Blood Haze (29 page)

She
shook her head trying to understand what was happening. What had happened to
all those people? She swallowed hard against the bile which rose up in her
throat.

“Are
you ready for the show, Arabella?” he asked when they’d reached Lynx’s bedroom
door.

Suddenly
she was more afraid than ever. She didn’t want to know what was behind the
door. She didn’t want to know because Nicolas
wanted
her to know. She began to whimper and try to back away. “No,
please, no,” she begged.

But
Nicolas was surprisingly strong and without warning, he threw open the door and
shoved her inside so hard, it forced her to her knees. She scrambled to her
feet and searched about the room. She finally saw what Nicolas had been wanting
her to see.

Lynx
was on the bed with a woman. And while they were fully clothed, Lynx had his
teeth sunk deeply within the woman’s neck as he sucked viciously as the woman
whimpered and cried. She could hear him growl against the woman’s neck… like an
animal! Her knees buckled once more and she fell hard on her knees. She stared
wide-eyed. The monster on the bed bore little resemblance to the man she’d
fallen in love with. He seemed to finally notice her and focused his eyes on
hers. Still lost in his feeding frenzy, he growled at her, too. He allowed his
teeth to unlatch, and the woman fell to the bed.

Without
a word, Nicolas dragged her out of the room by her hair. She was too stunned to
notice; almost wanting the pain against her scalp. Lynx… her Lynx, was… a
monster as well. Suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore. Suddenly, she wanted it
over. Nothing she knew was true. Everything was a lie. Oh, God! She’d made love
to him. Her stomach roiled violently.

“I’m
going to be sick,” she whimpered.

“I
wouldn’t do that if I were you. You’ll be wallowing in it. That definitely
won’t be a pretty sight.”

He
dragged her back into the dining room where the bodies were lying scattered
about the room. “Let’s see Arabella. What am I going to do with you?” He looked
around the room as she squirmed to get away from him, but his hold remained
tight.

“Let
me go, you bastard! Let me go. You’re a monster… you’re all…” she gasped at the
pain in her heart at the horror she’d just witnessed in the room where she’d
experience such incredible love, “monsters,” she whispered.

He
laughed. “Monsters? Do you know the definition of a monster? No? Well, look it
up. A monster is someone who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior. Who’s
to say what’s acceptable? This is what we are… this is what we do. We are
responsible in what we do. We could kill every one of you pathetic humans… but
we don’t. We go out of our way to ensure you remain… comfortable.”

She
looked around the room littered with lifeless bodies. “How can you say that?”

He
glanced around and laughed. “As you know, things aren’t always as they appear.”

Taking
her further into the room, he dragged her through the next set of doors which
opened up to the kitchen. He began opening and closing drawers until he found
one with cooking twine in it. He tore off a length and bound her hands
together. Shoving her back into the dining room, she tried to look anywhere but
at the bodies. On the wall next to the kitchen was a brass ring mounted high on
the wall, normally used to hold lanterns. He tugged her to it and threaded the
rope attached to her wrists through it. He then hoisted her arms above her and
tied it tight.

With
an evil laugh, he said, “Now, don’t go anywhere.”

~X~

Her
head was pounding and her arms ached. She didn’t know how long she’d been left there…
there in the pits of hell! She shivered at the cold and her hands were numb –
which was good as she’d rubbed them raw trying to escape. She hung limply from
her wrists. She was having a hard time concentrating and her mind began to
confuse reality with the glimpsing she’d had of this place. She swallowed hard
as she could practically smell the blood that was everywhere and the metallic
smell made her stomach roil. She looked around her, frantically. The bodies
were scattered around her, their eyes opened and staring straight up... but
there was no blood. She was really losing her mind.

She
looked up at the brass ring from which her wrists were suspended. She tried one
more time to twist them out of the rope she was bound by, but winched in pain
when the robe sliced into one of her wrists. In morbid fascination, she watched
as the blood slid down her arm. She almost wished she could just bleed to
death. She was just… so tired.

The
image of Lynx with the woman between his teeth flashed in her mind. Slowly, she
allowed her body to go lax once more as her will to live faded away. She didn’t
want to live knowing what she knew. She couldn’t face it. She allowed her eyes
to close and waited for whatever fate awaited her.

A
snarling sound had her snatching her eyes open. She saw Lynx at the entrance of
the room with Nicolas in his grasp. Fear wrapped around her like barbed-wire,
biting into her skin as surely as Lynx’s teeth had bitten into the woman’s
neck. Lynx threw Nicolas up against the wall. “What have you done to her? I
told you she wasn’t to be touched!”

“She
will expose us! Surely you can see that. She must be taken care of. Now, you
can do it… or I will!” Nicolas spat.

As
if in defeat, he slowly lowered Nicolas to his feet. “Get out,” he said
gravelly.

“Lynx…”

“I
said GET OUT!” he shouted.

Arabella
jumped at the vehemence of his tone and her heart began to beat against her
chest like a drum. Nicolas straightened his jacket and cast a glare in her
direction. “This is a problem, Lynx. A very big problem,” he said, before
turning and walking away, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Silence
filled the room once again, the only sound being Lynx’s ragged breathing. Her
heart really began to pound when he began to walk slowly toward her. What was
he going to do? Would he kill her like he’d killed all these other people? Like
her mother? Perversely, she couldn’t help but drink him in, she’d missed him so
much – it didn’t seem to matter that he was a monster.

