag of the red stuff, now that you’re awake.” As Tommy turned to leave, Mike reached out and grabbed his wrist.
“You think you can move me over by Drew?” Mike asked. “I… I’d like to be there when she wakes up.”
“Sure thing, kid.”
It was a convoluted process, moving beds and medical equipment with a thousand tubes, but Tommy never complained. Seeing Mike situated, he left with a nod and a wink.
Thankful to be alone (sort of,) Mike closed his eyes, thinking a few more minutes of sleep might not be such a bad thing.
“Hey neighbor.”
No such luck.
Mike turned to meet summer colored eyes in a familiar face.
“Hey, Drew. How ya’ doin’?”
“I’ve been better,” she chuckled but quickly lost her laugh to coughs. “Ugh, my throat hurts,” she rasped.
“It’ll get better,” Mike told her, remembering his first morning. “They’ll bring you something soon. Try not to talk. It’ll help.”
“What’re you doing here?” Every word caused her to wince. Mike sighed at her stubbornness.
“If I tell you, will you stop talking until they bring you something?” Her answer was a nod and a weak smile. Looking up at the ceiling, Mike struggled with how many details from last night he should go into. “Most of the other women… they didn’t make it. Only three survived besides you.” He heard the shush of her hair on her pillow as she looked at the other beds. Mike faced her, expecting the questioning gaze she gave him. “Miranda,” he gulped as the memories assaulted him, “she survived the transition, but… she wasn’t right. Did they tell you that could happen?”
Drew nodded, her mouth a thin line.
“Did you know her, before all of this?”
Again she nodded, unshed tears causing her eyes to shine.
“I’m sorry, then. When she,” Mike struggled for a way to describe Miranda’s madness without causing any further pain to Drew. “When she woke back up, whoever she used to be wasn’t there anymore. She went for the weakest vampire in the room, and when I didn’t let her get them, she attacked me.”
“Who?” Drew whispered.
“It’s not important.” Mike returned his gaze to the ceiling, avoiding Drew’s penetrating stare.
“Who?” she demanded again, the single syllable filled with pain.
“It was you, okay?” Mike’s reply came out harsher than he intended; instant guilt making him try to console his neighbor. “I told you, she wasn’t herself anymore. It was over almost as soon as it began.” Drew nodded again, her watery smile little comfort to Mike’s bruised conscience.
Something with a squeaky wheel coming down the hallway kept the two from revisiting any more of the previous night’s horrors. When he raised his eyebrows at Drew, she shrugged in response, indicating she had as little idea of what was approaching as he did.
After listening to the squeak for way longer than it should’ve taken for it to get there, their curiosity was finally sated; Ben and Tommy arrived with a cart of blood bags each. Breakfast was served.
“Look who’s an early riser!” Tommy said and leaned down to kiss Drew gently on the temple. Mike suppressed an eye roll when he picked up the tiniest of blush in the apples of her cheeks. Tommy was an okay dude, but he couldn’t be that good looking.
“Drink up, Michael.” Ben’s command pulled Mike from his musings. Taking the cup greedily, Mike tried to secretly study Ben while he had a quiet word with Tommy. His mentor’s skin was paler than normal, a hollowness marring his cheeks that had not been there before. Dark circles spread under his eyes, leaving no evidence that he slept at all during the past day.
Their discussion, though too quiet for even Mike’s vampiric hearing to understand, concluded with both nodding, Tommy touching Ben’
s shoulder briefly before he left to check on the other two newly turned vampires.
“There’s something we need to discuss before we return home,” Ben informed him and sat at the foot of Mike’s bed. “You’ve been invited to stay.”
“Here?” Mike nearly choked on his breakfast.
“Yes. Bear and Tommy offered to continue your training here, if you wish it. They will be working with three fledglings as it is. Given your help with Drew last night, not to mention your immediate protection of her when things… went pear-shaped, you would be welcomed with open arms to further your education with others roughly the same age.”
Mike studied the pattern on his blanket, deep in thought. He and Ben didn’t always get along that was true, but he never thought to be cast off so quickly.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Ben told him.
“I’ll bet,” Mike grumbled quietly.
“Don’t be dramatic,” Ben snapped, only to sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose a moment later. “Look, Michael. I realize we haven’t always been on the best of terms… I’ll admit I’m not the best teacher.”
Mike tried to hide his immediate snort; it did not, however, go unnoticed.
“Yes, well, don’t fall all over yourself in an attempt to reassure me.” Despite his acerbic tone, the hint of a grin ghosted his lips. “I’ve been told I lack patience, and while I’m loathe to admit it, you’ll probably enjoy learning from Tommy more than me.”
At the mention of his name, Tommy looked up from across the room and winked at Mike.
“I’ve already informed Khale, and we’ve both agreed it’s your decision. You’ll be welcomed back regardless of when you decide to return home.”