The Vampires Reflection

by Shayne Leighton

Chapter Nine

 

  The Deadly One

  Lusian stomped in, a large, fanged grin playing on his jagged face lined with dark, rugged stubble. A miasmic smear remained at his chin. Valek looked back at Charlotte, her green eyes slanting in a dark gaze, and he knew she was about to get what she wanted again, hearing the intentions within both of their minds.

  He mashed his lips together, narrowing his eyes at her before turning back to Lusian. "I'd say you've had enough to drink tonight," Valek growled. "Get out. " He wound his fists tightly at his sides, attempting to quell his own trembling fury.

  "I'll tell you when I've had enough. I'd ask you to hit me, but I fear you might take that request a tad too literally. " He snickered. "Brought you home some leftovers. " Lusian shoved forward another figure, sending whomever it was stumbling forward into the room. The gamy smell of human fear, tears, and warm, savory rust hit his senses heavily enough to make him stumble and swallow down his feral instincts. In the dim midnight, he looked down at a mortal woman, frantic and panicking like a hunted rabbit, collapsed onto the floor. She clutched her chest as her wide eyes traveled from each of the faces in the room, lingering the longest on Charlotte's. That girl's not a monster-he heard the woman's garbled thoughts sputter in her head-that girl's like me. Are they going to kill her, too? Maybe I can save us both.

  "Don't be a hero," Lusian responded, though he locked his glare on Valek.

  Valek moved toward the woman, who shrieked with his abrupt agility, her arms jetting up in front of her face, as if she meant them for a shield. Gently, he closed his hands around one of her wrists and felt the fraught pulsations thumping under her skin. Perspiration collected in silvery beads on her forehead.

  "Trust me," he murmured to her. A plan began to formulate in his mind. This human just might come in handy, indeed. But in order for it to work, he needed to calm her.

  She lowered her arms and blinked up at him, her mouth gaping. Struck with his impossible beauty, he heard. His lips twitched, fighting back a grin. She was moderately attractive. Around thirty years old, Valek assessed. She smelled strangely of garlic. The scent was mostly on her hands. He narrowed his eyes. Had she attempted to escape Lusian's capture by utilizing some ignorant several-hundred-year-old legend? Valek snorted.

  Quickly, he shoved the mortal woman behind him to block her from Lusian, just in case. He didn't quite know what the obnoxious Vampire's game was yet. "If you've fed to your satisfaction, I bid you a good evening. Get out. "

  "I am sustained. However," Lusian began again. "I did not have dessert. " His glare shot to Charlotte's face and quickly grazed the level of her shoulders and breasts as he grinned. "And you know what a horrible sweet tooth I have. "

  Charlotte sat up in the bed. Valek's stomach tossed with the longing configurations in her mind.

  "Not tonight, Lusian. " Valek blockaded him from Charlotte. "I think you both have had enough satisfaction for one night. Consider this my last warning. "

  Dusana raced in then from downstairs, her gaze quickly flicking from face to face to land specifically on Lusian's.

  "Don't worry, friend," Lusian said confidently. "I'll be gentle with her. " He swiftly darted behind Charlotte and cupped her chin, pulling her back against his chest. "After all, she is such a delicate thing. "

  "Lusian, don't!" Dusana pleaded from the door.

  Charlotte's back arched out of human instinct, though Valek could hear in her mind how badly she needed this. He only pretended that he could not hear how intensely her addiction ailed her-how much pain she was really in. But the truth was, that was the only thing he could hear, the only thing he could think about. Every single hour of every day, hearing her pain just might have scathed him more than it did her. Living with the fact that he was responsible for her suffering was the worst punishment. It was torture enough to watch her disintegrate before his very eyes.

