chapter 6
For the sixth time that night, Jason screamed.
After the third time, I stopped barging into his room.
And for the sixth time, Jason’s driver looked at me over his glasses which he apparently wore indoors as well. “Don’t worry. Everything is how it should be.”
I stared down at my feet sunk deep into the carpet. “I had no idea it was so painful.”
“Usually, it’s not. But he wants to make sure he comes back as a vampire. Otherwise, he could die.”
Michael sat across from me. More precisely, he sat in a seat across from the double doors that opened to Jason’s room. I couldn’t sit down long enough to warrant a seat and opting to sit on the floor, propping my back on the wall, my hwan-geom in the scabbard and held between my knees.
I thought I could hear Reiko’s voice softly through the doors, high and childish and my hands convulsed on the sword hilt. “And if he dies?”
Michael shrugged. “Then he dies.”
It seemed terribly final and something I could not accept.
Not when I had a task to fulfill. “What are the chances of him living through tonight?”
“Vampirism is a virus,” he said quietly, arms crossed over a formidable chest. “I guess it’s like contracting any sort of disease. Some people will get it and some people won’t. Hard to tell who will. But the more you’re bit…the more the vampire shares their blood with you…I guess chances go up significantly. Maybe like promiscuous sex?”
Coming from Michael, this was practically a long monologue.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the images branded in my mind.
Reiko poised over Jason, blood dripping down her ivory chin.
Jason’s eyes closed, arms splayed back, his blood falling in rivers onto the covers.
I knew the human body contained quarts upon quarts of blood, had made it splatter on the ground by my own actions, but to see the life fluid in such a fashion…a cold sweat arose on my temples and I shivered, despite the warmth filtering through the entire building.
Jason screamed again and I let in a sharp breath. “Don’t you think the neighbors will hear?”
The driver shook his head. “Doubt it. These walls are thicker than you’d imagine. The houses on both sides, they’re empty. I wouldn’t worry about someone calling the cops. I’d be more worried the girl in there taking too much blood.”
I remembered the look of triumph and desire in her eyes as she bent down to bite Jason’s neck. “It seems…unnecessary.”
He snorted. “You’re telling me. But he seems sure. And when he’s sure, there’s no telling him otherwise.”
After what seemed like an eternity and a half, the doors opened and the diminutive vampire slipped out, closing the door carefully behind her.
“It is done,” she said slowly, voice halting and low. “He must rest. Right now, he is the most vulnerable. Ran, please make sure to stay alert. I worry for his safety. I have many enemies who seek to tear down my allies. They would consider it a coup to take him from me.”
To be honest, I was more worried about her than anything else. “As you wish. Shall I fetch Marcus for you?”
She shook her head. “No. I think I shall rest, too. He’s taken a great deal of my blood. Tell Marcus I shall call for him personally when I wake up. But not now.”
Michael stood up. “I’ll let him know.”
He left us alone in that long hallway and Reiko leaned next to me, breathing heavily. Was it habit? “I should warn you, Ran. Jason…Jason will not be like any other vampire you have ever met.”
“I know. He’ll still be alive tomorrow night. That’s pretty rare.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” She pushed off the wall, hands shaking visibly. I hadn’t known the feeding and taking took so much out of her. I wondered if it was just her and her tiny frame or if it affected all vampires the same way, the same magnitude. “As soon as he awakes…he’ll need to feed. And I won’t be able to do that.”
My mouth went dry. “Christ.”
I tried to never take the Lord’s name in vain.
This time, I thought, He would forgive me.
She gave me a pitying look. “I am sorry, Ran.”
“I have to do it?” The very idea of opening my veins to what was little more than a monster made my stomach churn in a very uncomfortable way. “Is there no other donor? Not Michael?”
“No!” she said, perhaps a bit more sharply than she meant to. Clearly, she was on her last legs and I was keeping her from her rest. “I mean, no, he won’t do. And he’d never agree to it. Michael does a lot for Jason, but Jason made it very clear he would never take blood from him. He said you would be willing.”
