Bite Me (15 page)

CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

     The tests were conclusive; I was pregnant! Not happy news for me. I couldn't tell Aiden. According to my vision, he didn't want the child. I can't say I blame him. He didn't want any parts of me as a vampire; why would he want a son that was one? I started looking into adoptions but wondered who'd want to adopt a vampire baby? Do vampires even adopt children? I don't recall seeing or reading of any vampires who had any children. Maybe, because it was so rare.

     So far, Jack was the only one I told.

     He joined me at my table at Sinister Nights during his break. "Should you be drinking in your condition?"

     "I don't have a condition. I have a situation."

     "When will you tell Aiden?"

     "I'm not. I'm not keeping this baby."

     "You're not going to have…"

     "No." I interrupted him. "Do I look like the motherly type?" I caustically asked.

     "Are you going to tell Draco?"

     "Tell Draco what?"

      We looked up at him as he hovered at our table. Jack stood.

     "Well, I better get back to work." He decreed and walked away.

     Draco sat across from me, scrutinizing me with those intense, gray eyes. "What are you trying to hide from me?"

     I could feel him rummaging through my mind but I attained the gift of being able to block any invasion into my thoughts. "Nothing."

     He narrowed his eyes. "Don't lie to me. I will find out."

     "Eventually." I casually replied and sipped at the Scotch..

     "It has to do with that vision you had the other night." He deduced.

     "You mean the one where you cared so much, you went to sleep?" I jeered.

     "It was the middle of the day! I was tired." He argued.

     I snorted and drank some more.

     "Tell me about it now."

     I remained silent.

     "It had to do with that human, didn't it?" he guessed. I could see he was frustrated not being able to get results probing my mind.

     I heavily sighed. "Yes, it did."

     His eyes turned to pinpoints as he realized, "You're carrying his child."

     I didn't say anything; only drank.

     He groaned and sat back in the chair. "What are you going to do?"

     "Put him up for adoption."

     "You can't put a vampire baby up for adoption. What human family would be able to raise him?"

     "What about a vampire?"

     "We don't adopt children. We rarely have them. And when one of us do, the child becomes revered. There hasn't been a child born to a vampire in over a millennium. You must keep this child. He has a special future."

     "Just not with me." I persisted and stood up.

     "Where are you going?" he demanded.

     "To feed. I'm feeding for two now." I snipped, turned and walked away.

     I went to my hunting grounds near the wharf and sat in a pub, eyeing potential victims. A young girl, no older than twenty one; if she was that old, came over to me and asked if she could join me. I was going to say no but her blood smelled so sweet I couldn't refuse. After a while of drinking and talking, we left the pub and I guided her around the side of the building, out of sight of the street light. I gently pressed her against the wall. I could smell her arousal and strangely, it aroused me. I suddenly wanted her but my hunger for blood superseded any need for sex. I deeply growled, my fangs descended and I leaned into her supple neck, pushing the points of my fangs into the vein.

     She groaned as I suckled harder than I wanted; then I usually do. I couldn't stop feeding. She was growing weak. I was taking too much blood. I felt her going cold in my arms as I held her.

     And then I heard the siren and turned. A light was bobbing my way. It was Aiden and his partner. I dropped the girl and fled.

     "Police, stop!" Aiden shouted.

     I heard his running footsteps behind me. "Lucy!" he shouted. "Don't make me shoot you! Stop!"

     His voice carried on the night as I kept running. I could imagine him stopping, panting and cussing me. I hurried down the steps to the tube and plopped on a seat just as the doors of the train shut. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes as it pulled out of the station. The baby was fluttering in my stomach.

     I found my way to the vampire graveyard. As I drew near Donnie's grave, I saw Jack kneeling and caressing the dirt.

     "What are you doing here?" I admonished.

     "I try to come here after work every other night to see him. I know, I'm moving on with Bobby, but I can't stop loving or thinking about Donnie."

     On the grave were three stones in a circle. "You marked his grave?"

    "It's the only way I can remember where he is."