  He winced as he watched Lusian sink his fangs deep and drink from Charlotte's neck. The mortal woman on the floor, the one that Lusian had carelessly dragged in from outside, shrieked as she witnessed it. Valek gripped tight around her arm to keep her from dashing to her escape. She wasn't going anywhere. Charlotte let out a little sigh as Valek cut out the distraction and tuned in to her mind again. Relief rolled down from the top of her head to her knees. Frozen at the edge of the bed, she slit her eyes to peer at him, watching as he watched her.

  Valek turned his back on her. "You are insatiable. "

  Lusian tore his mouth away, the ichor dripping from the corner of his mouth, and grinned. "Who? Me or her?"

  "What is that we smell?" The twins, Ana and Aneta, appeared at the threshold as well, both sets of almond eyes black. They rushed to either side of Charlotte on the mattress, each taking a wrist.

  "Get away from her!" Valek roared, digging his talons into Ana's shoulder, and sending her hurtling into the wall. Aneta released Charlotte and gnashed at Valek, who quickly wrapped his arms around the Vampire's head, threatening to snap her neck. Fear completely overtook the other mortal in the room, her thoughts so entirely loud, they deafened Valek as she sat shriveled up in a corner and sobbing. She knew she was going to die. He'd deal with her later.

  Lusian swiftly pushed away from Charlotte, discarding her like a piece of rubbish, and tore Valek away from Aneta before he could act on his impulse. Valek's body crushed the bedside table to splinters. The three of them regrouped on the other side of the room, smirking.

  "So tell me, Valek. She gives you a piece of that every time you come crawling?" Lusian snickered. "Lucky bastard. "

  Valek lunged at him again, the two of them tumbling to the floor. The sound of their fury rolled deep like thunder as a battle cry spewed from Valek into Lusian's face.

  "I will tear your head off!" he threatened as Lusian rolled on top of him.

  "Not in this lifetime. " Lusian mocked him, pulling Valek up by the material of his jacket shoulders, and threw him a few feet away.

  But Valek was graceful enough, and he caught himself with one hand to the floor as he skidded backward. He quickly stood, adjusting his military coat, not taking his eyes off Lusian for a moment.

  Ana and Aneta just watched, completely entertained, a mirrored grin playing on each of their pointy faces.

  "If I wanted to kill you, Lusian, believe me, I could do it in an instant. "

  "Why don't you try, then?" He opened his arms wide in an invitation.

  "Stop!"

  Valek adjusted his focus, remembering Dusana standing in the threshold.

  Lusian rolled his neck, the joints cracking. Valek guessed how ecstatic he must have been to be able to act on some of his pent-up aggression and could tell he wanted to go for round two. "And they say Vampires don't have reflections. Just look at her! She's the spitting image of you, Valek. " He chortled. "Right down to the dead soul inside. "

  "Lusian, can't you contain yourself for one night?" Dusana growled. "Why is it that every time I come looking for you, you're trying claim yourself as some sort of alpha?"

  "Don't compare me to some stupid Lycanthrope!" Lusian's playful words turned venomous and angry. The twins took their place at Lusian's flanks again, flashing identically devious smiles at Dusana.

  The tattooed Vampire flitted toward him and grabbed his hand, her face turning a pale shade of green. Her eyes locked with Valek's under the choppy bangs of her raven hair. "All of us fed already. "

  "So I've heard within your mind. " Valek widened his stance and folded his arms over his chest. "And might I say how despicable the act was. " This part of his statement was directed straight at Lusian, who merely chuckled and rolled his eyes. Valek heard the curiosity peak in Charlotte's mind as she wondered exactly what Lusian had done. "You are absolutely disgusting. A poor excuse of what we are. "

  "Not as disgusting as your warped little trampire with daddy issues. "

  Valek roared at him again.

  Dusana gl
owered at Lusian before shooting an apologetic glance in Valek's direction. "We know how you feel about us. Your thoughts are just as loud as ours are. I apologize if we seem like such an intrusion on your household. But we didn't have anywhere else to go. If you want us gone, just say so. But just know that we'd do anything for you and the girl. I think we've already proven that. " Dusana's words were sorrowful, though they carried an edge of anger. She bid him a mental goodnight before pulling Lusian out of the room.