Another task I had been…willing to do. The knowledge he was forcing my decisions for me put my teeth on edge and I sat up, nervous energy making it impossible to stay seated for long. “No. I’m not willing. Damn it, I’m not willing!”
She looked at me, large black eyes wide and almost all pupil. “If not you, there is no one. And he will die. Then where would you be?”
I should have turned around.
Should have turned around, walked down the stairs and out the door.
Surely there was no shame in refusing to work with a vampire.
But I did not.
More the fool, I.
“It’s only this once,” I said slowly but surely, wording each word carefully. “As soon as Jason regains his strength, he will have to find blood elsewhere. I did not agree to this escapade so I can share my blood. There’s barely enough for myself, as it is.”
“Just so,” she said with a tilt to her chin. “I could not have worded it better myself.”
Talking like that, it was easier to see her as a being who had been around since before the formation of the Americas. That still didn’t change the fact that she looked about ten, no matter which way you looked. “Good. Just as long as we agree.”
She excused herself and I let my knees buckle.
So much trouble, just to fulfill a duty. Was it really worth it?
Surely, I could handle a few snide jabs about my ability to help the Fellowship if it meant I didn’t have to open my veins to those I hunted.
Damn Jason.
I rubbed my face, waves of tiredness threatening to bring me under. But I couldn’t sleep. Not with a newly turned vampire in the room. Not when I swore to protect him.
I’m sure somewhere up there, someone was laughing his lungs out.
I would.
Minutes ticked by. Hours ticked by. Michael relieved me and I staggered to my room, collapsing on the sheets that smelled faintly of lavender and something else, something sweet like honey. I didn’t remember falling asleep; all I did was close my eyes and failed to see, hear, or think anything for the next couple of hours.
“Hey. Lady. Wake up.” Gentle but persistent hands shook my shoulders and blearily, I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but darkness.
Christ, couldn’t a person get some sleep here? “What do you want? I just closed my eyes.”
Michael’s eyes were hazel. It took me a moment to realize he’d taken off his glasses.
That should’ve been my first clue that something was not right. “Get up. Something’s wrong.”
“Turn on the f*cking lights then.”
I almost never cursed. I found them to be superfluous at best. Clearly, I was not in my right state of mind.
He pulled back the curtains in one swift motion, and I saw the moon hanging low in a starless sky. “I’d love to. Trust me, I would.”
The familiar fear settled in the base of my spine and I slithered off the bed, less gracefully than I meant to. “What are you talking about?”
He turned the switch on my bedside lamp.
Click.
Nothing happened.
“F*ck.”
I was quite…disturbed.
Unlike me, the darkness hardly seemed to disturb Michael. “Someone’s cut all the lights to the street. I don’t know if it’s intentional. But it’s a bit coincidental, don’t you think?”
I breathed in and breathed out. Repeated that a couple of times until I was almost sure I wouldn’t hyperventilate. “What about Reiko?”
He shook his head. “She’s resting. Wouldn’t wake up when I called her. The state she’s in, I’m not going to disturb her. I don’t have a death wish.”
That sentiment was quite understandable. “Have you checked on Jason?”
“The door’s still locked.”
“And who has the key?”
“Just Reiko and myself,” he said, voice grim and I took another deep breath.
“Okay,” I said. “That’s fine. Power outages happen all the time. It’s probably nothing.”
“Probably,” he said, although he didn’t sound convinced.
And quite frankly, neither was I.
“Give me a flashlight.”
Even in the darkness, I saw his eyes widen. “Are you insane? Aren’t you some kind of mad crazy killer? Isn’t that the worst thing you need?”
I didn’t really feel like explaining to him. “Just…just get me a flashlight, please.”
He muttered under his breath, but he left the room, presumably in pursuit of a sort of light that would stop cold sweat from plastering my thin cotton shirt to my back.
I really hated the darkness.
I grabbed my sheathed sword and slowly edged out of the room. It was incredibly stupid to unsheathe it, because at this point, I would slash at shadows and Michael just might be one of them. He was right about one thing and wrong about another: I was a killer, but I didn’t kill people for the fun of it.
