Demon Blood (Vampire in the City Book 5) (12 page)

Chapter Seventeen

“Emma.” The voice was familiar, but seemed distant.

I blinked, opening my eyes to see Alex hovering over my bed. Sitting up, I said, “How did you get in?”

“The girl let me in,” he said. 

I didn’t bother to ask which girl he meant, as both of them seemed as if they were all in favor of me becoming a vampire again.

Alex sat on the edge of my bed and took one of my hands in his. He looked down at it and asked, “Why did you go to the club last night?”

“I wanted to see you, and you wouldn’t answer my phone calls.”

“You should have known there was a reason I couldn’t answer.”

“How would I know that?” I snapped, aggravated. 

He looked up at me. “Emma....”

As I looked into his eyes, I immediately felt the numbness wash over me, until he glanced away. 

We were both silent for a minute, then I asked softly, “Do you know what happened last night?”

“Yes, fortunately Henri was there to let me know what was going on and I was able to convince Michael that there was something urgent he needed to attend to.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said sadly. “I don’t know why I thought I was safe there.”

“I’m very sorry that this happened.” Alex smoothed my hair down and I leaned forward and buried my face in his shoulder. 

“Before I ask you what you would like me to do, I am going to explain about why this happened.”

“I think I know why this happened,” I mumbled into his jacket. “Michael is a vampire and he wants to drink my blood.”

“Well, yes. But it’s not quite as simple as that.”

“He made me a blood doll so he could drink my blood over the long term.” I found it much easier to talk to Alex with my face hidden, so there was no possibility of eye contact.

“Please let me explain. Do you remember what I told you about Abigail?”

“Abigail? Was that Michael’s wife?” I asked.

“Yes, she was his wife when they were both humans. She was also a blood doll. When that vampire turned her, she staked him immediately and then turned Michael. Many years later, they were both ruling New York City, and I became her blood doll. Michael didn’t like me, and could have killed me, but instead he turned me. Abigail lost interest in me, as he predicted she would, but eventually moved on to James. And you know how that ended.”

“Yeah, David killed her while they were in San Francisco.” I had heard some of this before, but not in such a linear manner.  “But what does any of this have to do with me?”

“Unfortunately for you, you happen to look remarkably like Abigail.”

“Oh, but what does that matter?”

“I might have picked someone else to turn, but I spent my last years as a human thinking I was completely in love with Abigail. Your resemblance to her is what drew me to you in the first place.”

“Oh,” I hoped my voice didn’t sound as hurt as I felt, and I was glad Alex couldn’t see my face.

“Michael, of course, noticed this as well, and when I brought you to meet him for the first time, it was like a slap in the face for him. At first, he wanted me to kill you, so he wouldn’t have to be reminded of her, but as time went on, I realized he was getting somewhat obsessed with you in his own way.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense, but then wouldn’t he want to turn me, so we could be together for all eternity and whatnot?”

“No, you’re taking what I said to mean he loves or cares for you in some way. What I said was that he is obsessed. Maybe if I finish the story, it would help.” He paused. “About a hundred and fifty years after I was turned, James came on the scene, as Abigail’s blood doll. Michael was jealous of him, as he had been of me. They were together all the time, and she gave up all her other blood dolls for him. Michael gave her an ultimatum: Kill James, or he would do it for her.”

Despite myself, I was getting pretty into the story. So I broke in with, “But she didn’t kill him, obviously.”

“No, instead she turned him, and they went to California. Of course, Michael has had a vendetta for her ever since. When James came back to New York, Michael was upset that she was not with him, and was already dead. He had been planning to kill her for the past fifty years and very much regrets that he wasn’t the one to do it.”

“Okay, that doesn’t make sense.” I looked up suddenly, forgetting myself, but Alex immediately started staring at my left earlobe instead of in my eyes. “Shouldn’t he want to kill me, instead of making me a blood doll?”

“What better way to take his revenge on his wife but to have absolute power over her? By now you should know that blood dolls are little more than chattel. Instead of killing you outright, he is going to use you in the most demeaning way possible for the next few years. When your mind is completely gone and you are so in love with him you can barely come up with any other thoughts, and you beg him to turn you so you can stay with him forever, only then will he kill you.”