  The twins simultaneously turned to Charlotte and feigned politeness with a curtsy. "Dobrý večer. "

  The bedroom door clicked shut and they were alone again. Valek wheeled around to face her. "Satisfied?"

  The mortal woman had since stilled in the corner, her knees hugged tightly to her chest as her wide eyes bounced back and forth from Valek, to Charlotte, and to the doors.

  Charlotte frowned and wrapped her arms around her middle. A large stain of blood remained drying at her throat and ruined one sleeve of her new dress. Guilt had clearly taken her prisoner. "Are you going to begin patronizing me as well? Don't you think I've been hearing enough of it from Sarah?"

  "You don't need to be patronized! You need to be parented!" he roared.

  ***

  Downstairs, Sarah stood in the middle of the library, alone. She twirled a loose strand of her hair around her fingers as she listened to Valek's hollering from all the way upstairs. Her forehead crinkled, but she was beyond the point of crying. It had been this way since Charlotte had fallen so extremely ill with her new addiction. The truth of the matter was, when Valek looked at his love now, what he was really saw was the monster he'd created due to his own carelessness. That was what Sarah could not understand. Changing her would be the same as what he'd already done-would actually be better for Charlotte.

  This was to be expected after all of the things the girl had been through. Sarah listed them off in her mind: falling in love with her guardian, a series of massive bloodlettings, and nearly being taken advantage of and killed by the most powerful Elf in Europe-possibly the world. And no matter how many spells she had in her arsenal, she knew that it would take much more power to heal Charlotte now.

  Sarah reached into her apron pocket and tightened her fingers around one, small, silvery object. Something Valek had given her a long time ago when their lives were simple. The only thing she knew held any meaning for Charlotte at all. The only thing that could remind her of peace and safety. Charlotte's whistle.

  ***

  "I can see that absolutely nothing about your feelings has changed for me. You will always think of me as the little girl you rescued from the gutters of the city. " Charlotte lay back on the bed and stared up at Sarah's starry bewitchment for a few moments as they twinkled down from above the bed. The reflections of the silver ornaments rippled in the tears that had collected in her eyes.

  Valek ground his teeth together, fighting for more words to come out. "Yes, Lottie. You're right. " Valek's gaze lingered on her face as he watched her bite down on her lower lip, forcing the tears to remain in her control. Rolling over, she hid her face in his pillow and proceeded to cry quietly.

  "If that's how you really feel. . . . " Her mumbles were smothered and buried from under the pillow.

  "I'll always see you for your innocence, Charlotte. Your purity. That is what I fell in love with. You're the only glimmering, little light in my dark world. You must understand that I never thought of you as my child. Even when you were little. I fear that I am incapable of those kinds of feelings. I believe that something within me was simply waiting. Waiting for you to grow up. Waiting for you to see me for what I am. My love is what you are. It is what you always have been. "

  She did not reply to him. Instead, Charlotte noticed again the other mortal that was still in the room with them, worming her way toward the door. Somehow, she'd remained so quiet up until now, even Valek had forgotten about her. Charlotte got up from the bed and toed over to her. Instantly, Valek tuned into her mind. He'd never listened to her with another human being before.

  From her miserable place on the floor, the woman froze for a moment before squirming to peer up at Charlotte over her shoulder. Her face was a mess, with streaks of tear-soaked makeup.

  Charlotte clenched her jaw and Valek instantly dug deeper into her mind. This person looked so weak-so measly in comparison to those Charlotte considered her adopted family that it was impossible for her to relate to her on any level. In Charlotte's mind, she was nothing like her at all. She didn't fear death because she was surrounded by it. She'd beckoned it-brought it to the doorsteps of so many mortals before this one in order to satisfy Valek's nightly bloodlusts. The memory of the things he'd made Charlotte do for him caused him to shudder. This sad little woman was nothing like Charlotte at all, and she could hardly identify.