 
He was dressed in a tux just like he’d worn
the night at the Night Owl. He was so handsome, her heart lurched in her chest.
She must really be losing her mind. That she could still find him attractive
after what she’d just witnessed confused her. She remembered the last of her
mother’s words as she stared at him with such intense longing,
there is one who is not the same as the
others. If you find him - trust him, he will save you. He is the only one who
can.
It had to be Lynx that would save her. Wouldn’t he? Her chest began to
heave. But what if it was just what she wanted to believe?

He
stared at her with such sorrow, it seemed to spark her own – sorrow, at her
complete devastation – sorrow, at the complete loss of her sanity. Tears
spurted from her eyes. She knew she should be afraid as he approached her, but
grief at her loss of him – in so many ways – took precedence. She sobbed when
he reached her. With hands that trembled, he brushed his fingers against her
face in that way of his. “Arabella, my Arabella,” he whispered.

His
familiar words and touch made her cry harder. She searched for something inside
herself to push away from him with – fear, revulsion, anger – but she found
nothing but want, need, and love.

“What
has he done to you? I’m so sorry. I never wanted you here. I never wanted you
to see this… to know this. God! When I looked up and saw you… and knew you’d
seen what I was doing…”

Slowly,
he reached up, and she flinched. His lips thinned, but he didn’t comment as he
slowly unhooked her hands from the ring. She collapsed into him, her hands
still bound. He caught her up to him. Again, she knew she should be afraid, but
it was all blocked from her mind by the feel of being in his arms once more.

“God,
I’ve missed you,” he whispered against her ear.

Her
body began to shake. Immediately, he took off his jacket and placed it over her
shoulders. Quickly, he untied her hands and studied her wrists. His face
contorted in such pain, she flinched.

“Damned
bastard!” he muttered. Untucking his shirt, he tore a strip from the bottom.
Then he tore that piece in two. He quickly wrapped her wrists up tightly.

He
pulled back and looked down into her face. Gone was the mask he’d hidden behind
the last time she’d seen him two weeks ago. Now his face was etched with grief.
“What’s going on?” she asked through trembling lips.

He
glanced around the room. “I don’t want to talk in here. I’m going to pick you
up. I don’t want you to be frightened, okay?”

She
swallowed hard but nodded. He picked her up and moved her to a small room off
the dining room. It’d probably been used as butler’s pantry at one time, but
now was used mainly for storage. He sat her on a chair and squatted in front of
her.

He
exhaled deeply. “I want you to know first off that I love you. I’ve loved you almost
from the moment I saw you,” he said softly. “But what I am… what you are… I
knew it was wrong. But I wanted you so much.”

A
sob rose up in her throat and she bowed her head against the pain of having her
dream floating just beyond her grasp. “I don’t understand,” she cried. “What
are you? What happened to all these people?” She struggled to catch her breath.
“Nicolas killed my mother. Did you know that? Were you part of that?”

He
swallowed and shook his head. “I didn’t know until tonight.” He cupped her face
in his hand. “I’m so sorry that my family keeps hurting you. I’m sorry you had
to see what you saw.”

She
studied his face, trying to make sense out of a situation that made no sense.
“What are you,” she asked raggedly.

He
blinked at her for several long moments, putting off the moment when she’d know
the truth. “I’m a vampire,” he finally said.

She
closed her eyes against his words, not believing them, but the truth of his
words was evident in the remembered pile of bodies, and what she’d witnessed
him doing with her own eyes. But her mind still refused to believe them. “Like
a cult or something?”

Slowly,
he shook his head. “No. A vampire, probably close to what your perception of
what a vampire is.”

This
time it was she who shook her head. “No! It doesn’t make sense. I don’t
understand. I mean, I’ve seen you out in the sunlight. I’ve seen your
reflection in a mirror…” her voice trailed off as the absurdity of their
conversation hit her.

“Not
those kind. Our haven at Night Shade is made up of purebred vampires. Because
we were born to vampiral parents, we’re called Renatus vampires. We’re more
closely related to humans than vampires infected by the venom.”

Her
brain scrambled to process his words. “Did you kill all these people?”

He
shook his head once more. “They’re not dead, they’re hazed.”

“What
does that mean?” she cried.

“When
you were in school, did you ever learn anything about the powers of the moon?”
he asked patiently.

She
furrowed her brows at his question. She didn’t want to talk about the moon!
With a shake of her head, she asked inanely, “Like the pull of the moon on the
tides and such?”

“Yes,
like that. For vampires, especially for Renatus vampires, our very existence
relies on the power of the moon. Every year on this day, July 27
^th
,
when the moon is at its biggest and brightest, we participate in what we call
Blood Haze. Our bodies demand that we have what we call a ‘bleeding’, meaning
to saturate our bodies with blood, lots of blood, in order to counterbalance
the venom in our bodies. If we don’t do this, the venom will kill us.”

“What
happens to someone when you haze them?” she asked as she looked around the room
as if she could still see the bodies.

“We
go into their minds and remove the part of the memory we don’t want them to
remember. Tomorrow, they’ll all wake up and think they’ve had a really good
time. All they’ll feel is a little hung over, a little weak, but very much
alive... but with no memory of what really happened here.”

She
stared into his face, trying to think of any other plausible reasoning for what
was in the next room. Her heart twisted as she searched his beautiful face.
“You hurt me so bad,” she whispered on a sob.

He
hung his head to get away from her hurt. “I know,” he murmured.

“Were
you with that woman?”

Slowly,
he shook his head.

“But
you let me believe that you were when you knew how much it would hurt me?” she
sobbed.

 
“The lie was better than the truth, wouldn’t
you agree?” he replied softly.

“You
told me once that the truth would set you free. You told me it was always
better to know. Trust and truth, you said, trust and truth…”

He
cupped her face with one hand. “Do you remember I told you I’d been married
before?”

She
nodded.