    "If you get caught," I paused, my ears perked. "Get up." I whispered, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet.

      "What?"

     "We're not alone. Come on." Holding onto his arm, we weaved through the mounds of dirt and into a mausoleum type building.

       We hurried down the dark stairs; Jack blindly clinging to me, and stepped down into a long dimly lit hall. We followed the flickering lights in their wall sconces to a set of double doors. I pushed them open and found us in a church filled with people in dark, hooded robes. A heavy set man stood at the altar with a raised chalice. Behind him was a silver cross. The walls were lined with votive red candles. The domed ceiling had the depiction of the fall of the angels from heaven.

     The fonts in the back of the church were filled with blood instead of water. Was this the church in my vision?

      "Are we in church?" Jack whispered, drawing attention to us from those sitting nearby.

     I nudged him into the last pew on the row and sat down. Chanting went on around us. The priest lifted the chalice and drank it. When he lowered it, blood pooled in his mouth and trickled down the sides of his chin. This was a vampire mass.

     A few of the heads turned to us. We looked out of place without the robes. But they seemed more interested in Jack. They sensed he was human and smelled his blood. I grabbed his hand.

    "Let's get out of here."

    He didn't argue and the two of us took flight.

    Coming away from the gravesite, I hailed a cab for Jack and sent him home. I, on the other hand, couldn't return to my flat knowing Aiden was out looking for me. I had to swallow my pride and go back to Sinister Nights.

     Draco opened his penthouse door with a triumphant grin. "Welcome home." He greeted.

     I cast him a wry glare. "It's only temporary."

     "No, I don't think so. You see," he pointed the remote to the TV news station where they announced a young girl was found dead on the wharf. "You killed your prey. Your inspector friend is going to be at your flat day and night until he catches you."

     I groaned and flopped unceremoniously on the soft, white leather sofa. It hissed under my weight. "I didn't mean to kill her. I guess I just got carried away."

     "Because you're feeding for two. You need more than your usual intake of blood. And, for now, you're going to have to live here…with me." He emphasized.

     "My life just keeps getting better." I jeered.

     "So, where have you been hiding all of this time?"

     "I found the vampire church."

     "You went to the graveyard to see your friend?"

     "It's where I ended up until I heard someone else in the graveyard and I dragged Ja…" I stopped.

     Draco arched his dark brows. "That human was there?"

     "He visits often. He misses his lover." I defended.

     "So, you drag him into the church. Was there a mass going on?"

      I nodded.

      Draco impatiently rolled his eyes. "Keep your friend away from that graveyard and the church. You're fortunate they didn't attack him."

     "They were about to." I confessed.

     "And they would have killed you to get to him."

     "They would have killed a pregnant vampire? I thought the baby is revered?" I jeered.

     "In the fit of bloodlust they wouldn't have cared."

     My attention drifted to the TV and the video recording of the interview they had with Aiden; so cocky and sure he would catch his perpetrator. Now, who was out for blood? I ironically thought.

     "Turn it off." I ordered.

     Draco complied.

     "Do you have any beer?"

     "Wine. Beer isn't good for the baby."

     "I don't like wine."

     He went to the bar. "You'll like this one. It's special."

     I watched him pour the thick, red liquid into the goblet. I stood up and approached the bar.

     "Let me guess; it has blood in it."

     Draco smiled. "Just what the baby needs."

     I sipped the wine. It was smooth going down and left a pleasant taste in my mouth.

    "You like it, eh?"

    "It isn't bad." I downed the rest of it and handed him my goblet.

    "You had enough blood tonight. You don't want to drown the baby in it."

    "It's going to be a lot of trouble, taking care of a baby I'm not going to keep."

    "You'll change your mind."

     "No, I won't. Now, I'm tired, I'm going to bed." I grumbled and headed for the bedroom.

     "I'll join you shortly." He called after me.

     I waved my hand, "Great!" I facetiously returned and disappeared down the hall.

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

     The continuous ringing of the phone finally woke me. I snatched it up to my ear. "Hello?" I groggily replied, glancing at the clock. It was two in the afternoon.

