Rapid Pulse (Violet Memory Book 1)

by Odette Michael

  His eyes narrowed into slits. I got the feeling he wasn’t used to unaccepted apologies. Actually, I got the feeling he wasn’t used to apologies at all. Tremors ran down his arms, and his nostrils flared. I refused to look away as he seethed in anger, challenging him with my own fury. Just when I thought he would indeed kill me, there was a gust of air, and he was gone.

  I blinked. He was on the bed. He turned the lamp off.

  Although it was morning, the drapes made the room pitch black. Fear and darkness collided inside me. Darkness. Nyctophobia. How I hated the dark. At home at night, I kept most of the lights on and slept with three nightlights.

  I swallowed against the cold stone in my throat, but it refused to budge, and breathing was difficult. The blanket of inky blackness surrounding me was suffocating. How much more danger could I be placed in? I was in the dark, weaponless, inside a house with an unknown amount of vampires. And one was in the room with me, and I wouldn’t be able to see if he came at me.

  I curled up into a ball and covered my mouth with my hand so I wouldn’t make a sound. Liquid streamed down my cheeks and trickled onto my hand. Over and over in my head, I listened to my dad.

  “It’s just the blink of an eye. It’s just the blink of an eye. Just the blink of an eye . . .”

  And then I noticed there was indeed light in the room—eyes glowing brighter than a cat’s were staring right at me. I covered my face with my arms, fighting the urge to be sick again. There was a click, and soft light made its way through my skin; he’d turned the lamp back on.

  Refusing to thank him, I turned away. I enjoyed the safety the golden light offered before allowing my eyes to close. Thinking that I would never go to sleep, I knew I at least needed to rest.

  A few hours later, I drifted into welcoming oblivion, intuitively feeling eyes on me the entire time.

  Chapter 7 Things Worse Than Dying

  My eyes opened. Where was I? Why was I on the floor near an empty fireplace?

  Startled and shocked, I sat up quickly, throwing off the heavy quilt draped around me, wincing at my sore back and the pain in my neck.

  Then I remembered. I remembered everything. And by some miracle, Gabriel had still not killed me.

  I looked around for him, but he wasn’t there. No one was there. The lamp was still on, and I could smell food.

  I allowed myself a few minutes to compose myself before looking at the quilt. Where had that come from? I certainly hadn’t fallen asleep with it on. Had Gabriel put it on me as I’d slept? Why would he care if I were cold?

  It didn’t matter if he had or not. Covering me with a quilt didn’t negate the pain he’d caused me, or the situation he’d forced me into.

  My stomach gurgled, and I automatically went to the dining table. There was a tray of bacon, pancakes, steaming maple syrup, coffee, cream, sugar, and fresh fruit. Prompted by hunger that was borderline painful, I sat down and put the bacon on top of the pancakes and covered it with the entire jar of syrup before stuffing in large forkfuls.

  Syrup was dripping down my chin, and my mouth was full of strawberries when the door opened. I scrambled for my napkin that was soaked with sticky syrup. I wiped my face as best as I could with my arm and looked up to see Thomas. He was holding a pile of clothes in one hand and a tray of bacon in the other. He smiled warmly at me, like a nurse would at a patient who was about to undergo a dangerous surgery.

  “Hello. How are you feeling today?” he asked sincerely.

  I swallowed my food, feeling uneasy under the gaze of his all-seeing, bright eyes. “Fine, I guess,” I replied.

  He put the clothes down on the back of an overstuffed armchair. I could tell he was purposefully keeping his distance.

  “Better than yesterday?” he asked.

  I remembered my burst of hysteria and how he had seen my weakness. I bowed my head. “Yes,” I whispered.

  He indicated his tray. “May I join you?”

  Unconsciously, my eyes narrowed. “Do I have a choice?”

  “Of course.”

  I looked at him curiously before slowing nodding. Only because he’d asked.

  He put the tray down at the opposite end of the table and sat down, every move made with exaggerated slowness—I guessed it was so I wouldn’t be alarmed.

