Scent of a White Rose (11 page)

He knew that I hadn't spoken Spanish for
hundreds of years, but he was going to make me ask anyway. "Balam,
you know I no longer speak Spanish, may I ask that we speak in
English, my Sire?" He was very formal when it came to titles and
respect.

His only reaction to my request was a small
"hmph," and then he said, "Yes of course my darling. I was just
saying it has been forever." His voice was kind and immediately
took me back to the villages of Chichen Itza. I wasn't originally
from the Yucatan, but when I was turned by Balam, who was one of
the original Mayan people, Chichen Itza was where the clan had
actually lived. I had been amazed when I realized that the lair of
a centuries old vampire clan resided below the ruins and still did
to this day.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Balam
asked.

"I have a situation developing within my clan
that I have never experienced before, and I need to ask you some
questions." I figured there was no point in beating around the
bush.

"What's the situation?" Apparently he shared my
desire to get straight down to business.

"I have a vampire who has drifted permanently
dark, which is unfortunate but not unheard of. The problem I'm
having with him, however, is that when I scanned him, trying to
reveal the cause of his darkening, I was forced into
unconsciousness and trapped there until I cleared my mind of the
incident." Balam continued to listen as I explained further. "It
was only then that I was able to wake. My vampire also reports that
whenever he thinks of a particular woman, his thoughts
get...fuzzy." I hoped I was giving him enough details to explain
the oddness of my situation properly.

Silence lingered for more time than I was
comfortable with, but I knew that I needed to let Balam process
this information. The man had a millennium of experience and
history to sort through. I just hoped that something rang a
bell.

"Have any of your other vampires drifted
permanently dark, or is it just this one?" His voice was calm, but
serious.

"No. Just Terrance."

"And you say that his thoughts get
fuzzy
when he thinks of a particular woman, correct?"

"Yes. And I think that due to our mental
connection, whatever this woman has done to Terrance is why I was
knocked out when I tried to scan him."

"Yes, I would suspect that the mental connection
with Terrance and the image of this woman is related to why you
were knocked unconscious."

It seemed like he had an idea of what was
happening, so I was only happy to wait for his next question.

"Has Terrance shown any aggression towards the
other vampires in your clan?"

"No. We have him chained up right now, and he's
not exactly happy about it, but he hasn't tried to hurt any of us.
Dax and I noticed about six months ago that he started to have
trouble drifting back after feeding and he started to become very
quiet and solitary. We started keeping an eye on him, making sure
he fed with the others, instead of by himself. And up until last
week, he had never killed anyone before, but now he appears to have
drifted permanently dark." I couldn't help the sadness in my voice.
I really didn't want to have to deliver the true death to him.

"Evangeline, even though as the Sire you are
immune, it is absolutely imperative that none of your other
vampires get close to Terrance from now on. He is a danger to your
clan."

"What? Why? He's chained up, and like I said, he
hasn't shown any sign of aggression towards any of us." This was
starting to confuse and scare me.

"Evangeline, please do as I say. I don't want
any of your other vampires to become infected."

"Infected? What are you talking about?" This
conversation was definitely not going how I'd imagined.

"Yes. Infected. I'm almost certain that the
woman that Terrance encountered was in fact a zôt–or what you would
refer to as a demon."

* * * * *

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Lunch with Barbie

(Rose)

I watched Meredith scoot closer and closer to
Dad as they made plans to meet for lunch the following day. I had
found a creative form of entertainment that allowed me to remain
calm throughout the rest of her unexpected visit. I repeatedly
imagined myself flying across the room and strangling her to death
to pass the time. It was pretty fun.

Once she had finally left I excused myself and
headed straight to my room. I thought it would be best to avoid any
conversations about her at that moment. You know the saying...if
you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

A few minutes later Dad knocked on my door.
"Honey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Dad. I just want to go to sleep." I
could tell he was considering pressing the issue, but thank god, he
didn't.

"Okay, honey. Goodnight then. Oh, and Rose, I'd
like you to go with me tomorrow. Meredith and I are meeting at the
café in the business district for lunch, and I thought you could do
some shopping while I met with her. Then we could take in a movie
or something." Dad sounded so upbeat, and after our argument
tonight I really did want the chance to continue our conversation
about getting a car and moving out.

"Okay Dad, sure thing. That sounds just great."
I would fake it for him, but I still didn't like the fact that my
dad was going to be having lunch with Barbie.

* * * * *

(Jeremy/Dad)

That had been quite a surprise. I couldn't
believe Meredith had followed me back from Masen, straight to my
house no less. I had told her when we started to see each other
every month during my overnight visits to Masen that she was going
to have to understand that there was no way that I could bring her
here to the house where Rose's mother had been killed, especially
since she looked so much like her.

It was over a year ago that I had met Meredith,
and even then, it had been a shock to me that she looked so much
like my wife. If I was being honest with myself, the fact that she
did resemble Loraine so much had probably contributed to why I had
gravitated to her to begin with. But once we began to spend some
quality time together, I realized that she was a wonderful person
and the fact that she furthered my career had nothing to do with
it.

I didn't know how I was going to tell Rose that
Meredith and I had been seeing each other, so for now, I thought
lunch and some casual conversation would be the perfect place to
start.

* * * * *

(Rose)

After Dad and I made breakfast, we went online
to search for what he thought would be a dependable brand of car
for me. We figured we would narrow down our choices today, and when
the car lots opened tomorrow, we wouldn't have to waste much time
running around from place to place.

"I really like the Ford Focus," Dad said for the
hundredth time.

"I don't mind that one I guess. Though the new
Mercedes look hot," I giggled. I had never been a car person, so
the fact that I even knew the name of a certain kind was pretty
much a joke. I also had never really been into name brands, so as
far as I was concerned, it really didn't matter to me what I got as
long as I got one that I could call my own.