There was a purpose and it was in this purpose I managed to find a core of comfort, even within the darkness that made my vision swim.
Even to my own ears, my breathing was hoarse, much too fast to be healthy.
Which way had Michael gone? I probably should’ve asked him, but in a ten-thousand square foot townhouse bathed in shadows and faint moonlight, I guess it really didn’t matter where he was.
Chances are, I wasn’t going to find him.
Silence flowed and ebbed around me as I checked Jason’s room.
The knob didn’t move under my hand and I took that was a good sign. For now.
It would be hard to hear anything, considering how thickly carpeted the floors were and I held the hwan-geom at my side, the hilt slippery in my hands.
When this was done and I survived, I was going to ask Jason to drop me off at a cemetery and leave me there all night. If I couldn’t face my fears, then I was worthless.
I thought I heard sounds, soft, scrabbling sounds, although that could have just been Michael going through drawers trying to find a damned flashlight.
Why didn’t this house have a damn generator? Jason seemed rich enough.
Taking the stairs seemed to take forever and a day, but without even an artificial source of light, I was worse than a mouse in front of a starved cat. I was lucky it was a full moon.
It occurred to me halfway down the stairs that I could’ve simply called the police.
Then I remembered the phone lines were probably down.
Still, it didn’t hurt to help.
At the base of the stairs, there was a phone and I picked up the receiver quietly.
The line was dead.
I hoped it was just a power outage, just an electric error until my eyes went down the phone line and saw it snipped neatly in half.
That was the first clue.
The second clue was Michael hanging from the chandelier.
His body swayed lazily, tongue hanging out, eyes open wide and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the very professional looking leather strap around his muscular neck.
How the hell did he get up there?
How strong would someone have to be to put him up there?
A vampire.
A bead of sweat rolled down my face despite the cold air wafting in through a slightly open French window leading out to the back yard and sleeping roses.
I had no way of knowing exactly when he died, but there was always something to estimate.
A tug on his shoes told me he couldn’t have been dead more than ten minutes.
Who has the key?
Just myself and Reiko.
I managed to get Michael off the chandelier, although he fell most of the way. It was a good thing he was already dead; the fall alone would’ve broken several crucial bones.
A quick check through his pockets gave me nothing. No wallet, no cell phone, nothing.
But more importantly, no keys.
If I had been the one ordered to exterminate a newly turned vampire, and given the choice between a tired vampire and a human driver with little developed self-defense skills, guess which one I would gun for.
Not Reiko.
A scream shattered the night, ringing through the house, echoing in my ears.
Jason.
Shit.
All reasons for stealth thrown out the window, I bounded up the stairs, hwan-geom unsheathed, heart and pulse racing.
It was always like this during a chase. Adrenaline pumping through my body, making it hard to concentrate on anything else but whatever was in front of me…Elder Chang had liked my single-minded attentiveness.
Jason screamed again, a pain filled cry that made the hair rise on my bare arms.
No, no, no. He couldn’t die. Not now.
Not when I had a mission to fulfill.
I wouldn’t let him.
The doors to his room were wide open, a set of keys hanging from one of the door knobs and I wished I’d been smart enough to stay in front of Jason’s room instead of going downstairs for whatever reason. It made sense now: whoever wanted Jason would have to find him, thus come upon me.
If I got out of this alive, Reiko was going to slit me from ear to ear. And I would let her too.
There was no excuse.
A figure stood over Jason, one hand wrapped around his neck, long blond hair hanging into his prey’s pale face.
Jason shuddered, trying to draw in a breath and as the bastard pulled back his hand to deal the final blow, I flicked the bi-su in his direction.
I was very good at throwing daggers, and never missed.
This case was no exception.
The darkly clad assailant fell over the side of the bed, the dagger lodged deeply into their pectoral muscles and Jason drew in a loud, explosive breath. Blood seeped from the bandage wrapped around his neck and his eyes were almost completely dark as he slowly, laboriously crawled towards me.
