The Next Generation

by S. C. Stephens

  With that, she tore into her body, exposing her blood. Eyes locked on Connor’s, she brought the gaping wound to Hunter’s lips. When his mouth filled, he instinctively swallowed. The sound broke my heart. It was done. He’d turn now. He’d be forced into darkness, into shadows. There was no cure for vampirism. He’d hate himself. He’d hate me…

  As Hunter gulped more and more of Halina’s blood, her pausing on occasion to reopen the wound at her wrist, reason seemed to return to Connor. Releasing the knife’s tension at my throat, he muttered, “Dear God…what have I done?”

  Dad moved an inch to the left, and Connor’s rigidness returned. The knife bit into my flesh, and I forced myself to not cry out. Dad held up his hands, then pointed to Ben’s body. “I just want to check on my friend.”

  Connor must have nodded, for Dad continued moving toward Ben. Eyes wide, I watched my father squat next to the fallen hero. Dad tilted his head, listening, then placed a couple of fingers along his jugular. Anxious, Mom whispered, “Is he okay, Teren? I can’t hear his heartbeat.” There was a lot of blood on the floor around Ben. I didn’t see how anyone could survive a head shot like that, but I also couldn’t imagine Ben dead. He’d been a fixture in my life for too long.

  Face grim, Dad looked up at Mom. “It’s there…barely.” He swung his head to Connor. “We gave you what you asked for, now please, let my daughter go, and let us take him to a hospital.”

  Connor’s grip on me tightened as he considered Dad’s proposal. Halina, finished with her assignment, stood and licked the blood from her closing wound. Her pale eyes burned holes into the man holding me captive, and her fangs were still extended. She seemed a little steadier than she was at the motel. I figured that the massive amount of human blood she’d drank tonight was the reason.

  Lying prone at her feet, Hunter looked the same as before. Well, no, he did look a little different. There was no slight rise and fall to his chest anymore, no involuntary muscle twitches. He was stone still…dead. Tears ran down my cheeks.

  Connor’s free hand pointed at his son’s body. “Why isn’t he waking up? Why isn’t it working?”

  His music was still blaring through his headphones, keeping his mind protected from my grandmother’s hypnotizing words. Realizing this, Halina lifted her wrist, miming like she was checking the time on a watch. “It is not instant, you imbecile. Pureblood conversions take time.”

  She showed him her fingers, curled them, then reopened them. She repeated the process, only flashing four fingers. Twenty-four. That was how long Hunter’s conversion would take. Connor understood her game of charades. Of course, he had probably known that all along, having come from a generations-old vampire-slaying family. Indicating outside, he told her, “I need to speak with your nestmates…” he tapped his ear, “so you need to leave.”

  Halina rolled her eyes. “I won’t compel you.” A small smirk was on her lips after she said it, and I knew she was lying.

  Connor couldn’t hear her, but he got the gist of what she was saying, and he also questioned her sincerity. With more force, he reiterated, “Leave! Or I add one more lifeless body to this room!”

  Mom grabbed Halina’s elbow. “Halina…please? Teren and I can handle this. You and Gabriel take Ben to a hospital.” She swallowed, and her voice warbled. “He’s going to die, Halina, for us…and he’s sacrificed so much already. We owe him.”

  Halina looked back at Ben, her eyes compassionate. They hardened again as her head snapped to Connor. “He does not get to walk away from this,” she snarled.

  “He won’t,” Dad whispered, his eyes locked on Halina’s.

  Halina appraised her grandson for a moment, then nodded. Giving Connor a warning hiss, she slinked her way over to Ben. Connor watched her apprehensively, his body tight with tension. Halina effortlessly scooped Ben into her arms, then backed toward the exit. Stepping next to Gabriel, she gave Connor an icy glare.

  In Russian she told him, “After my grandson kills you, I am going to pull off your head, place it on a platter of fine china, and rest it on my nightstand. Every night before I retire, I will smile at your vacant eyes, knowing you are no more.”

  Gabriel’s lip twitched as he followed Halina out the door. I felt Halina’s presence streaking away, getting Ben some much needed help. I prayed that he made it…that we all made it.