It was about 11 a.m. when we shut the computer
off and started to get ready. I wasn't exactly sure why Dad wanted
me to go. I mean, I was all up for some shopping, but I really
wasn't looking forward to seeing Meredith again. The fact that she
looked so much like Mom totally creeped me out.

At 12:30 p.m., Dad's voice echoed up the stairs.
"Rose? You ready to go?"

"Yep. Be right down." As I rounded the bottom of
the stairs and caught a glimpse at what Dad was wearing, I had to
hold back a snicker. I had expected him to be dressed in his usual
business suit or his Sunday best. But instead, he was dressed in a
nice pair of stylish jeans, a white button up shirt that he had
left untucked, and his leather jacket that I hadn't seen in ages.
He had also left a slight five o'clock shadow on his face. I guess
he was trying to go for that scruffy, sexy older man look. But, oh
my God, this was my dad. What the hell was he thinking? And all of
a sudden, it dawned on me. Meredith was more than just a client.
And now it looked like I truly would have to kill her.

* * * * *

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

History Lesson

(Evie)

After hearing Balam's idea about what had
happened to Terrance, I had sat there in complete shock. I had no
idea what to say or what to think. I had never believed in demons
or whatever he had called them–zôts. So after allowing me a few
moments to calm myself, he continued, trying to explain.

The history lesson that I received went back
thousands of years, to the time when the Mayan people were facing
the threat of extinction. He explained that Yum Camil, the demon
ruler in Xibalba, had sent forth his favored son, Camazotz, the
demon bat-god, or blood-feeder, into the human realm. He had told
him that he needed to bite and infect as many humans as possible
before the end, so that their bloodline would continue on. Because
even as demons, they weren't going to escape the end that was
quickly approaching their civilization.

Camazotz went into the world at his father's
request. He bit and infected as many people as he could,
transforming humans into zôts. Demons that fed on blood. And this
was the beginning of the vampire race.

I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that
Balam was one of the direct descendants of the first vampires ever
created.

Though Yum Camil and Camazotz were classified as
demons, they weren't inherently evil, so when Camazotz infected the
humans, it was the combination of his blood and the light within
the human soul that manifested into the ability of drifting.

Balam continued to explain that after some time,
the vampires that Camazotz was creating started having a bad
reaction to the change.

Balam's theory was that Camazotz, in his effort
to complete his father's mission, remained in the human realm for
too long. Being out of his natural environment for such an extended
period of time had caused his blood to become contaminated.

Camazotz's contaminated blood had infected the
new vampires, and right from the start they had drifted straight to
dark. Soon after, they became violent and turned on their clan.

Once the fighting began, it became obvious that
the dark vampires were passing their infection to the others.
Because when a light vampire was bit, they too, drifted dark.

Soon the dark vampires started to outnumber the
light ones, and the originals feared that they were going to be
overrun.

Camazotz then called upon his father to come aid
him in what could only be described as a civil war amongst
vampires. Yum Camil came to his son's aid and found that the only
way to kill the darkened vampires was for him to bite them again,
infecting them with a poison that only he, the ruler of Xibalba,
possessed. Upon realizing this, Yum Camil chose a few light
vampires, and through his Mayan magic, blessed each of them with
the ability to reproduce his poison. These vampires became the
first Sires who possessed the poison of true death.

After sending Camazotz back to Xibalba, Yum
Camil and the newly created Sires fought to destroy all the
darkened vampires. Once the dark ones were eliminated, Yum Camil
conducted the first "Passing of Powers" ritual.

In order to bestow the Sires with the sedative
of eternal life that was needed to create new vampires, he had to
link minds with them. Linking minds with Yum Camil is what led the
Sires to have the ability to scan. During this initial rite he also
bestowed a time-limit on how long the Sires could hold their
powers. This was to prevent a Sire's blood from becoming
contaminated like Camazotz's had. He then taught the Sires how to
perform the "Passing of Powers" ritual, and then decreed that the
Sires divide the remaining light ones into clans and separate to
the four corners of the world.

I thought this was where the lesson would stop,
but Balam continued to explain the one key point that was relevant
to my current situation.

He explained that once the Sires had separated,
before returning to Xibalba, Yum Camil continued to infect humans
with his
own
blood. Since he wasn't a blood-feeder by nature
like his son the Bat God, the humans weren't transformed into
vampires. Instead, they remained human, but had demon blood flowing
through their veins. It was this line of humans that had continued
to exist throughout time, hiding their demon heritage from the
world.

This was the only way that Yum Camil could
guarantee that his bloodline would continue, since the humans his
son had bitten ended up as a new species entirely. That had been an
unforeseen twist to his plan. Balam had explained that Yum Camil
hadn't meant for the humans he infected to be a threat to anyone,
but that like any dying God, only wanted to meet his end knowing
that some part of his race would live on. Obviously he had not
taken into account how the two species, his demons and his son's
vampires would interact. Who would have ever guessed that they
would be like poison to one another?

Apparently the woman Terrance bit six months ago
was one of the demon descendants of Yum Camil. Her demon blood had
infected him and was the reason behind his fuzzy thoughts and his
now permanent darkness.

It was more important than ever to find out just
who this woman was. And since the infection prevented me or
Terrance from accessing any further information about her, I had no
idea how we were going to do that.

Before ending our conversation, I had asked
Balam if there was any hope of saving Terrance. His answer had been
just what I expected: not that he knew of. Dax was not going to be
happy about all I had learned. And right now, I couldn't imagine
facing all of them with this kind of news. How was I supposed to
explain that all of our lives had just changed and that we were now
being faced with demons?