  Charlotte swallowed her own, sour hatred for what she was and muttered, "Where are you going?"

  Slowly, the woman got to her feet, her panicked gaze flicking back and forth between Valek's face and Charlotte's. Her mouth fell agape as she stammered.

  "Please, I just wa-want to go home. Please. " The last of her words broke on a dry sob.

  Charlotte had been hunting too long, been a monster like Valek, inside herself for too long to let this affect her. In actuality, the pity she experienced for the woman was something more of a bitter realization. Charlotte was just like her. Weak and expendable-or so that was her perception. Valek frowned. This was her home. The darkness. The danger. She lived in it-was unable to escape from it. And, just like the woman, she was too weak and vulnerable to help herself now that fate had caught up with her. Valek swallowed the words he was about to say in response to her thoughts, knowing how much Charlotte hated it when he listened in to the goings-on inside her mind.

  Abruptly, and before the woman could protest, Charlotte dug her thumb and index into the sensitive pressure point just in between the woman's neck and shoulder. In an instant, the woman collapsed to the floor. Not dead-unconscious.

  Charlotte turned back to Valek, who scowled at her disapprovingly and tsked as though she were an errant child.

  "Lottie. . . . "

  Charlotte collapsed back on the bed, staring vacantly up at the ceiling. "Dinner," she shrugged simply.

  He knew how frustrated she'd become with her recent inability to take care of Valek the way she used to. He watched the various scenes as they replayed in her mind; how capable she was as she stalked the night like he did. That's all she ever really wanted. To be like him. He knew that.

  "I am not hungry," he said in protest.

  "Do what you will with her, then. Let her go. Chain her to the wall and save her for later, for all I care," she snapped. She, in fact, was an errant child. This was her temper tantrum.

  "That sort of callousness is not the Lottie I know. The Lottie who grew up in this house is much sweeter than that. "

  "Being sweet has clearly not gotten me very far. " Her words were filled with acid, but her face softened slightly and he heard in her thoughts that she regretted speaking to him that way.

  Valek sighed a defeatist sigh. He lay down next to her, wrapping his massive arms firmly around her middle, hugging her close to him. He buried his face in her hair and breathed in the soft, lilac scent. How could he possibly destroy this? Something so pure, now a wilting flower in his arms. Sadness swelled in his throat. The tension in the room was so thick Valek could have physically bitten into it. In an instant, Charlotte was able to doubt every single way he felt about her. How could she not see the terrible truth he could no longer hide? After everything they had been through, how could she suddenly question all of his feelings? Words were clearly not enough anymore. He needed to find some other way. . . .

  He sat up slightly, his eyes shifting over to Charlotte's porcelain legs, folded against each other from under the hem of her destroyed, garnet of her dress. They were so thin and graceful. His hand twitched on his lap
, but he kept it there. His gaze continued hungrily up her body until it rested on the bloodstain just where the velvet neckline dipped in a circular shape past her protruding collarbone. The silhouette of her soft, white body against the dark bedclothes was enough to drive a human man crazy, let alone someone now and forever physically addicted to the very make of her.

  Lifting his hand, he moved it so it hovered just over that bloodstain. A new, needing lump swelled in his throat. Her warm scent, thick and inviting, seemed to fill the room as though he were drowning in it. But this need seemed different to him. It was not her blood that called for him this time at all. He continued to scan her body, so delicate. He moved his hand lower, so his fingers hovered close to her thigh. He clenched his teeth together and pulled away. A thought cracked in his mind, and reminded him of the fact that this was not something he should attempt. He averted his eyes, regretting, and laced his fingers in his lap.