As bad as I had imagined the situation to be, Alex had painted a much bleaker picture. I couldn’t even bring myself to respond in words—I just started crying.

“Emma, I’m not going to let that happen,” Alex said.

“Why not? Because you were in love with Abigail too?” I covered my eyes with my hands, now outright sobbing.

“No, because I’m in love with you.”

I was so shocked, my hand dropped from my face and I stared at him.

Alex continued to avoid my gaze, but leaned forward and lightly kissed the corner of my mouth. “Why do you think I didn’t want to be around you when you became human? It’s not possible for us to have an equal relationship. And no matter what I intended in the beginning, it would eventually become exactly what you would have with Michael.”

Somehow, I found my voice. “What are you going to do, then?”

“Perhaps the kindest thing I could do would be to kill you now. I would do it without pain, and leave your mind intact.”

“I’m still opposed to that,” I said, kind of surprised that he would follow up a proclamation of love with an offer to put me out of my misery. “What’s the other option?”

“If I turned you again, you would be free of your bond with Michael, but you would have to leave the city immediately and keep hidden from him forever, or at least until I manage to get rid of him.” He sighed unnecessarily. “Speaking of that, I’m afraid I need to do something distasteful.”

“What’s that?”

“I need to find out if you’ve told Michael anything about me that I might not want him to know.”

“I didn’t.”

“I’m not saying you willingly provided information,” he said. “You might have been hypnotized to forget.”

“Alright, well, I don’t think I did,” I said.

“I’m sorry, but I need to know for certain.” Alex took hold of my shoulders, held me out at arm’s length, and looked into my eyes. Immediately, I felt a floating, out-of-control sensation.

“Did you tell Michael anything about me?” he asked.

“No,” I heard myself answer.

“Did you tell Michael I want him dead?”

“No.”

Alex looked away. “I apologize.”

“Sure.” I took a deep breath and let it out, feeling a bit dizzy. “As far as options go, I’m in favor of becoming a vampire, even if I have to leave for a while. But there is something I need to do in the city first. Amy wants me to drink her blood so we can confuse the demon and banish him.”

“What demon?” Alex asked. “What are you talking about?”

I quickly updated him on the situation at hand.

Alex then asked the question I had asked. “Why is this your problem?”

“For one thing, he took all the magic out of me and turned me back into a human, and I’m kind of mad about it,” I explained. “For another, I don’t want him doing this to anyone else. And although we’ve figured out that vampires are his least favorite item on the menu, we do know that he’s able to take away their powers.”

“When is this ritual to take place?”

“They are planning on doing it Sunday, during a witch ritual in Washington Square Park.”

Alex looked at the clock by my bed. “The open court is starting soon, and when you and I are not there, Michael will start looking for us, and the first place he’ll look is here.”

“He won’t be able to come in. The house is protected by witchcraft.”

“It doesn’t matter that he can’t come in. He will still know we’re both in the house, and then we’ll both be dead.”

“What if we both leave the city after the witch ritual?”

“No, I’ve been planning the best way to orchestrate his death for over a hundred years. I’m not leaving the city,” Alex said. “But I do have another idea. You can stay at Cora’s apartment until it’s time for the ritual, and after it’s over, you will go back there. But the next night, you need to leave the city, and not come back until she tells you that it’s safe to do so.”

I wasn’t happy at the prospect of leaving my friends and my house, just to go somewhere totally unfamiliar to me and start over, but I didn’t think I was going to get a better offer.

“Where will I go?” I asked.

“Cora keeps records of vampire population all over the country. You need to go somewhere that doesn’t have a very big presence, so they won’t know Michael,” Alex told me.

This plan was sounding worse by the minute, but since my options were very limited, I said, “Alright, let’s make me a vampire again.”

Chapter Eighteen

Alex waited, somewhat impatiently, while I packed a small duffel bag of all my favorite clothes and toiletries. He watched, a confused expression on his face, as I tried to shove my pillow into the bag as well.