  I took a sip of my coffee, grateful for the incoming energy buzz. It was way too strong. Making a face, I plopped in three sugar cubes. I knew I would probably regret drinking it; I wasn’t supposed to have caffeine because of my tachycardia.

  “Strong stuff, huh?” Thomas said.

  I nodded again.

  “That is the way Inola likes it. Personally, I have never particularly cared for coffee.”

  I took another sip as he ate a bite of bacon, wondering if I should stay silent, or be polite and make conversation. I didn’t think he was going to hurt me. So far he’d been nice, and I could tell he was trying his best to not scare me. And last night, or morning or whatever, he had seemed honestly worried about me.

  But he was still a vampire. I snorted, stabbing a piece of sliced banana.

  “Something funny?” he asked kindly.

  I smashed the banana with my fork. “Yeah. I’m having breakfast with a vampire.”

  To my surprise, he laughed. “Yes, I suppose this is a shocking experience for you.”

  I pointed to his plate. “I didn’t think vampires ate food, only . . . well, you know.”

  He nodded. “Well, you are correct in a way. We only require blood for sustenance. But many of us still like the flavor of certain foods, and we can enjoy them even more now with our enhanced taste buds. For example, I love bacon and always have. Pigs everywhere fear me.”

  I giggled for a second before I stopped myself. There was no reason for me to laugh, not at anything. Thomas’s face fell a little, as if he could read my thoughts.

  “Inola has a fondness for coffee and peppermint candies, and Gabriel could eat his weight in chocolate.”

  I rolled my eyes, indicating just how much I cared about their food obsessions.

  Thomas’s mouth was a grim line. “I can understand your aversion to Gabriel, but has my wife done something to anger you?”

  I dropped my fork. “She threatened to kill me if I harmed Gabriel!”

  “That makes sense. Inola is like a mother to Gabriel. She is very protective of him. He was even the one to teach her English.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “But didn’t Gabriel find her? Shouldn’t it be the other way around, him like a father figure?”

  “Not exactly. You see, well, Gabriel’s mother died giving birth to him. He had an older sister that adored him, but Gabriel’s three older brothers and father blamed Gabriel for his mother’s death and treated him with much disdain throughout his human life. When Gabriel found Inola, there was an immediate connection between the two, especially since Inola had lost her husband and baby son only a month before she’d been turned into a vampire.”

  I wrapped my hands around the mug of coffee, once again unable to help the compassion that welled within me. Inola had lost a husband and a child. I had lost my parents at a young age. As tragic as that was, and even though I still felt their absence like shards of glass inside my heart, children were supposed to bury their parents. Inola carried with her a much different type of pain.

  And Gabriel . . . Had his sister really been the only one who’d cared about him? Was his sister the girl I’d seen inside his memories? Now that I thought about it, hadn’t I seen her face flash briefly when Elias had drunk my blood? It had happened so quickly that I couldn’t be sure it was the same girl.

  I wondered if Thomas knew. He was studying his last piece of bacon intently, and I didn’t know him at all well enough to know if he would tell me anything more.

  “Gabriel’s sister,” I said. “She’s why Gabriel and Elias hate each other, isn’t it? She’s why Gabriel’s a vampire.”

  Thomas’s fingers twitched. “I have a big mouth. How many times have I been told tha
t I have a big mouth? Too many times,” he muttered to himself.

  “So . . . I’m right?”

  Thomas stood up, his plate now empty. “Big, big, mouth,” he sighed. “Look, it is not my place to say. It really is not. Let Gabriel tell you when he’s ready.”

  I threw up my hands. “Gabriel might kill me today!”

  “I would not count on it,” he said.

  I stood up as well. “Oh, that’s right. You and Inola are counting on me to fall head over heels for Gabriel just because you two happened to fall in love? Well, it’s not going to happen! I hate Gabriel, and I will hate him until I breathe my last!”

  I didn’t hear the door open. Didn’t see them come inside. But Gabriel and Inola were suddenly there. Inola’s face was sad, but Gabriel’s was as expressionless as usual.

  I tilted my chin up. I stood by what I’d said.

  Gabriel held a hand out. “Come with me.”

