No! She would not give in to this. She would not. She let go of the suitcase long enough to wipe her face off on the bottom of her skirt.
“And then there was one,” Nikolai said. The last vampire backed toward the door. “No you don’t. Talk or die.”
The man no sooner than reached for the door than Nikolai lunged, dragging Elena with him, stabbing his sword through the vampire’s neck, skewering him to the door.
“Oh my God,” she said, covering her mouth. There was blood on her hand. The metallic, salty smell filled her nose. Irresistible. She could almost taste it. She wanted to taste it. “Oh my God,” she said again, running toward the bathroom only to be jerked to a stop by the cord on her wrist. “Help me. Please help me. Not this… Not them.”
It was painful for Nikolai to watch her battle. How horrible it must have been for her to have a soul in opposition to her reality.
He moved near her so she could make it into the bathroom in time to throw up, which yielded nothing but dry heaves. She had no food in her at all.
“Get it off me,” she screamed.
She turned on the shower full force and stepped in, clothes and all—even his vest. She grabbed the bar of soap and frantically scrubbed her face, arms, and even the front of her dress. Then she ripped the dress from under his vest and off her body in one hard tug. “Get it off,” she cried, this time more a whimper than a scream.
A foreign part of Nikolai wanted to take her in his arms and hold her. To tell her it was okay, but it wasn’t okay. She was simply becoming aware of what she was, and even if she didn’t know it yet, it was inevitable. Like a fatal cancer, her vampirism lurked, waiting for the opportunity to consume her.
She slumped down into the tub, water still pounding down on her. She tucked her knees in and rocked. He took the hand towel from the sink and held it under the spray, then wiped his face and chest free of blood. After rinsing it in the sink, he wiped his arms down as well. There was no time for the luxury of a shower.
The blue waves in the cord pulsed. Even knowing what she was, his soul still reached for her. He had to end this.
“We must go now,” he said, turning the water in the shower off. He reached into the holster in his boot and pulled out his dagger to cut the leather vest from her body, leaving her completely bare. He’d never seen anything quite like her before. Her skin and form, though undersized, were flawless. Perfect, actually. Pale, delicate, and feminine.
He put his knife back in its holster. Fate was cruel. He had to find a way to release them from the cord. He understood deep down that she would have to be destroyed before she succumbed to her true nature, but he also knew he would never be able to do it himself.
First things first. He wrapped her frail, trembling body in a towel and led her back to the main room. “We need to search the bodies to see if they have any clues as to who sent them or how they found us. Vampires cannot track energy trails.”
Her eyes were unfocused and trained only on the gyrations of color in the cord binding the two of them. She was probably in shock. Witnessing decapitations was bad enough, but combined with the realization she was genetically destined to become evil must have been too much for her frail human mind.
Nikolai searched the headless body first. Nothing. Not even a cell phone. Only the gun he had been reaching for when Nikolai struck. The vampire he had split almost in two yielded the same result. When he plundered the pockets of the one spiked to the door, however, he found a strange device—an electronic component of some kind.
“What do you make of this?” he asked Elena.
No response. She might have actually snapped. Trembling, she watched the cord, clutching the towel to her, eyes vacant.
He shoved the device into his back pocket and yanked his sword from the door, and the guy attached to it slumped to the floor. He wiped the blood off the blade onto the bedspread and grabbed the sheath from the bed and strapped it on, then slid his dagger in his boot. He needed to get them out before there were any more surprises.
He guided Elena to her suitcase and pulled the handle out. After wrapping her fingers around it, he placed his hands on either side of her neck. Her numbness was okay at this point. He knew exactly where they needed to go, and only he could get them there. “Don’t let go of the suitcase,” he said. “We might need the money, and you will need clothes. Are you ready?
She didn’t respond.
If only things were different. If only there were a way to save her from her destiny. Perhaps the elves would have a solution.
“Stay with me now. Gregor Arcos’s daughter does not just check out or give up.”
But she had given up. When the pressure of teleportation receded, she simply stood next to him like a mannequin, unblinking in the dappled sunlight twinkling though the forest canopy.