     "Where are you?" Jack's voice came back.

     "In bed."

     "I'm at your door and you're not answering."

     "Because I'm not at my flat. I'm at Draco's penthouse on top of the club. Why are you calling me?"

     "You're not going to believe what's in today's paper." He decreed.

     "I'll look at it later." I grumbled and hung up.

     Draco rolled over and put his arm around me. "Who was that?"

     "Jack. He seems excited about something that's in the paper."

     Draco wearily sighed. "Don't these humans have any concept of time?" he complained.

     "I know." I agreed and we both fell back to sleep.

     It wasn't for long. There came an urgent pounding at our door. I sat up in a panic; thinking Aiden found me.

    "Relax." Draco coaxed. "I'll get it." He slipped into his jeans and hurried from the room, zipping up.

     I tossed the covers aside and swung my feet to the floor. I grabbed my clothes and dressed. I heard the door open and Draco say, "What do you want?"

     I sighed, relieved when I heard Jack's voice. "I'm sorry to wake you but Lucy has to see this paper."

    Draco held it in his hands, reading when I came into the spacious living room. He lifted his gaze on me and extended the newspaper to me. I took it and caught my breath when I read the title: Girl presumed dead sits up on the morgue table. Medical examiner found unconscious on the floor, blood trickling from the bite marks in his neck.

     "That's the girl I accidentally killed." I said to Draco.

     Jack's eyes widened, "
You
killed?"

     "I took too much blood. The baby desired more than my usual intake."

     "You turned a human?" Jack decreed.

     "I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I could."

     "You've got to find her or she'll become like your friend Donnie. She's frightened and confused and probably starving. She'll feed off everyone in sight." Draco exclaimed.

     "How am I supposed to find her?"

     "You must go back to where you took her to feed." Draco stated.

     "I can't go back there. Aiden is probably staking out the place waiting for my return to capture me."

     Draco narrowed his eyes at me. "I warned you he wasn't to be trusted."

     "Everything was fine until you turned me into a vampire and now I did it to some poor girl."

     "So, you're staying here to avoid Aiden?" Jack queried.

     Draco and I looked at Jack as though just realizing he was there.

    "Yes." I replied. "He caught me with that girl last night and chased me down. He probably has surveillance on my flat."

     "But I thought he loved you?"

     Draco scoffed.

     "He's upset because I wasn't honest with him about what I was." I cast Draco a black look.

     "So, you'll be living here from now on?" Jack asked.

     Draco and I exchanged glances. "Yes." "No." we chorused.

     "You said yourself you can't go back." Draco reminded.

     "I'll find myself a new flat."

     "No." Draco declared. "It's too dangerous."

     "I'm a vampire. My life is dangerous." I bitterly reminded. "Besides, I can't stay locked up inside until I have this baby. You said, yourself, I had to find that girl. And I need to feed. I can take care of myself. I have all of your strength and powers."

      "She's got a point." Jack said.

      Draco rounded on Jack. "Go home."

     "Fine." He indignantly replied. He snatched the paper from my hand, turned and departed with a soft slam of the door.

     "You didn't have to be so mean." I scolded.

     "He shouldn't have woke me up in the middle of the day. Now, let's go back to bed. We'll worry about everything when we get up."

      "You go back to sleep. I'm awake now. And, the baby's hungry. Where's the wine concoction?"

      "Behind the bar." He grumbled and stomped back to bed.

      I curled my lip behind his back and then stepped behind the bar in the corner of the living room. I found the wine and the goblets and poured me a full glass. As I drank the wine, I couldn't get that girl's face out of my mind. Draco was right; I had to find her and before Aiden did. I wearily sighed. To think, only a month ago, he and I conceived this child and now I shudder to think what he would do if he found out. I downed the wine and poured another. I flopped on the sofa and turned on the TV, watching the news.

      The girl's face was plastered all over the screen. Reporters couldn't stop talking about it. People were scared thinking some rapid girl was loose on the streets. And, if I didn't stop her; they would be right.