Overworld Chronicles Books 1-2: Sweet Blood of Mine & Dark Light of Mine (40 page)

I flicked it on only to discover it was password protected. My heart dropped another notch. If I could contact her family, I could have them meet me somewhere. That way I would be the only one in danger. Or, I could tell them where to pick her up and watch from a safe distance.

But how would I know if she recovered? I doubted her family would send me a postcard. I paced back and forth, straining to think of something I could do. I tried to guess her password, using her name in upper and lower case, and the name of her mom—Leia, the vampiric hair stylist. No luck. I dropped the phone on the bed and sighed.

Dad was making coffee in the kitchen. I wandered in, face screwed up in misery and told him about Elyssa.

He was incredulous. "She's the dhampyr?"

"Yes." A long sigh escaped me. "We're in love."

His incredulity increased as indicated by his jaw dropping open a fraction. "Tell me exactly what happened."

I gave him the 411. Told him how I'd fed off her and then reversed the flow in an attempt to revive her.

"That's not possible," he said. "You and I can feed off each other because of what we are, but we can't give back what we take."

I shrugged. "Somehow, I did." I thought for a moment. "I don't know if it makes a difference, but I transformed into some kind of monster."

He sucked in a breath. "Explain."

I told him about the creature that had erupted from me and slaughtered all those vamplings. Dad blanched. Seeing someone who supposedly knows a lot more about this stuff than me go sick with worry didn't inspire a lot of confidence in my actions.

"What is it?"

He dropped into a chair. "You
spawned
."

"Well, we are called demon spawn, right?"

"Right. We're called spawn for a reason. You literally spawned or manifested into your demon form." He leaned forward. "You must never let it happen again. I can't believe you didn't go on a rampage and kill everyone."

"I almost went Incredible Hulk, but thinking about Elyssa brought me back."

"You were lucky. Very lucky. Only older spawn can manifest and maintain control. I still can't manifest at will, and even if I did, I would probably rampage."

I shuddered with fear at what might have been. "I was furious when it happened. I lost control."

"That's how it starts. You were starving, outnumbered, and angry. In this case it was a defense mechanism."

"Well, it worked."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Like I said, you were lucky." He ran a hand through his matted hair. "You took out all the vamplings?"

"I think so."

"Thank God. Those things would spread like a plague if left uncontained and they can infect animals too. Those idiotic rogues are going to make a horrible mess if the Conclave doesn't step in and do something about it."

"Vamplings can spread vampirism?"

He nodded. "Vampires have control over turning a human into a vampire. Vamplings have no control or will for that matter, only hunger. Anything they infect will die and leave an animated corpse. Even animals. All we need is a vampiric rat infestation again."

"What about Elyssa? Did they infect her?"

"From what you've described, I think she's clean of infection. A vampling would have to drain her completely of blood to infect her—I think—but I'm not exactly an expert on vampirism."

I relaxed but only slightly. "Is there anything I can do to help her?"

He sighed. "I'm sorry, son, but I don't know what you can do."

I decided not to tell him about my plan to return her to her family. He might not agree with such an idiotic plan. "Well, maybe you should clean up. No offense, but you stink."

He chuckled. "I think you're right."

I went into my room and sat down at my computer. Elyssa was even paler than before. Her face felt cool to my touch. A tear tumbled from my eye and splashed on her cheek. Nobody could help me now.

And Elyssa would probably die.

Chapter 36

Super powers, magic, and blood that vampires would kill for—all of it for nothing. Elyssa's hold on life was dwindling or, at the least, not increasing and I couldn't do a thing about it.

The answer came to me in a flash. I knew what might fix her. I had the answer flooding through my veins. My sweet demon-spawn blood. I hoped it was as wonderful as the vampires made it out to be.

Elyssa was forbidden to drink from humans—not that I was entirely human—but I knew a way around the restriction. She drank from blood packs. Why not from a coffee mug? I found one of Dad's big coffee mugs with the words
Mondays Suck!
emblazoned on the front. Somehow having the word "Suck" on it seemed appropriate.

I took a knife. Positioned my hand over the mug. Gritted my teeth and sliced my skin open. It hurt like hell but I didn't care. Thick cherry-red blood dripped into the mug for a second or two. Then it stopped and the blood in the cup congealed into a coagulated lump. My hand had already healed. I groaned. Super-healing was going to make this painful and difficult. Then I remembered something. I dug through the smelly gore-coated ninja outfit Elyssa had given me and found one of the silver-coated knives. She hadn't mentioned whether silver would slow my healing abilities, but now was as good a time as any to experiment. I rinsed the glob of blood from the mug, set it on the counter as I took hold of the silver blade.

The kitchen knife had stung. The silver knife scalded my skin. I slashed my palm and whimpered. Blood poured freely into the mug and kept pouring. Silver apparently kept my blood from coagulating. Just before the mug overflowed, I grabbed another one and placed it underneath my hand. When the second mug was full, I stanched the flow with a wad of paper towels. My hand still felt like I'd rubbed it raw with fiberglass shards and then pressed it against a hot stove.

I wouldn't be blinging out with silver pimp chains anytime soon.