“I have trouble sleeping on other pillows,” I explained.

He laughed. “In all my years of being a vampire, I have never had trouble falling asleep when the sun rises.”

“Oh, good point.” I pulled the pillow out and threw it back on the bed. “I guess this is it, then.”

I took one more look in the bathroom, and packed my electric toothbrush, but not anything else. The allergy pills and contact lens would soon be unnecessary, and stuff like shampoo could easily be replaced.

We went downstairs to find Amy sitting on the sofa. She had her mother’s book on her lap and was writing in a small notebook. “Why are you not a vampire yet?”

“We’re going somewhere else in case Michael comes here looking for us,” I said. “Where’s Tammy?”

“At Gregor’s apartment. They’re upset about my dead mom.”

“And where’s David?”

“Dunno. Maybe still at work or something.”

“I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

“Why not?”

“As I said, Michael may come looking for us, and he won’t be happy.”

Amy laughed, almost gleefully. “Yeah, right. I’d like to see what he could do to me.”

I had seen Amy do some pretty incredible things, and the house was protected anyway, so I decided to take her word for it that a young half demon was more powerful than a centuries old vampire.

“Well, I’ll see you on Sunday night, I guess,” I said.

“Oh, you’re not coming back here before then?” she asked.

“No,” I said, hesitant to tell her that I was not coming back at all. I wanted to tell Tammy in person, but it would have to wait until tomorrow night at the earliest.

My thoughts were cut off by my cat meowing and rubbing on my leg. I scooped her up and hugged her, giving Alex a meaningful look. He just shook his head at me.

I brought the cat into the kitchen and gave her a handful of treats. “I’m going to miss you, Gypsy.” Since I was still human, I started crying again.

Alex picked up my bag and started walking to the front door. “Let’s go.” He was obviously unused to dealing with humans missing their cats.

“Bye, Amy,” I said on the way out. She barely looked up from her book, so I hoped she hadn’t noticed that tears were dripping down my face.

Outside, there was a cab idling in my driveway.

“You had him waiting all this time?” I asked.

Alex opened the door for me. “Yes, why not?”

I shrugged, thinking that it didn’t matter how much the fare went up if you didn’t actually have to pay it.

Alex gave an address, and I sat back to enjoy my last few moments as a human. I went over all the things I should have done. Perhaps I should have concentrated less on work and more on taking relaxing walks in the sun. And I should have at least once gone out to a human bar with Tammy and David.

Then, suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to me.

“Oh, no! I forgot something!”

“What’s the matter?” Alex asked.

“I didn’t get to eat chocolate ice cream yet,” I explained.

Alex didn’t respond, but I started frantically looking out the window for an open deli. But when the car pulled over, we were in front of a large, multi-building apartment complex that took up the entire block, and both sides of the street. There was no store in sight. There was, however, a food cart on the sidewalk in front of the building.

As Alex was hypnotizing the driver to think he had already paid the $120 cab fare, I jumped out and rushed over to the cart. Unfortunately, the only food item that was being sold was hot dogs. Frowning, I decided my favorite beverage was at least better than nothing. 

“Diet Coke,” I said, digging out a dollar bill from my purse. I exchanged it for a can, and turned to see Alex at the main entrance, waiting for me. 

We rode up in the elevator, both standing facing the door. It would be nice to be able to look him in the eye again when all this was over. 

When we got off the elevator, Cora opened a door and ushered us into her apartment. 

“Hi,” I said, staring at my feet.

“How interesting,” she said, circling me slowly. “How unusual.”

“Ummm, thanks, I guess.”

She looked at Alex. “You said a demon did this? It fed upon the vampire part of her?”

“Also the witch part,” I added.

“Extraordinary.” She patted my hair lightly, as if I had won a ribbon in a dog show. “Just extraordinary.”

“Would it be alright if we used your bedroom for the night?” Alex asked her.

“Certainly. Please help yourself. I’ll be out here.” With that, she sat down at an old-fashioned roll-top desk, and opened it, revealing a laptop.

