Birth of Jaiden (13 page)

Alex nodded but remained
silent.

“
Now Alex, you do understand
that this has not been tested? There is no way to test it except on
you. You
are
the test.”

Again, Alex nodded. “I
understand.”

“
You could
die
when the sun rises, Alex.”

“
But, if it
does
work.”

“
Then you will be one of
the most powerful vampires ever. You will have the advantage of the
daylight when the rays of the sun would roast any
other.”

Alex was nervous about this;
there was more riding on it than ever. He knew he had to do it,
though, he had waited too long. Danielle had said that he would see
the sun again, and simply the
possibility
of it was more than enough motivation for Alex to
give it a go.

“
I want Danielle to be
with me,” Alex told Jeremiah.

“
That’s fine, but you will
stay here. I need you close in case something happens and we need
to get you inside. There will be no going up to a mountain top to
see the sunrise, ok!”

“
Ok.”

The doorbell rang and they
heard the door open and shut again. Then, they heard Danielle’s
voice call out, “It’s me.”

“
Come down,” Jeremiah
called with his gravelly voice. Then he turned to Alex. “I am not
going to tell you what is in this.” He waved the syringe in the
air.

“
That’s ok.” Alex curled
his lip. “I don’t want to know.”

Danielle entered the lab
and came to his side. “So, the time has come.”

“
Yes, and I’m glad you’re
here with me.”

“
I am always with you when
you need me, Alex.”

“
If something happens to
me, what will happen to Jaiden?”

Danielle looked at him in
a reprimanding way. “There will be no questions like that. Have
faith that it will work.”

“
Yes, but
still…”

Jeremiah put his wrinkled
hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Danielle and I are here to
bring you to the safety of darkness if anything goes
wrong.”

“
Then I’m
ready.”

“
Ok.” Jeremiah held up the
syringe. “You’ll have to take this every night at least four hours
before dawn. It needs time to take effect, which is why I called
you here so early.” Jeremiah flicked the syringe with his index
finger.

“
I’ll give you a week’s
supply. When you run out, come see me and I’ll do some tests and
give you another week’s supply.”

“
I understand.”

“
I’m just going to inject
you now to make sure you don’t have any side effects to the formula
itself.”

Alex nodded, took off his
jacket and set it aside. Then, he rolled up his sleeve and sat in
one of the chairs by Jeremiah’s table. He felt no pain when
Jeremiah stuck the large needle into his skin.

He closed his eyes and let
it flow through his veins. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.
For some reason, he had expected it to be a bit more
eventful.

“
I don’t feel anything.”
He opened his eyes to find Jeremiah staring at him
intensely.

“
You’re not supposed to.”
Jeremiah sat down across from Alex. “Now, we wait until sunrise and
see if it really works.”

Alex glanced at the clock.
It was only twelve thirty. So, he had to wait around for hours to
see if he was going to die. He rolled his sleeve back down and put
his jacket on. Jeremiah went to his computer and started typing
again.

“
Let’s go outside.”
Danielle took his hand and led him up the staircase and out the
door. Once on the porch, they seated themselves on the wooden swing
which hung from chains attached to an overhang.

Alex thought it was a
perfect place to sit. There was a spectacular view of the lake,
which was surrounded by lush, tree covered mountains. The
glittering stars of the night made their way around a half moon and
were mirrored in still waters of the lake.

“
Are you afraid?” Danielle
asked him.

“
Yes.”

“
You were never afraid
before.”

“
You tell me not to be afraid…to
trust you, and I do, but I’m still scared of burning to death. Now,
there is
so
much more at stake. I want to be alive to see all this
through.”

Danielle examined his
face. “So, you are starting to care for Jaiden already.”

He laughed lightly. “How
could I not?”

Danielle continued, “And I
know you, Alex, I know you are beginning to have feelings for
Isabella.”

Alex sighed. “I can’t help
it. She’s just so great with Jaiden…and beautiful too. I don’t know
how I’m supposed to live around her for so many years. Yet at the
same time, I don’t think I could stand being away from her
either.”

Danielle giggled. “Well,
it sounds like you have quite a problem on your hands.”

“
You mean,” Alex feigned a
look of shock, “you aren’t going to give me any advice?”

“
Do you need some?” she
asked teasingly.

“
Nope, I’m just going to
have to get over it.”

“
You know, Alex, over
time, love has driven people to do great things.”

Confused, he asked her,
“What are you trying to say?”

“
I am
trying
to ask you if it would be
so bad
for you to fall in
love.”

“
Danielle
, she is
mortal
. Someday, I would have to decide if
I want her to die or if I want to make her immortal and there is no
guarantee that, if I did, she would be able to defeat the evil as
Chris and I have.”

“
Alex, there are people
who see someone one time and that is it for them. They fall in
love, then they never get to see that person again, yet that moment
of love is what drives them for the rest of their life.”

“
You don’t make sense,
Danielle. I have to live with Isabella and Jaiden until Jaiden is
grown, so how does that fit our situation?”

“
It doesn’t.”

Alex hated how she could
get him so frustrated with her brief answers. “Danielle, I could
never bring myself to make another vampire.”