After taping up my hand so I wouldn't gush blood all over the place, I took the steaming mugs of fresh blood into the bedroom.

Fancy a hot steaming cup of blood, dear?

Elyssa's nostrils flared when I placed a mug under her nose. Her eyelids fluttered but didn't open. I propped her head up on my knee and put a mug to her face. I started to feel a bit ill as I faced the reality of what I was about to do. I buckled down my nerves and trickled some blood into Elyssa's mouth. She coughed. Swallowed.

I gagged hard and averted my gaze.

Within a few seconds, she had gulped down the entire mug. I put the second to her lips and let her drink it down. Then I took a napkin and wiped the blood 'stache off her face.

I could just imagine the
Got Blood?
billboard.

I pressed the back of my hand to her cheek. It felt slightly warmer. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

The minutes ticked by but Elyssa didn't move. A cold knife of fear twisted in my stomach. What if her body was still alive, but I'd destroyed her mind? Dad had warned me that was possible. Elyssa had been weak. Poisoned by the vamplings. And then I'd sucked her dry. Left nothing.

Tears flooded my eyes.

I'd killed the girl I loved and left only an empty shell.

"No, no, no," I moaned. What had I done?

I ripped the bandages off my hand. The blood had clotted and the wound was healing despite the silver poisoning. I grabbed the knife. I would pour the blood straight from my hand and into her mouth. She could suck me dry. I didn't care. Life had nothing left for me to care about without Elyssa.

I slashed my hand, crying out at the pain, and held it a few inches over her mouth. She gulped the steady stream of blood. I cut my hand again and again as it tried to heal. The pain was so overwhelming my hand went numb. My skin blanched partly from pain but mostly from blood loss.

The room spun. I felt cold. Sleepy. I shook my head, fighting the urge to pass out.

* * * * *

I jerked awake.

Something or someone was watching me. I looked left. Tear-filled violet eyes gazed back at me.

"Elyssa?"

She smiled and caressed my cheek. "I'm here."

I sat up. Crusted blood had glued the sheets to my hand. I peeled the sheet away and looked at my palm. Some of the multiple cuts had healed.

"What did you do to yourself?" she asked.

"What I had to do."

She pushed herself up and gripped my hand. She went into the bathroom and stared at her blood-stained lips. After cleaning her face, she emerged with a sad look.

"How much blood did you give me?" She looked green. "Did I feed directly from your flesh?"

I shrugged. "No, I let the blood pour into your mouth. As for how much, I have no idea. I passed out."

She gently took my injured hand and kissed it. Her eyes glistened. I wrapped my other arm around her waist and pulled her to me. I pressed my lips to hers and tasted salty tears. I wasn't sure if they were mine or hers. After a moment of joyful kissing, I checked her shoulder and was relieved to see the vampling bite had healed.

She jerked upright and put a hand to her cheek. "Oh crap. I've got to text my parents. They're probably flipping out right now."

"What will you tell them?"

She grabbed her phone and entered the password,
Justin
.

"My name is the password?"

She flushed crimson and gave me a stern look. "Not another word."

I nodded as she tapped out a text to her mom:
Vampire trouble at Morningside. Taken care of. Lost my phone or I would've texted sooner. Sorry.

"Will they buy it?"

She sighed. "I think so. It's not the first time something like that has happened." She leaned back against the headboard and focused those beautiful but tired eyes on me.

A question that had been simmering at the back of my mind burst out. "Are you the one who killed the moggy a few nights ago and saved me?"

Confusion clouded her face. "Huh? A moggy?"

Unless she was still dazed from almost dying, her expression convinced me. "Uh, oh, nothing. I must have had a nightmare after I passed out. Are you feeling okay?"

She nodded. "I thought we were going to die."

"So did I."

"I've never been so scared."

I squeezed her hand. "You were scared? You didn't look scared."

"
You
looked totally scared."

"No I did not."

She grinned. "You were wetting-your-pants scared."

"If I had to rank that on my all-time scare list it would probably rank a five. Maybe a six."

Her mouth dropped open. "You've got to be kidding me. A five or a six? What would you rank a ten?"

"Clowns."

She giggled. It was music to my ears. "What do you want to do today?"

"How about a movie?"

"A movie?"

"You heard me. I have been chased by the undead, fought vampires, freed my dad from a crypt, and brought my super-hot vampire lover back from the dead by letting her drink my blood. Man, I need something normal."

She pursed her lips. "I'm your super-hot lover?"

"Yep."

"Want to prove it to me?"

I locked the door to my bedroom. Took her in my arms. Kissed her and the world fell away.

"Do you like the
Princess Bride
?" I asked.

"It's my favorite movie! Do you have it?"

I kissed her again. The heat from her lips ran through my chest and tingled down to my toes. "Of course I have that movie," I said after coming up for breath.

She smiled and pecked a kiss on my nose. "We should watch it."

I grinned back at her. "As you wish."

####

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Dark Light of Mine

Book Two of the Overworld Chronicles

John Corwin

Copyright © 2012 by John Corwin.

Digital eBook Edition.

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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

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