  Julian turned to Connor once she was away. “She’s gone.”

  The rock music abruptly ended, and Connor let out a long exhale. “I’m assuming none of you can control people’s minds…otherwise the girl would have compelled my son ages ago.”

  Dad stood. “Her name is Nika, and she’s only sixteen years old.” Carefully avoiding the pool of Ben’s blood on the floor, Dad made his way toward me. I wanted to reach out for him, but the metal pressed into my neck frightened me so much, I couldn’t even lift a pinky. “Your son will live now. Please let her go.”

  “Live? Is that what you call it?” Connor’s voice was full of despair, but my well of sympathy for him had run dry a while ago.

  Dad reached out a hand for me. “If you give her to me, I’ll let you leave with your son. You have my word.”

  Disbelief flowed into me from Julian. Underneath my mountain of fear, I felt the same way. Dad had told Halina that Connor wouldn’t get to walk away. Dad was either lying to Connor right now, or he’d purposely misled Halina so she would leave. I wasn’t positive which direction he was headed, but by the sincerity on his face, I was guessing that he really was going to let Connor leave. Halina was going to be pissed.

  Connor’s tone was hard when he responded. “Your word? What good is the word of a monster?”

  Dad clenched his jaw. “I’m no more monster than you. But when I give my word…I keep it. You and your son are free to leave.” Dad glanced over at Mom. She was scowling, but she nodded. She wouldn’t go against Dad’s act of amnesty.

  Slowly, I felt the sting of the knife retreating. The warmth of fresh blood trickled down my neck as I inhaled a deep breath of relief. My initial reaction was to turn and strike Connor in the nose with my elbow, but I knew how dangerous he was, and I wasn’t about to risk getting knifed in the stomach. I’d had enough of knives…and arrows…and guns. I’d had enough of violence. I never wanted to see blood again, and that was saying a lot, considering how much I loved the stuff.

  Julian’s arms were instantly around me when Connor backed away. The relief coursing from my brother nearly drowned me, but I buried my head in his shoulder, grateful and tired. Mom urged us both to back out the door with her, but my eyes were transfixed on Hunter’s body. I was assaulted by memories of his warm smile, of the sunlight reflecting in his dark eyes. He would never again feel the heat of the afternoon sun on his body. His favorite time of day was now forbidden to him, along with silver…and food.

  He would live in a world of deceit now, where he was forced to lie to every person he encountered. Then again, he was born and raised to be a vampire hunter…he’d been lying to people for a while. But he would live in a world of thirst, where blood ruled his senses. The urge to drink was pretty mellow for my family and me, another one of the benefits of having diluted blood, but to Hunter, a newborn pureblood, the desire for blood would be profound. Especially when he first woke up.

  I lifted my head and stared at Connor inching his way to his son, his knife protectively held in front of him. “He’ll need to eat right away,” I murmured, my voice scratchy, my throat feeling bruised. Connor snapped his eyes to mine. He paused as I continued. “If you want him to live…he’ll need to eat as soon as he wakes up. And he’ll be hungry, really hungry, so if you want to live, you better have something ready for him.”

  My eyes drifted to my father. The story of Dad’s conversion was legend in our home. It was a horrific warning of what could happen to my brother and me if we walked into our own conversions overconfident. There were some things about our lives, about our bodies, that needed to be handled with the greatest of care and planning. Conve
rsions were at the top of that list; they were not to be taken lightly.

  Connor’s face paled as he looked down at his vampire son. His words reverberated in my mind: Dear God…what have I done? I couldn’t help but think the exact same thing.

  Eyeing my mother and father, Connor tucked his knife back into his belt, bent down to retrieve his discarded gun, and then picked up his son. He didn’t have our super-strength, so it took him a moment to lift him. Once he was carrying Hunter, he cautiously made his way toward the door. He passed close by me, and I absentmindedly reached out to stroke Hunter’s cheek; it was cool to the touch.

  Connor hesitated, and I peeked up at his face. His eyes were brimming, the earlier madness in them gone. His hope seemed gone, too, as he held his limp child. Swallowing my grief, I leaned over and placed a light kiss on Hunter’s forehead.