“
Your decisions are yours to
make. But remember, sometimes, it is better to live in the moment
and have some fun than to worry about what might have been or about
what is
going
to happen.”

“
Are you trying to tell me
that I am no fun?”

She sighed dramatically. “I’m
sorry to tell you this, Alex, but lately, you
have
been quite boring.”

“
What
?”

“
You heard me.”

Alex pretended to be
wounded. “I am not boring; I am a very deep, intellectual
man.”

“
Yes, and that is why I am
telling you this. I am sure Isabella will want to go on a date to
the
library
.” Danielle’s voice was unusually sarcastic as her lips
curled into a smile.

“
Why are you, of all
people, trying to encourage this? I thought you would be like Chris
and tell me to deal with it as soon as possible.”

Her smile remained while she
grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “All I am trying to say is that
everything is going to be all right and that it
is
ok for you to have feelings for
someone, even if she is human.”

“
Thank you, Danielle.” He
looked at his watch. “It’s not even close.”

“
Be patient, Alex, it will
come soon enough.”

14

Stewart had not yet
cracked even though he had endured more physical pain in the last
several hours than he had in his entire life.

Malcolms’ goons had
tortured him while Malcolm had stood by and watched. Malcolm had
asked him over and over again to help him but with every strike of
the whip, Stewart had screamed that he would not.

They had underestimated
Stewart. He had even underestimated himself. Stewart had stayed
true to the council and his oath.

Because of that oath and
his love for the council members, he lay propped up against a stone
wall with his wrists cuffed and chained above his head. Blood ran
down his arms from the cuts caused by the sharp, protruding pieces
of metal on the inside of the cuffs.

With every move, his cuts
became deeper. The warm blood ran down his arms and mingled with
the blood from the many wounds covering his chest and back. It
continued to run down his body until it reached the hard stone
floor where it pooled into a large scarlet puddle in which he
sat.

Pain, once so fierce, had
now numbed him into semi-consciousness. He had tried to use his
magic but he was not able to free himself. After he had tried to
call the council many times without getting any answer, he gave
up.

He wondered if they were
trying to reach him as well. Why wasn’t his telepathy
working?

The vampire guards spoke
openly about how good his blood smelled and how they couldn’t wait
to get a little taste.

Stewart was tempted to
give them a few little zaps just to prove to them that he wasn’t
completely defenseless but he held back his temper. A temper that,
even after hours of whipping, was still hard to control.

He knew the only reason
Malcolm hadn’t killed him was because he wanted information. That
was another reason he refused to divulge anything. Stewart realized
he should have told someone what was going on, but for some reason
he had kept it to himself and had hoped that eventually Malcolm
would leave him alone. It was very bold of Malcolm to take Stewart
because if the council found out, they would try their hardest to
slay him.

Stewart would have kicked
himself if he wasn’t tied up. It seemed that everything that
happened to him involved some kind of pain. When would life deal
him a good card?

Stewart heard screams from far
away. He figured it was other prisoners. After he had listened for
a while, he decided that is it sounded like there were hundreds of
them. Why would Malcolm need hundreds of prisoners? Didn’t vampires
usually go and hunt their food, and then go on about their
business? He could see him bringing home one or two, but
hundreds
?

He thought the room he was
in looked like an underground cave. The damp stone walls had
foreign carvings etched into them. There were no bars anywhere, the
only things which kept him captive were the chains attached to his
cuffs and the guards.

I have to find a way
out
, he told
himself, then thought about the puddle of his own blood in which he
sat. There was no way he could move with the amount of blood he had
lost.

He knew his only chance
would be for the council to find him. He was sure he would bleed to
death if he stayed cuffed in the cold much longer.

A few moments later, he
heard a commotion in the stairwell leading to his prison. Then, a
tall woman emerged onto the landing. She had short black hair and
wore very large dangling diamond earrings. Her maroon evening gown
shimmered like it was covered in the same diamonds which hung from
her ears.

She locked gazes with
Stewart. He stared deep into her green pupils; as she breathed in,
her eyes briefly flashed red. Slowly, she turned to the guards and
told them in a thick British accent, “Malcolm wants him taken to
the doctor now.”

“
Right away, Miss Levine,”
the largest of the guards replied.

“
He said to come and get
him after they have him healthy enough.” She turned back to Stewart
and crouched down over him.

Stewart knew of Levine,
though he had never seen her; hardly anyone had ever seen her. She
was Malcolm’s lady. The story was that he had never taken another
lady besides her and she had remained by his side as his queen for
hundreds of years.

Her lips moved lightly
over his earlobe. “Your blood smells delicious.”

“
Thank you.”

“
Oh, young man, you have
no idea what I could do to you right now if I wanted
to.”

Stewart snorted. “I’ll use
my imagination.”

She caressed his face.
“It’s lucky for you that my husband wants you alive and
untouched.”

“
Yeah, that’s lucky.” He
couldn’t help the sarcasm.

She removed her hands and
stood. “Just be a good little prisoner.”

With that said, she turned
quickly, exiting, via the stairs from which she had
arrived.

What she said had confused
him, though. Why would they want to cause him so much pain and
suffering, and then make him well again? It seemed awfully strange
to him. But if they were going to fix him, he wasn’t going to
argue.