Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1) (18 page)

Lorenzo's siege felt like a battle that might never end. But if it did, it would end with the psychic sea swamping her imagined castle. Anger welled inside her, and she collapsed the mental castle into a solid needle, imagining it flying at Lorenzo. A shield came up around him, like a solid bubble of glass. She pushed, inching her attack forward. She felt like she was drowning, unable to see or hear the world around her. All except the imagined needle that she pushed through the glass bubble around Lorenzo. Time slowed as the needle punctured his shield, entered his skull, and splintered. Shards shot to Melina's mind.

Sabine's mind filled with their thoughts, hearing their amazement and the other thought – the dream come true that she might be their salvation – an answer to what she was:
Damphir
.

"What happened?" Shelby asked.

Lorenzo and Melina knelt facing Sabine.

"Sabine is the new leader of our Family," Lorenzo said.

Shelby shrugged and knelt with them. "Okay then."

"We have one other matter that will require discussion before we pack and leave," Lorenzo said, returning his attention to Sabine. "As the new head of the Family, the responsibility is yours to deal with."

Sabine leaned back and crossed her legs. "Okay."

"This concerns Ms. Wilde, so it's a matter of some delicacy. I want to make sure that I express the situation with the proper respect."

"What situation?" Heather asked, putting down her fork.

Lorenzo looked between the women, and then to Melina.

Melina continued for him. "My Lorenzo swore a sacred oath to protect Ms. Wilde twenty years ago. He has fought many battles in the last two years in the name of that sacred duty, and we have lost three dear friends in those battles."

"Did you say twenty years ago?" Heather asked.

"Yes. Since the night your parents were killed." Melina replied.

Heather's pulse started to climb. "Tell me why."

Lorenzo took a deep breath to speak. "Neville, in his capacity as our representative to the North American Council, decided to trade favors with another House in a financial matter. He wrote an edict at their behest which threatened our House's ability to provide for our members. A member of our Family, a vampire named Cassius, became incensed with the situation. His wife Claudia and I argued with him for patience, but in the end we could not keep him from his fate. He accused Neville of dishonorable dealings in front of witnesses, and was killed in the subsequent honor duel.

"Our house was devastated, but none more so than Claudia. They had been married for more than a hundred years, and she knew no other way to live. She locked herself away and stopped feeding. The night the thirst took her mind, we had been called away to handle an emergency."

Heather's pulse started racing.

Lorenzo continued, looking to Heather. "By the time we tracked her down, she was in your living room and there was nothing we could do for your parents."

"Goddess," Heather choked out, tears streaming down her face. She scrambled out of her chair. "You. You're the one who erased my memories."

Lorenzo nodded. "Your powers hadn't developed enough to resist. It was the only thing left that I could do for you. That, and swear right then to protect you for the rest of your days."

Sabine remembered making a similar promise, and silently cursed herself. She had already missed a night of guard duty jogging with Kim.

"What happened to Claudia?" Heather asked, her hand shaking. Esmerelda got up and held Heather's hands, soothing the younger witch.

Lorenzo swallowed the rest of his drink and put the glass down. "You have to understand, she didn't act with malice or forethought. She was insane with the thirst at the time. We lived only a block from your house, and it was a matter of random chance. She was sentenced to one hundred years of solitary confinement."

"Where is she?" Heather asked, her voice quiet.

"I think it might be wise to take a moment to collect yourself," Lorenzo said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

Sabine put down her glass. "Go ahead, tell her."

Lorenzo closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He let it out in a sigh, seeming to ponder whether to give in. "She's confined in the basement, as she was in our previous home," Lorenzo said, standing.

Heather's eyes grew cold, and she nodded. "I want to see her. Now."

Lorenzo nodded, a solemn look on his face. "It is your right."

They all got up and followed Lorenzo as he led the way across the house to a small door. He unlocked the door and opened it with a wave of his hand. Sabine marveled at his telekinetic trick, and how strange her life had become that she was following a vampire into an underground lair. The narrow staircase seemed to go deeper than most basements, and ended in a small room with shelves on all four walls. Lorenzo pressed a hidden button. The wall with its shelves moved back, allowing them access into a hidden chamber. It was a decent sized room, filled with a cache of weapons and what looked like boxes of food.

"This house was built by a survivalist," Lorenzo said. "The irony being that he died in a car accident on the way to purchase ammunition."

"I'm not sure this is the time for that story, Lorenzo," Melina said. "I'm sorry, Heather."

Heather just stared at the doors ahead.

Lorenzo stepped up to one of three doors in the far wall, and pulled a key from his pocket. He fitted it in the door and opened it. The door creaked on rusted hinges, opening on a pitch black space beyond. The group made a semicircle at the entrance. Light filtered through them, illuminating a small cement-lined room with chains mounted on the far wall.

A dried up husk-like corpse lay curled at the base of the wall, naked except for a camisk that barely covered her. She resembled a mummy, except for the thick silver-plated chains attached to her wrists, ankles, waist and neck. Her shaved head bristled with tiny stubble, and sunken eyes blinked at them from withered sockets. The mummy raised a withered arm to shield her eyes.

Heather sobbed and ran into the room. "You killed my parents!" She screamed, then pressed her hand against the vampire's chest. "
Praecantatio Mortalis!
" she hissed, staring into the vampire's eyes.

Light flashed. The concussion from the spell blew everyone off their feet.

Sabine scrambled up and ran into the room, her ears still buzzing. There was blood everywhere, along with pieces of Claudia's chest. Claudia's disconnected right arm lay in the far corner of the room.

Lorenzo yelled "Shelby get blood!" Then he was suddenly beside Sabine. "She needs blood immediately. Yours might heal her quickest, but sharing your blood will give you a blood bond. She'll be able to draw energy from you to heal."