  I backed away. “Why?” I asked warily.

  “There is a trial concerning Elias, and our leader must be woken up to carry out his sentence. You are the reason why he will die tonight.”

  ***

  Normally, I would hate being baby-sat, but I couldn’t deny I was somewhat grateful for the trio surrounding me, even if they were my enemies.

  Because there were worst enemies.

  Despite Gabriel’s claim, I was being stared at the way a stoner looked at a Chinese buffet as we walked through the never-ending mansion. Glowing eyes and beautiful faces seemed to pop up everywhere. My heart pounded rapidly and heavily, a beckoning call to these predators.

  I tried to at least appreciate the luxurious surroundings, but that was hard to do when you were a forbidden menu item. It was not what I’d anticipated a vampire nest to be like. No corpses, no coffins, no bats. Instead, everything was gold, white, and dark red. The pictures on the walls were all hand-painted, mesmerizing, and just a little dark. There were chandeliers, statues, and well-cared for potted plants.

  We went by an open door, and inside the large, workshop-like room were vampires actually glassblowing, along with a few who were intently bent over pottery wheels. The sweet sound of a harp was echoing from an indiscernible location.

  “Not quite what you were expecting?” Thomas said quietly behind me.

  I glanced over my shoulder at him, trying to ignore the two vampires lurking behind him. So what if vampires were fond of the arts? “No,” I answered. “But that doesn’t mean they are still not monsters.”

  Immediately, time seemed to stop. Every pair of eyes burned. One of the men glassblowing bared his fangs at me.

  I instinctively moved closer to Gabriel. His gaze was ice-like, and his voice was cold. “Can you watch what you say for just a little while? On second thought, just don’t talk at all.”

  “I’ll talk if I want to,” I responded automatically. “That at least is in my control. These vampires know I am claimed by you, right? Surely they all value their lives more than my blood.”

  Inola shifted closer to me. “Be careful with that mindset. Not all vampires desire to live,” Inola said as we started walking again. “After centuries, after millennia, many no longer have the will to live another day. Permanent peace is desired. Suicide is actually the most common form of death for us.”

  I swallowed hard. “You . . . kill yourselves? How?”

  Her expression was hollow. “First, you must understand how our sleep differs from yours. Vampires do not need to sleep for physical reasons, only for mental exhaustion. We can choose to sleep or not. We have what you might call a ‘sleep switch’, and it enables us to go to sleep immediately and for however long we desire. There is even a mode of sleep where we are still aware of everything going on around us.”

  “The sleep I had last night,” Gabriel mumbled. “Not nearly as satisfying.”

  Inola smirked. “Anyway, we can even choose if we want to dream or not. But the answer to your question is the coma sleep, a sleep so deep we cannot even wake ourselves—someone else must do it for us. Many vampires choose this coma sleep when they no longer wish to live. Still fearing death, but not wanting to live, they are placed in coffins and buried. Others go into the coma sleep outside at night and wait for the sun to rise. They burn to ashes, unable to feel the pain.”

  I wrapped my arms around myself. “How morbid.”

  Gabriel’s voice was steel. “You are human. You live for a handful of years, unable to comprehend eternity. You would not understand.”

  I cracked my knuckles. “You’re right. I don’t understand you. And I don’t care to.”

  He turned to me. There was no expression on his face, but there was something fragile in his eyes. Something my words had fractured. Suddenly, I felt his pain like it was my own, sharp and endless. A gut-wrenching loneliness that no words could describe. An existence that had nothing to live for.

  I drew in a sharp breath as his emotions, so much stronger than anything I’d ever felt, poured into me for brief seconds. Stabbing pain radiated throughout my body, and the floor rushed to meet me.

  “Kara?”

  Gabriel’s arms, significantly cooler than a human’s, caught me before I hit the ground. My eyelids fluttered, trying to focus on his face.

  “What did you do?” I accused weakly.

  His hand pushed my curls out of my face. “What do you mean? Are you in pain?”

  “Would all of you back off? You all act as if you have never seen a human before!” Inola shouted to the growing crowd. They dispersed, excitement and disappointment on their faces.