Behind him, the vampire staggered upright, and yanked the tiny dagger out of his chest. If he’d been human, it might’ve been a killing blow.
But vampires are damn hard to kill.
I should know.
“Not on my watch,” I said, sword held out in a defensive position. “You’re not killing him in front of me.”
Jason fell with a thud on the floor, but at least he was off the bed and out of the way.
“Not bad,” the vampire muttered as he hurled the dagger away. “I should have known. They warned me about you. But I have fought many like you. Most of them were not worth the breath spent on extolling their many virtues. Let’s see how good you are.”
I didn’t even want to dignify that with an answer.
“Who sent you?”
Dressed in skin-tight leathers, he pushed his light hair back past his ears and grinned. “Can’t tell you. Not worth my life.”
I shrugged. “Have it your way, then.”
They say that when two masters meet each other on the field of honor, neither of them will move. For one wrong move can end the battle and reap an unacceptable outcome.
This particular vampire didn’t seem to care.
Launching himself over the bed, he pulled out a blade from a back sheath, its point centered over my heart and I parried it, taking a step back as his strength almost sent me stumbling through the open doors.
I would not win the battle this way.
I would not survive.
And as much as I hated using the particular gift that enabled me to battle those far stronger than I, there was no longer any choice.
Not if I wanted to live.
I blinked and the world faded into shades of gray and black, the vampire before me turning into a mass of shadows, each movement made and to be made, pulsing to the beat of my heart.
Red for movements past.
White for movements to be made.
He dodged to the left, intent on spearing me in the side with his rapier-like blade.
Or rather…he would.
A human and a vampire can’t possibly fight on equal grounds.
Not when the vampire possessed inhuman strength and supernatural speed.
But with my split second precognition, it was possible.
I could fight him.
I could win.
I deflected the blade, but hadn’t taken into account the long length of the blade. The tip scored up my rib cage, bringing forth searing heat and blood in its wake.
But I was still alive when it was meant to be death blow.
I grinned widely, let him see the expression on my face. “Is that all?”
The vampire’s dark eyes narrowed and he took a step back, but by no means lowering his blade. “The rumors. They were true. You can --”
Didn’t let him finish. “My turn.”
The hwan-geom caught the moonlight and glinted once in the darkness as I brought my right hand up, let it slide down the edge of his blade, bringing sparks that brought a sudden wash of light in the room.
“What —”
He reared back, one arm over his eyes. Light affects everyone and vampires are not immune to sudden changes in brightness.
An idiot.
They had sent an idiot to eliminate Jason.
And now the idiot would die. A second time. A final time.
I thrust deep into his unprotected left side, shoved the sword between his ribs.
Watched the vampire’s mouth open in a silent cry, watched his unnatural black eyes widen, watched the rapier fall his nerveless fingers.
I stepped into the thrust, leaned into him, smelled the fetid, coppery breath on my ear. “Good bye.”
A low gurgle left his crimson speckled lips and his weight forced the blade up and out.
They say death makes a body weigh lighter.
They are wrong.
My head began to pulse as I pushed my shoulder into his and slid the sword out of his body.
The sound of applause caught my attention and I turned around slowly, afraid of what I would see. What if the vampire had a friend? In modern terminology, I would be SOL.
But no, it was just Jason, propped against the wall, a wavering smile on his lips.
He clapped once more and then dropped his hands into his lap, as if he was too weak to do anything more.
“You are everything I thought you would be,” he said quietly. “Truly, I commend you. Ran, I didn’t know you could…Ran? Are you hurt?”
Upstairs, a door opened. “Jason? Ran? Why is it so dark? I smell blood.”
Reiko.
She was up.
Thank Gods.
I struck the blade back into its scabbard and saluted messily. “You are very welcome.”
The pain in the back of my head, like someone was repeatedly clubbing me at the top of my spine, was too much to bear.
I closed my eyes and knew nothing.
Knew nothing but the all-compassing darkness.
The welcoming darkness.
It called me and I followed.