  "Charlotte," he began again, quietly. "You do know how I really feel about you. You know now what my true feelings are. Don't you?" He looked to her again, but was met with only her continued silence from behind the pillow. He sighed as his heart constricted. "What do I do, Lottie?" He enveloped her knee with one of his large hands and suppressed the shudder that began at the top of his spine. He never paid close attention to any of these desires before. They confused him. They were too complicated to even think about dealing with, when so many other problems were his priority. "We cannot keep on like this. Not when I am so in love with you. Not when your mind is too preoccupied for you to comprehend that. How do I fix you?"

  Charlotte finally sat up, tossing the pillow to the side. She glared at him, angry tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping off the point of her chin. "You cannot fix me. I am what I am now-like you-a monster. I cannot change back to what I was!"

  "You can. "

  "No! I can't!" she hollered. "You want me to be innocent little Lottie forever! I can no longer be that for you. I'm sorry. I'm growing up, Valek. Things are changing beyond my control, and I don't even know how to help myself. I am not your little doll anymore. " Her angered expression plummeted into a pool of solemnity as she said this. "You have to change me. " Her gaze left his and traveled around the dark room. "It's the only answer. "

  She got up from the bed and walked slowly toward a wall where a small, framed childhood drawing sat on a massive, cherry wood dresser. Under glass, multicolored pencil lines sketched out a crude image of what was supposed to be Valek's smiling face. He watched as Charlotte plucked it from the dresser, analyzing it in the dark light. Specifically, she traced with her finger where she marked little lines from his mouth that were meant to represent fangs. She was silent for a few more moments. It seemed like eons to him.

  She turned to Valek again, frustration painting itself clearly on her face. "You need to figure out what you want, Valek. " Tears began to gather in her lower eyelids again. They smelled like salt and something so refreshing, it was all he could do to keep from kissing them off her face.

  "I can fix you. Give me the chance," he begged. "I will fix all of this, like I promised. " Valek got up from the bed as well and stealthily dashed over to her, dust glimmering in the faint moon glow that surrounded him like a full-body halo. His large shadow eclipsed her face, and he saw her eyes widen at him. He loved the way she looked at him, even when she was angry. He placed his hands on her small shoulders, fully encompassing them. "Please. " He slid his hands up to her damp cheeks.

  After one short moment searching her eyes, he crushed his lips to hers. The warmth of her skin and the pulse underneath made him groan quietly, and he pulled her back onto the bed.

  Before the girl could even blink, he was over her-his hair hanging around his face, sweeping into his eyes. Her aroma was so warm and thick around him that it would have been impossible to breathe if he weren't enjoying it so much. A wave traveled down from the middle of his stomach, making it clench when he noticed just how pressed against her he was. He had done this before, in his human lifetime, but this just seemed so new-so much different now. It was instinctive and honest-and mortal. There was a glowing sense of curiosity as he focused on how right this was beginning to feel. His claws pinned her small hands to the bed on either side of her head. His lips crushed hers once again, his tongue invading. His hand slid up her stomach underneath the material of the dress. He could feel her skin heat up instantly, reacting to his boldness.

  Abruptly, Charlotte pulled her face away, trembling. Her heart reacted instinctively in her chest, hammering in his eardrums, and every so often, skipping a beat. "V-Valek," she began, through her heavy breathing.

  She closed her eyes slowly, trying to control her nervous sways. He could tell then he'd gone too far, and she wanted him to stop. Valek's mouth fell open as regret swelled inside him. He should have listened more closely to that first voice of reason.

  "I thought-" He hesitated. "I thought this was what you wanted. " Valek quickly removed his hand and rolled away from her. His breaths were substantial as well, but he was sure it was for a completely different reason. "Maybe. . . maybe you're not quite so ready to change from being my innocent little Lottie after all. Maybe you are not as ready as you think you are. " Anger and guilt boiled up from his stomach and into his throat, rolling around with the pre-existing sadness in this nauseating twist of emotion. He balled his hands in his hair, his eyes pricking, washing red, as his gaze darted about the dusty floor. He could hear her thoughts going wild as well, though he wasn't paying much attention to them. Or rather, he was afraid to. "Charlotte," he began. "I do not know how to love you,"

  He heard her mind fall completely to silence with his words. Her thoughts abruptly changed direction. It was as if he'd flicked a switch, and suddenly all that resonated from her was a confused sort of sadness. But her emotions seemed lighter.