  “Goodbye, Hunter,” I whispered, not sure if he could hear me. “I’ll always love you.”

  Tears fell on Connor’s cheeks as he carried his son away from me.

  MY SISTER WAS barely holding it together. Her neck ached, her shoulder throbbed, her arm burned, but the hole in her heart was more excruciating than any of those pains. She watched her boyfriend being carried away from her with stoic resolve, but she couldn’t hide her feelings from me. She was wrecked, physically and emotionally.

  After Hunter and his dad were gone, Mom and Dad cautiously made their way over to Nika. “Honey…you okay?”

  Nika turned her head to answer Mom, but instead of speech escaping her lips, her knees buckled.

  My arms were already around her, and I cinched her tight to keep her from crashing to the floor. Her head dropped back as she lost consciousness. I wasn’t sure if her injuries had finally pulled her under, or if she’d finally snapped from the strain. Either way, I swooped her into my arms as Mom felt her forehead.

  “She’s hot…does she feel hot?” Mom twisted to Dad.

  Dad felt her forehead, too, but shrugged. “She always feels hot to us, Emma.” His expression grave, he lifted his eyes to mine. “We need to get her to a hospital…have that arrow removed.” He paused, then added, “And check on Ben.”

  A solemnity filled the church as we all looked at the bloodstain on the floor…Ben’s blood. Halina would have to send someone out here to clean it up. I wasn’t sure why that thought popped into my head. I guess concealment was so ingrained in me that covering things up was instinct now. If only those instincts had served me better earlier, when I’d decided to let my guard down at that Halloween party, then maybe I wouldn’t be staring at a puddle of blood on a once-pristine tile floor.

  The three of us dashed away with Nika moments later. Dad unlocked Grandpa’s truck, and I gently laid Nika down on the back seat. She cringed as her shoulder compressed against the seat, but the stress and exhaustion had a firm hold on her, and she didn’t wake up. I folded her knees to make room for me, then sat beside her.

  Dad started the truck and we drove to the hospital. We could have chosen to forgo the truck, zipping there in seconds with our super-speed, but Nika wasn’t in mortal danger…and I didn’t think any of us wanted to return to this spot once we left. Now that the library was receding in the rearview mirror, I knew I didn’t feel like ever going there again, and I had to believe my parents felt the same way.

  The hospital was quiet when we pulled into the lot. That surprised me for some reason. I guess so much had happened in the past several hours, I expected everyone else’s lives to be equally turbulent. But no patients were waiting in the emergency room when we walked in.

  The nurse on duty did a double take when she noticed Nika snuggled in my father’s arms; most people probably walked in on their own accord. My sister was still out, though. That was probably a good thing, since she would’ve been really anxious about what they were going to do to her if she’d been awake. Even though it was a little selfish of me, I was grateful that I wasn’t feeling her anxiety. I was wound up enough on my own.

  I was still reeling over what had just happened. She’d turned him. My grandmother was adamantly against turning anyone…and she’d turned Hunter. True, she hadn’t had a choice—Nika’s life had been on the line, and maybe mine too—but still…turning someone into a vampire went against everything Halina believed. Even if I couldn’t feel her emotions, I knew she had to be sick to her stomach over her actions.

  Halina loved us, and loved our family, and I think she even loved her life, but she viewed vampirism as a curse, a plague, a weed that we were trying to purge from our family tree. I never thought I’d see the day when Halina put another pureblood on Earth. And a hunter to boot. I had no idea what a vampire hunter turned vampire would do, but from Halina’s ominous last words before she’d turned him, I was certain she wasn’t going to let him do very much. Hunter wasn’t going to have a long afterlife. Nika was going to lose him twice. And she knew it…that was why she’d made sure to say goodbye at the church.

  It didn’t take long for Nika to be checked in and assessed. She started to wake up when the nurse began examining her injuries. “How did this happen?” the severe-faced woman asked us, indicating the arrow shaft.

  Dad’s face showed only concern for his daughter, as he told the nurse, “Hunting accident.” For once, he wasn’t lying; only, we were the prey, so it wasn’t really an accident.