  Thomas put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “It is the blood connection. Your emotions are far stronger than anything she is used to.”

  Gabriel’s eyes closed. “I felt her fear last morning. It’s strange how the humans feel in comparison to us. Her emotions were so dim.”

  I tried to push Gabriel away, but he didn’t budge. “Let me go. And stop talking about me like I’m not here!”

  Gabriel’s eyes snapped open. “She is fine.” His arms left me, and I stood up, bracing a hand against the wall.

  “You better not do that again!”

  I think he almost smiled. “I cannot control it.”

  My chest was suddenly very tight. “Is it permanent?”

  “The blood connection only fades when the drinking of blood ceases. The deeper the connection, the longer it takes to disappear.”

  My hand went to my heart in a fist. “No,” I moaned.

  “He can always kill you, and it will go away then,” Thomas said lightly. Inola sighed, shaking her head at Thomas as he shrugged his shoulders.

  I looked to the ground, fighting the burning sensation in my eyes. “Maybe that is preferable,” I whispered.

  I didn’t have to look up to know that my words had angered him. His hand closed over my arm, and he pulled me forward. Despairing over the blood connection, I didn’t bother to fight him as he towed me toward their leader’s room.

  When we entered the lounge, the largest room yet, I was grudgingly grateful for Gabriel’s hand on my person. At least a dozen vampires were here. Some were reading from books that looked so old I would be afraid to turn a page, worried the material would dissolve into dust. A few were dancing in a style I didn’t recognize as one vampire played a grand piano without looking at the keys, his eyes on me.

  And then I saw what I had hoped I wouldn’t see, but in my heart, knew was inevitable.

  On a couch was a human, painfully obvious amidst the vampires’ perfect features. He was much older than me, possibly thirty. His head was tilted back, and crimson liquid ran down his neck and stained his shirt. All I could see were the backs of two heads intently bent on the life that dribbled from his neck. Another vampire, the youngest I’d seen so far, maybe fourteen, was sitting at the base of the couch, his fangs embedded in the human’s wrist.

  I covered my hand with my mouth and swallowed bile, trying not to scream. Thomas and Inola put their hands against my back and pushed me
forward as Gabriel quickened his pace.

  When we rounded the corner and began to descend into maybe a basement, I managed to speak.

  “Why didn’t you stop them?”

  Gabriel’s voice was detached. “Stop them from what? Surviving?”

  Tears pooled inside my eyes. “How can you condone that? Isn’t there another way? Animal blood? Anything?”

  “Animal blood doesn’t satisfy the thirst at all,” Thomas said. To my surprise, he sounded unnerved as well. “There have been vampires who have tried for decades to live on the stuff, but the blood frenzy would come anyway.”

  “Do I even want to know what that is?” I whispered as the tears fell.

  “The blood frenzy is what happens when a vampire goes too long without blood, or if they lose too much blood. They will attack anything they see. The vampire completely loses themselves and cannot control their actions until a healthy amount of blood is once again inside their body,” Gabriel said.

  “Something to keep in mind,” Inola said quietly.

  Gabriel shot her a dark look as I angrily wiped the tears from my face. I wasn’t about to face the person in charge of this den of demons crying. I tugged at Gabriel’s hand on my arm. “You can let me go now. I’m perfectly capable of walking down stairs myself.”

  His hand left my arm. I adjusted the sleeves of Inola’s shirt I’d changed into. As we descended deeper, it grew cold. An unnatural chill clung to the walls.

  “What exactly is a coven?” I asked, trying to forget what I’d witnessed in the room above me.

  “Just what it looks like. A family of vampires,” Gabriel answered.

  I rolled my eyes. “I gathered that. Is there like a set of rules? Why and how do you join?”

  Suddenly, all I could see were bright, unnerving emeralds. “Why so curious? I thought you did not care to understand us? Or are you already interested in joining the immortal undead?”

  Revulsion dripped from my response. “I will never become what you are. I would rather be tortured to death.”

  The briefest bit of surprise flashed in those eyes before molding into their usual insouciance. “Maybe you will not have a choice in the matter.”