  "You do," she said quietly.

  Suddenly uncomfortable with her proximity, Valek got up from the bed. He wheeled around to meet her stare. "No, I don't think you understand. " He grasped at the words, fighting to choose the ones that were right.

  "Valek. " She uttered his name breathlessly, and with a sort of sadness he understood all too well.

  Her mouth went slack, and he could hear in her mind how she longed for him to sit back down beside her on the bed, nervous with his sudden distance. But he refused, needing to maintain a clear head.

  "It is not something I can very easily explain to you. " Frustrated, looking away from her, he ran his fingers through his hair.

  "Try," she pleaded.

  He sighed. "Lottie, I can never give you what you want. I can't ever truly be what you want me to be. " The admission was painful, but it was entirely true-the real reason why mortal and monster could never truly remain together-if every other fundamental reason was not enough. He struggled to look her in the eye again. He never thought about having this conversation before, because while she was growing up, he would have never guessed their relationship would grow to such complexity.

  She grimaced at him. "You're right. I don't understand. What are you saying? You don't feel the same way about me anymore?" She frowned, her confusion exposing itself clearly.

  "It has nothing to do with my feelings, Lottie. It has everything to do with what I am. " The sensation of being suffocated made him tug at his ascot. "I cannot physically be what you want me to be. It is not that way for us. All of us. Our gratification is. . . different. "

  Charlotte's features contorted as she shook her head, clearly disbelieving. "But you kiss me. "

  "I know, Lottie. I know. I'm not saying I lack the ability. I remember what it is like to be human. Of course I do. I know what you want. " Finally, he gave in, sitting next to her on the bed again. "But when I say I do not know how to love you, it is because the way I do know how is. . . different. I have different needs. Different satisfactions. Do you understand?"

  Charlotte only continued to stare at him incredulousl
y, and he buried his face in his hands. It was an admission he'd needed to get out. He never was the one to speak to her about this sort of thing. In Charlotte's younger years, it had always been Aiden's mother, Meredith, doing most of the handling of the human child. Those had been the years when their situation was newer and the self-restraint was all the more difficult.

  Images from months past repeated before his eyes, like a scratched and broken record. They'd haunted him nightly since he'd first learned of Lottie's complicated feelings for him. Ones he would have never anticipated. He sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He would be lying to himself if he didn't admit that he second-guessed every last move he'd made in regards to her. Reliving their many anguished, confusing conversations made his tongue swell in his mouth, and the words that came out were less than graceful. His mind had been so clouded recently, with his strategies to keep Charlotte safe from Aiden and more importantly, from herself. But Valek could not ignore this, which was another issue entirely. One that he knew was particularly important to her. Not when she was staring him in the face now, willing him to continue.

  She attempted to pull his hands away from his face, her little grip putting forth an awesome effort. As she trembled against his persistence, it gave her weakness away.

  "Valek, you do know how to love me. " She tugged yet again, and so he gave in, and allowed her to move into his lap. She cupped his face in both her hands. She kissed him along his jaw and once just below his earlobe, until eventually, her lips found his mouth. She kissed him harder, desperately trying to prove her words to him. Her hands twined around in his hair as his claws wrapped around her wrists. He moved his arms around her middle, holding her, pressing her against him, never wanting their embrace to stop. He was obsessed with the very way she was made, attached to her forever. Her delicate scent, like a whole gathering of tea roses, encompassed him.

  "Valek," she murmured.

  He continued to kiss her, small sounds emanating from him until he pulled away from her, grasping both sides of her face in his hands. She kept her eyes closed.