  The nurse pursed her lips but didn’t offer any additional comment. I wasn’t sure if she believed my dad, but it was an arrow in Nika’s shoulder, and what other explanation was there for getting shot with an arrow?

  Nika stirred as her jacket was cut away from the wound. “Mom? Dad? Where am I?” she muttered, squinting her eyes.

  Mom and Dad quickly glanced at each other, then Mom laid her hand on Nika’s arm. “You’re at the hospital, dear…and your mother is on her way. Teren and I are here with you and your brother…”

  Mom stressed Dad’s name, subtly reminding Nika, and me, that we were back in the real world, and our “scripted” personas had to be put back on. Nika and Julian Adams were the offspring of Starla Adams, and our father was dead; Dad had called Starla while we were checking in Nika, and she was coming down here to sign the admittance forms.

  Nika frowned as she looked at Dad. “Oh…” Then she winced and bit her lip to try and contain her agony; it washed through me, tightening my stomach.

  “Stop, you’re hurting her,” I snapped at the merciless nurse who was now cutting Nika’s T-shirt away from the arrow. I tried to calm my expression when she looked up at me, but Nika’s pain was flashing through me in waves, and I couldn’t stop cringing.

  The woman in scrubs didn’t seem sympathetic as she returned her attentions to Nika; she almost seemed ready to kick me out of the room, since, to her eyes, I looked to be bothered by the gory sight. “The doctor needs to be able to see the injury to know how to best proceed.” She paused, considering. “But I’ll get her something for the pain.”

  She swiveled her stool around and left the room. Nika let out a low groan, and I squeezed her hand. Her moist eyes locked onto mine, grateful. Dad looked at us thoughtfully for a moment, then twisted to Mom. “Once she’s taken care of, I want to go check on Ben.”

  Mom gave him a solemn nod. I could feel Halina’s presence upstairs. She was most likely close to Ben, awaiting his outcome. I fervently hoped he survived…and wondered if maybe one of us should call his wife.

  Halina was pacing, and I figured she was torn between sticking to her assignment and rushing to us. Eventually, her desire to make sure we were safe superseded her sense of duty. When the nurse came back with Nika’s drugs, Halina stormed into the room. The nurse looked over her shoulder and snipped, “There are too many people in here. Why don’t you wait in the lobby?” Snatching Nika’s hand from me, she shoved an IV needle into a vein. Nika hissed in a sharp breath.

  Halina narrowed her eyes. “I’m fine here…and be gentler with her.”

  The nurse instantly obeyed Halina’s command, softening her touch wh
en she resumed cleaning and preparing the wound. Nika relaxed as the IV medicine kicked in. I felt it, too, and my head started to swim a little. I pushed it back as best I could.

  Dad stood and faced Halina. “Ben?” he asked in a hushed voice.

  Halina looked at the floor. “He’s… They’re still working on him. The bullet ran along the edge of his skull, but didn’t penetrate his brain. They’re removing it, but…he lost a lot of blood.” Eyes shimmering with red tears, Halina shook her head. “His heart stopped on the table more than once. The last time it did, they had trouble reviving him.”

  The nurse heard Halina and twisted to look up at her. “They’re still working on him? The doctors don’t usually give updates until the patient is off the table. How do you know all that?”

  Halina let out an exasperated grunt. “Because I can hear almost everything that’s happening in this damn hospital, from the person with the incessant cough down the hall, to the couple having sex in the on-call room. It’s infuriating, having to weed through all the crap to hear the things that I need to hear…especially when they’re not things I want to hear! So, quit eavesdropping on my conversation and get a doctor in here to pull out that goddamn arrow!”

  The nurse immediately fled the room. Halina closed her eyes and squeezed her hands into fists. My eyes were huge as I stared at her. I’d never heard her go off on someone before. She was having a rough night, and was understandably on edge, but, damn… Thank God she wasn’t mad at me.

  Starting to get a little high, Nika giggled while everyone stared at Halina. Opening her eyes, Halina glanced up at the ceiling. “I know…I’ll take care of it,” she muttered, her expression sullen. Mom and Dad looked at each other, small smiles on their faces. Gabriel must have said something admonishing to Halina, something my weaker hearing couldn’t pick up.