Sabine didn't hesitate to think about what that would mean. She bit her wrist and stuck it in Claudia's mouth while Lorenzo held the disconnected arm against Claudia's withered and half-destroyed body.

Melina grabbed a stunned and blood-spattered Heather and threw the witch over her shoulder. Heather didn't resist as Melina carried her out of the cell.

Shelby ran in with several bags of blood, and Sabine lifted her wrist away from Claudia's mouth. Claudia gasped in pain as her arm reattached itself, and the blood she'd taken from Sabine did its magic. Sabine slowly poured a bag of blood into Claudia's mouth. The skin around the wounds started to puff up and get some color. The horrible wound in her chest had missed her heart by mere inches, and started knitting itself together.

Sabine stared at the wounds, fascinated.

Claudia drank another bag of blood, and another, as the wounds healed and her withered form started to look human. Even her hair grew out, sprouting as a beautiful wavy blonde. She took several deep breaths before starting to sob.

Sabine could see the depth of pain and sorrow and regret that filled Claudia, etched in her face even before the bloody woman spoke in a voice that shook with emotion.

"I wanted to die. She should have killed me. Why didn't she? She had her hand over my heart, but she changed her aim. Why?"

Then Claudia had a moment of shock. "I'm... feeling again!" Her eyes looked up at Lorenzo, imploring. "I feel emotion! Oh God, I didn't want to
feel
again! Make it stop!"

Sabine felt a compulsion to do as Claudia asked, and reached for a blade before she managed to stay her hand. She turned to Lorenzo. "Why am I feeling like doing as she says?"

Lorenzo looked between he two women, his eyes dilated and fangs down from the smell of all the blood in the room. Then he stared into Sabine's eyes. "Bite her. Now. Do it!"

Sabine looked to Claudia, and suddenly felt herself locked in a war of wills, her power being drained. She latched onto Claudia's recently attached arm, and sank her teeth in. She took a mouthful of blood and the world shifted. After a second or two of mental struggle, her power stopped draining from her and equalized between her and Claudia. Sabine fell back, overwhelmed by the emotional trauma, not her own, which spilled into her mind from Claudia.

Lorenzo sat back. "The blood bond is complete."

Sabine coughed. "What the hell is going on?"

"The blood bond is the strongest link two vampires can share. You are linked telepathically, and you can share energy. Melina and I share such a bond, as do Ethan and Deirdre."

Sabine shook her head, trying to block out Claudia's thoughts, since they were coming rapid-fire about how they should execute her. "How do I make it stop?"

Lorenzo shook his head. "It lasts until one of you dies. But you can block her, if you focus and you are the more powerful. I wonder who is more powerful: you or Claudia?"

"She is," Claudia said, and slumped against the wall.

"So now I'm bonded to a vampire for life?" Sabine asked, her voice raising.

Lorenzo shrugged. "I did warn you. It didn't seem to faze you at the time. As it happens, the bond will help you in a fight with Neville."

Sabine recalled the night of the ceremony, and how Neville had hated their blood bond. "He doesn't have blood bonds with any of his vampires."

Lorenzo nodded. "He's incredibly powerful, but hates sharing his power. The old saying about strength in numbers might give you an edge if you still intend to face him. We need to resolve this fight with Heather though, as we owe her our protection, but she can't go around killing and maiming us."

Sabine watched as Claudia curled into a ball, moaning about wanting to die. She looked between Shelby, Lorenzo, and Claudia, thinking that her life had just taken a momentous turn for the worse. She focused, and slowly the image reel of Claudia's dismal thoughts dimmed until it disappeared. "She has so much emotion, so much regret. I didn't think vampires felt those things."

Lorenzo blinked before schooling his stunned expression. "How long have you been a vampire?"

Sabine narrowed her eyes, realizing too late she'd revealed something. She swallowed.

Claudia whispered loud enough that they all heard. "Neville turned her a year ago, against her will. Then had her resurrected, and killed again."

Sabine cursed. "I didn't need that broadcast."

Lorenzo and Shelby turned to stare at Sabine.

Lorenzo shook his head. "So you were indeed center-stage for his last experiment."

"And she walked on Holy ground, Lorenzo," Melina said entering the room. "You saw her wearing a cross."

Lorenzo shook his head. "We'll discuss this later."

Sabine crossed her arms. "So emotions. Not normal?"

"We typically lose them," Lorenzo replied. "But we retain the parts of humanity that mean enough to us to fight for them. I sense that Claudia is feeling much more than she did before."

"I don't want to live," Claudia whimpered. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she got to her knees and stared at Sabine. "Please, Mistress."

"Can I have a minute alone with Claudia?" Sabine asked.

"Certainly," Lorenzo replied.

"We'll be right outside," Melina said, walking out with Lorenzo and Shelby. Shelby's eyes were dilated, and she smiled with distended fangs.

The room fell quiet after they shut the door. Sabine squatted down to regard Claudia as her eyes adjusted to the near-pitch darkness.

Claudia nodded to Sabine. "I don't care if you make it quick or not."

"I'm not going to kill you."

Claudia started sobbing. "I didn't want to feel again. On top of everything else!"

Sabine grabbed Claudia by the face, and sent a surge of power into her, causing the chained vampire to twitch, but the crying stopped. The idea that she could control Claudia so easily gave her a guilty thrill.

"I know how you feel, Claudia."

Claudia took a shuddering breath and gulped, clearing her throat. "Yes, Mistress. You saw through the blood bond."

Sabine stood and paced. "No, I knew before. There was a time not too long ago when I didn't feel I had anything to live for."

Claudia nodded. "Yes, Mistress."