Blood Gifts (6 page)

"How do they do it?" Karina asked.

Luke took an exit off the highway to get onto
another road, as he answered her. "Well, first of all, whoever
turns you into a vampire... your personality is sort of infected
with their personality. Infused with it. So if they changed you,
you would be a lot like them. You would also have a bond to whoever
changed you. Making you feel a pull to them. Making you loyal to
them." He looked at her.

She looked worried as she stared out the
window. "Is there more?" she said flatly.

"Yes," he said. "In the first three days of
your vampire life you are very vulnerable. The Runic clan uses this
time to do magic on you. They put spells on you that will make you
loyal to them, make you love them, obey them."

"Oh, my God," Karina said. "I would really be
their slave." She looked shocked.

"Yes, but it won't happen," Luke assured her.
"I won't let it." He squeezed her hand again.

"Well, who changed you?" she asked. "What
group are you a part of?"

"It doesn't work like that. I mean not every
vampire is part of a group." He checked the gas gauge then. They
should have plenty for a while. He glanced over at her. "I was
changed by a priest," he said.

She looked over at him then, her eyes wide
with surprise. "What?"

He laughed. "He was a good person. He was a
priest before he became a vampire, but even afterwards he was
sincere about it." He smiled at her. "He saved my life. I was dying
from a wound. I had been attacked by robbers on the road as I
traveled by foot." He sounded quiet, talking about things that had
happened so long ago.

"How old are you?" Karina asked quietly.

"I'm 251," he answered.

She mouthed the word "wow". He smiled.

***

Luke drove up to a bright little motel just
off the highway, inside the first town they had come to. Karina had
dozed off in the front seat and he didn't want to wake her. He got
out of the car quietly and went to rent them a room. When he came
back she was awake and looking anxious again. She got out of the
car when she saw him, and he led her to their room.

"Home sweet home," he said as he opened the
door and let her inside. She walked exhausted to the bed and lay
down on it fully clothed, on top of the covers. He chuckled and
pulled the covers back, pulled her shoes off, then picked her up
and set her back on the bed, so he could pull the covers over
her.

She smiled up at him. "Climb in here with
me," she said. She scooted over as he climbed in with her. He
gathered her in his arms and held her close. She fell almost
instantly to sleep.

Chapter 13

Karina was up, pacing. She had called Nina
and Leanne on a disposable cellphone and told them she was fine and
not to look for her. Luke had taken her to a discount store and
bought her a few pairs of jeans and some shirts. They had both
showered. He had ordered her a pizza for lunch. It sat half eaten
on a table near the bed. And now she was waiting for Luke. He had
gone to buy a map and put gas in the car. This was bizarre.

She felt like a fugitive on the run from the
police. The pizza box started to rattle across the table. She
stopped her panicked thoughts. The box lay still. Luke came through
the door then.

"They will never stop coming, will they?" she
asked him abruptly.

He closed the door behind him. "No, they
won't," he said quietly.

"And they live forever," Karina said as she
paced. "They really—"

"—Shh," Luke said, interrupting her. He
stepped over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's going to
be okay," he said.

"When?" she asked frantically. She put her
arms around him too and put her head on his chest. He held her
tight.

"There's a good chance we can stay hidden
from them," he said, trying to comfort her. "And if nothing else, I
could change you myself."

"Whoa," she said, pulling away to look up at
him. "I'm not ready for that," she said.

He laughed a little bit. "I won't force you,"
he said. "It's just an option I wanted to make you aware of."

"Oh," she said, putting her head on his chest
again. "How does that work?" she asked cautiously.

"You would have to drink my blood," he
said.

"This blood right here, running through your
veins?" she asked as she closed her eyes and listened to his
heartbeat.

"That blood right there," he said.

"Wow, this is heavy," Karina murmured into
his chest.

"I'm sorry," he said as she looked up at him.
He took her face in his hands.

She stared up into his bright blue eyes.
"Mesmerize me," she said quietly.

"What?" he laughed, startled by her
request.

"Like before, when you came in through my
window," she said quietly.

"But I had no effect on you," he said,
confused.

"No, you did," she said, "just not as much as
you wanted. I felt very calm about having an intruder in my house.
Plus I slept the whole day away afterwards. You definitely affected
me."

"Why do you want to be mesmerized?" he asked,
with concern. He buried his hands in her hair.

"I want to feel calm again," she said
simply.

"I can do that," he said gruffly. He looked
into her eyes and thought the thoughts he usually thought when
mesmerizing a person.

Karina began to feel the haze of calmness
envelop her again, like the first night they'd met. "Make me your
verae," she said dreamily.

"No," he said firmly. "You were weak after I
drank your blood before."

"You need to eat," she said.

"I hunted in the woods after I put gas in the
car," he said. "I've had my fill of blood for now."

"Oh," she said dazedly. "Do you love me?" she
suddenly asked.

"I do love you," he said.

She began to lean on him more and closed her
eyes like she was weakening. "I love you too," she said.

He stopped mesmerizing her. She stayed calm.
Her eyes flickered up to meet his. He stared down at her for a long
moment, deep in thought.

"Kiss me," she said softly.

He considered it. "Is this you talking? Or is
it mesmerism?"

"Shh," she said, calming his fears. "It's
always me..."

He leaned down and kissed her. She wrapped
her arms around him tighter. They became entangled in each other,
and she pulled him to the unmade bed. Their clothes came off
quickly and they fell back onto the blankets. She moaned when he
pressed his naked body to hers. She thrust her hips into his. He
put himself inside her, then made love to her. More gently than the
first time, but they still worked themselves up to a frenzied
crescendo. Her orgasm crashed through her and she felt herself lose
control as she screamed into his neck. He groaned as he came. Then
he pulled her closer to him as their breathing began to calm down.
She opened her eyes dreamily, exhausted by pleasure, and glanced
around the room.