  "I love you," he whispered.

  The corners of her pretty mouth turned up when he said this and she finally opened her eyes to look at him. Valek could hear all of the confused thoughts racing through her mind: what they used to be to each other-what they were to each other now. All the questions she still had for him. This was the Lottie he remembered. Frantic and confused, though always sweet. He glanced once at the woman who had been lying motionless on the floor all the while.

  "I think we'd better get her up. Her clothes are still wet from the snow. She is going to catch a chill," Charlotte said in the smallest of voices. "We should let her go. "

  Valek replayed the verbal promise he'd made to her months ago over again in his head. He would make things right. But being intimate with Charlotte that night, in either his way or hers, was not going to solve anything, except his own selfish need for some sort of false redemption. Staying transfixed upon the other mortal on the floor, he saw the woman's hand begin to with the promise of awakening. A thought surfaced in his mind, quickly reminding him of his elaborate plan.

  He pulled his Lottie off him and rose from the bed, finally making his decision. Eyeing the dark space, thinking carefully, he kept himself turned away from her, as if facing her might permit her to somehow read into his thoughts. "Stay here," Valek instructed quietly. He gathered the other mortal woman up in his arms and walked out of the room, leaving Charlotte in the middle of the bed, staring after him.

  Valek descended quickly to the first floor, his arms filled with the unmoving body of the mortal woman. Her heartbeat was still strong in her arteries, and it took everything he had just to concentrate. Glancing down briefly, he could see her eyelids shudder. She was trying to wake herself up.

  As he rounded the corner with the woman, he nearly collided with a rather shocked-looking Sarah. He stopped dead as the little Witch's gaze shifted from Valek's face to the woman, Valek's claws around her body, and finally back to Valek.

  "What in Lilith's creation do you think you're doing?" she demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

  "Move aside," Valek demanded, forming his lips into a tight line to hide the nervousness he felt for his own, disgusting scheme.

  "Not until you tell me what you plan on doing with that poor girl. I'm sure we've all given her a good heart attack already! Just let this one go!"

  With Sarah's shrill voice, Valek noticed the woman's eyes slit open just a hair. He was running out of time.

  "I am not killing her, Sarah! Now, please! This is for Charlotte's sake. I'm doing this to save her. " Valek's pleas were more like solid, stone orders. That was how he meant for them to sound.

  Sarah flinched at his authority, her face falling at the mention of Charlotte's name. "How can I help?"

  "I need your spells. Truffles, rolls, teas, I don't care. I just need your magic. " His orders turned to panicked desperation. "But don't make the spells so strong. I need them weak for this to work fast. "

  Sarah nodded her silent yes and disappeared into the kitchen. Valek continued into his office at the end of the hall with the woman. Kicking open the door, Valek rushed the woman inside and slammed the door shut behind him.

  If he was going to follow through with this crazy tactic-which was all too morally wrong, and he knew it-he needed to do it quickly. Glancing toward the mocking sound of the wall clock's ticks, he was sure time was not on his side. Restraining a terrified human who was awake would not be quite as easy as working on one who was already blacked out. How would Charlotte react if she knew what his plan was? He winced, and shoved his reservations aside. Quickly, he laid her body out along the sterile, white gurney and worked fast to restrain her. It worked to his advantage that he'd maintained all of his medical equipment, despite the fact he no longer had any patients. He could hear her thoughts beginning to stir, so he moved, fastening her wrists and ankles to the table by the leather fixtures.

  "This is awful," he muttered to himself. "You truly are a monster, Valek. You've reached a new low, do you know that?" He finished the last buckle at her left ankle just as Sarah appeared in the doorway, carrying the silver tray, piled high with pastries, candies, and a kettle of tea. Valek appraised the discerning glare that pulled both of her eyebrows down at him. "Don't look at me like that. "

  "What are you doing?" She blanched, nearly dropping the tray.