Alex lifted my duffel bag and gestured for me to go through a doorway. The bedroom it led to was a bit old-fashioned. There was flower-patterned wallpaper, and one of those dressing tables woman sit at in movies to brush their hair a hundred times and try on lip gloss.

Since the top was made of glass, I deposited my soda can down on the top of it. To my dismay, I saw it was a can of Diet Pepsi. 

“Ugh,” I moaned. 

“Are you ready?” Alex asked. 

I gave one last look at the offensive soda. “I guess. Should I lay down?”

He nodded and I took off my boots and positioned myself in the middle of a rose-colored comforter. I noticed I was still wearing the black dress I had intended to wear to the vampire party. 

Alex sat on the bed next to me, and I felt my heart start beating much faster than normal. Was it fear? I had already been a vampire before, so I wasn’t sure what I was afraid of. Maybe choosing to die was a bit more scary than just waking up to discover that it had already happened. 

Alex probably noticed my hesitation and said, “You can still change your mind.”

“No, I’m not going to change my mind,” I said. “Do it already.”

He leaned over me, and I went into a deeper panic, bringing my hands up automatically to stop him. 

“I would prefer not to hypnotize you,” Alex said. “But I can if it would relax you.”

Whenever my dentist had offered me Novocain, I had accepted it without hesitation. But not having the choice to consciously experience turning into a vampire the last time made me want to this time. 

“Can you just explain to me exactly what will happen?” I asked. “I don’t remember anything from before.”

“You will only be awake for the first part. I will drink some of your blood, but take beyond what we normally do in feedings, to bring you almost to the point of death.”

“How do you know when to stop?”

“When your heart starts slowing down, I will stop. At that point, you will lose consciousness.”

“And then?”

“Then I will give you some of my blood, which you will drink automatically. When you’ve had enough, you will sleep. Then, if all goes well, you will wake up the following night as a vampire again,” he said. 

“What do you mean ‘if all goes well’?” I asked.

“Occasionally, the process does fail, and the person simply dies. But there is no need to worry about that. Since it already worked once for you, I don’t see why it would fail this time.”

I somehow felt only marginally better. Nevertheless, I closed my eyes and said, “Alright, then. I guess I’m ready.”

I felt Alex move next to me, and the side of my neck felt cool as he licked it. My entire body tensed up and I grabbed him around the shoulders. 

It didn’t hurt at all when he bit me, and I tried to will myself to relax. The sensation soon became pleasant, and I felt like I was almost floating. My hands, which had been tightly clenched, also relaxed and wrapped around Alex, trying to bring him closer to me. 

Too soon, I started to feel myself fade. I waited for the fear to come back, but it didn’t. Trying to open my eyes, I managed to get them about halfway just as my vision started to fade to black. 

I struggled to try and keep my eyes open, but the lids felt exceptionally heavy, and eventually they closed. The sounds in the room now seemed louder. I thought I could hear Alex drinking my blood as my heart beat slowed, as well as the loud traffic sounds from outside. The last thing I heard was an ambulance siren. 

When I woke up, I was surprised to find myself by a stream, in a pleasant forest glade. The sun was shining, the bright red flowers blooming, and the stream was babbling away. It all looked vaguely familiar. 

“Chantelle?” I whispered. When I had visited the astral sanctum of the zombie master, it had looked exactly like this. 

The plum tree that I had eaten from during my previous visit was still there. Remembering how wonderful the fruit had tasted last time, I picked another one. 

But when I bit it, the fruit tasted of mold and ashes. Holding it away from my mouth, I saw it rot and shrivel up before my eyes. I threw the remains into the stream, and as it hit the water, the light started to fade and the stream started to dry up. 

“Chantelle?” Now I was yelling her name. ”Chantelle, are you here?”

I spun around, looking for her, but the light continued to fade, and soon I couldn’t see anything. 

The blackness was total, and I started to panic. Even though I couldn’t see anything, I could swear that I heard things moving around in the darkness, and they were all coming for me. 

My throat felt parched, and my lungs tight. I didn’t think I could manage to make a sound, let alone scream, but soon enough I heard myself screeching all the same.