"Oops," she said. Their belongings were
scattered everywhere, and a piece of pizza was sliding down the
wall.

He glanced around the room too, and
laughed.

Chapter 14

She heard the sound of metal groaning and
glass breaking, she heard tires squealing against the pavement. Her
body flew forward, and slammed against the seat belts holding her
in place.

She screamed. She woke screaming. It was just
a dream. A dream of a memory. The hotel room door burst open and
she jumped, sitting up in the bed.

Luke stood in the doorway with takeout food
in his hands.

"Oh, thank God," he said, seeing her alone.
"I thought Geric had gotten to you."

He closed the door quickly, set the food
down, and came over to her. He sat on the bed and wrapped her up in
his arms.

"What happened?" he asked as he stroked her
hair. She held him tight, driving away the nightmare.

"I had a bad dream about something that
happened to me, in my past," Karina said. "It must be the stress of
being chased. It's getting to me. I only dream about it when my
life is bad."

"I'm sorry," Luke said, squeezing her
tighter. He felt guilty for involving her in his life at all, in
his world and the dangers of it.

He held her for a few moments, then said, "Do
you want to talk about it?"

She had her cheek pressed to his chest, and
her eyes were closed. "In the dream, there was all this smashing of
glass and metal, tires squealing, a car crash."

Karina pulled away from him and moved to sit
on the edge of the bed. She wiped the tears off her face that Luke
hadn't noticed before. She continued her story.

"I was driving with my parents. There was an
accident. I was in the back seat. I had been in the middle of a
sentence, asking my mother in the front seat what she thought of
this green prom dress we'd just seen. My father was driving.
Inexplicably…" Karina closed her eyes as she remembered, "a pickup
truck drifted across the center line on the highway. It happened a
second before the crash, no time to process. There were these loud
crushing metal sounds. I was jerked forward against my seat belts.
And then there was silence.

"My parents were killed instantly. I was in
the back seat in shock, unable to move. Later I found out I only
had bumps and bruises and a strained neck. But I swear at the time
I couldn’t feel my body.

"Then a sudden scraping noise broke the
silence. The totaled pickup truck slid backwards away from our car,
as if it were dragged. Later, at the man's trial, he described his
truck moving for no reason after the accident, and people assumed
he didn't really know because he was drunk. They assumed the car
and truck bounced away from each other after colliding.

"But I know. I was there, I remember. I did
it. It was the first time I used my psychic powers, or even knew I
had them. Though it took me years to realize it. At the time I
didn't really care. I had just lost my parents. I was only 15."

"I'm so sorry," Luke said. She was standing
now, in front of him, and he pulled her close, so he could hug her,
pressing his cheek against her chest, his arms wrapped around her
waist.

"Come here," Luke said, standing up and
taking Karina's hand. He gently led her to the small round table.
"I brought you Chinese food."

She sat down at the table and he let her hand
go. She rested her chin on her hands and stared into space.
Thinking about her parents. Thinking about her life.

He scooted the bag of food closer to her as
he sat across from her. He was patient and waited for her to make a
move. Finally she sighed and opened the bag of food. He watched her
as she fumbled with the chopsticks for a while. Finally she glanced
up at him and decided she didn't care if it was rude. She set the
chopsticks down and picked up a piece of cashew chicken with her
fingers. It was quite messy. He smiled a little.

After she chewed a bite she asked, "So did
you… uh… eat?"

"I drank from a deer, yes," he said.

"Is the deer dead?" she asked.

"No, I can drink from a large animal without
killing it. They have enough blood that I don't have to. I didn't
want to leave any evidence for Geric to find. I don't know how many
different ways he might be trying to track us."

That made her lose her appetite a little, but
she forced herself to take small bites. She did need the
sustenance.

"I found us a place," he said as he watched
her play with her food. "An abandoned farmhouse."

"Oh?" she said. "We can't stay here?"

"I figured they would be looking for us at
public accommodations. Seemed safer to go off the grid
somehow."

She frowned as she picked at the chicken.
"Will we have to do this forever?" she asked. "How long can we run?
Until I die of old age?"

"No," he said quietly. "I think things will
come to a head before that."

She glanced up at him quickly, a little
startled by that statement. "What will we do?" she said, and her
voice came out small, young sounding and afraid.

He reached across the table and wrapped his
fingers around her wrist, avoiding her messy fingers. It made her
smile.

"We will have to think of a plan," he said.
"We'll be ready for him the next time he catches up with us. He
won't take you from me."

"Okay," she said, exhaling. She hadn't
realized she'd been holding her breath. "Tell me about the
farmhouse."

"Well," he said, thinking for a moment. "It's
a little rough. The water has been turned off, but there is a hand
operated water pump by the barn. Someone at some point built an
outhouse about twenty feet behind the house. And there's a wood
burning stove in the kitchen. So, we can take baths by heating
water on the stove and pouring it into the bathtub." He looked
concerned.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We can't use debit cards or credit cards. I
assume he can find a way to track them. Maybe I could go to another
town to withdraw some of our money from our accounts, so we can buy
food. And throw them off our trail."

She sighed. "This is so complicated. We will
run out of money eventually."

"I know," he said. "I can't think of a way
for us to take jobs without exposing ourselves too much. We don't
want anyone to remember they saw us to answer questions about
us."

"Then maybe it'd be better if Geric found us
sooner than later," she said, feeling defeated.

"We will beat him," he said.

"And if we can't?" she said. She turned a
piece of chicken in her fingers, staring at it absently.

"I could turn you… if nothing else," he
said.

She looked up quickly to see his blue eyes
staring into her.

"But that would be your choice. Always your
choice," he said. He squeezed her wrist with his hand, then pulled
his hand away from her.