  Valek moved to the Witch's side immediately, taking the items from her just in case his intuition was right.

  Sarah rushed to the mortal's side, putting a gentle hand on the woman's cheek. "You better explain yourself right now! How is torturing an innocent person going to help Charlotte?"

  Valek began to pace, biting his index claw while his other arm was folded behind his back, his claws in a fist. He needed to do this in an extremely concentrated fashion. A scientific experiment. Perhaps there was a way to speed up the process so it wouldn't take a series of months, as in Charlotte's case. "Do not tell Charlotte of this, I beseech you. " He continued to think. The process came together quickly in his mind, each step falling into place. But he needed to keep this little experimentation inside these four walls. Charlotte didn't mind that he needed to feed in order to survive, but he knew how much she hated it when Vampires 'played' with their food. She had been the butt of that joke all too many a time. Valek stopped pacing and met Sarah's judgmental look as she watched him expectantly, her arms folded across her chest. "This is Charlotte. " He indicated the woman with both of his hands.

  Sarah frowned, one eyebrow raised.

  Valek moved to the woman's side. "For the purposes of my research, this is Charlotte. I need to study the addiction process in another human being, so I can figure out the best way to cure Charlotte, or ultimately, find out was the conclusion is. Understand?"

  "So what are you going to do? Vivisect the poor thing?"

  Valek looked back to the
woman, narrowing his eyes at her. "Probably. Close. I am not sure. I haven't brought this plan to its culmination yet. I'll make her sick. I'll run some tests. See if she responds well to anything. "

  Valek grasped hold of the back of the woman's neck, and plunged his fangs deep into her jugular, the hot, sticky ambrosia seeping out around his lips. His dead pulse jolted to life out of reaction to his arousal as he drank. Beneath him, he heard the woman wail. She was awake and had begun the attempt to fight him, only to find that she was miserably restrained.

  "Valek!" He heard Sarah shriek over the mortal's fluttering pulsations and gargles.

  Truly a test to his will, Valek yanked himself away from the woman, splashes of blood following on his chin and shirt. The mortal's screams were wet and gargled; tears streamed down her face. Valek winced at the horrible, tortured sight. To him, in this moment, that was Charlotte. That was what he had done to her. The only human he'd ever drunk from, and did not bother to kill in the end. The muscles in his throat tightened as he swallowed his own, bloody tears.

  He sighed. It seemed it was already too late to keep this a secret. "Give her a truffle and get Charlotte away from the door. " Hearing her gasp, he spun in time to catch a glimpse of the girl darting just behind the threshold. She'd gotten there in time to witness the bite, but she hadn't gotten there in time to hear his plan, thankfully. "You know better than that, Lottie," he murmured, his back turned to the entrance of his office, though knowing she could hear.

  Quickly, Sarah dashed toward her. Without looking, he heard the Witch rush the girl away with a very quick and vague explanation. Then she closed and locked the door. The other mortal woman stared at him. Her eyes, large and watery, held the look of death within them. Her mouth was shut tight. She was damning him in her mind. Sending him straight to Hell for what he had already done, and undoubtedly, for what he was about to do to her.

  "It's no use, darling," he began softly, answering her thoughts and stroking her hair affectionately. "I'm already in Hell. "

  Her response was a thick wad of spit that landed directly between his eyes.

  He turned away from her, wiping it away with a handkerchief from his breast pocket. He felt Charlotte's stolen blood boiling under his skin. Narrowing his eyes and exhaling slowly through his nose, he turned back to her. "Please. I would like to treat this situation with as much compassion and humanity as inhumanly possibly. Do not make it difficult. "

  The woman said nothing, but continued to fume, breathing heavily through her vexation as she stared him down. Apparently, she didn't believe actual communication with him would save her life. Her thoughts mentioned something about it being impossible to communicate with the devil. Valek snorted. The devil. If she only even knew.