Authors: Faleena Hopkins
Dani sank her teeth into his neck and drank rapidly,
quickly draining his energy.
He
tried to lash about, tried to fight them off, but his strength was nothing to
theirs regardless of his recent kills. Vampires are strongest after they’ve fed
- and he had gorged, so his power was multiplied.
It wasn’t a match for them, because
combined,
the females possessed just under four hundred
fifty years of power.
Checkmate.
As Dani drank her lover dry, her face wore so much pain
that Elizabeth turned away in respect.
Then, it was done.
He was
drained, sapped of all strength and energy, to unconsciousness. His body became
lax in Elizabeth’s grip, his eyes closed.
The grotesque image of him burned itself forever into both of their
minds. His dry leathery skin was like a raisin’s - pulled tight against his
bones with flaps of empty layers bulging here and there.
His eyes, still black, were sunken in
and the skeletal structure of his head could be outlined with the eye.
Dani pulled back and stared in disbelief.
Her beautiful Adrian,
mere skin and bones, ghastly looking, unconscious in a death sleep.
Was he still inside there somewhere?
Elizabeth picked him up to carry him home.
Dani looked around the room, “What do we
do about…”
“We don’t have time. The News will unfortunately be all
over this, but it’s too late.
They’re a block away – can’t you hear them? We have to leave.
Now.” And with that Elizabeth was gone, carrying Adrian in lightning speed,
passing invisibly as a quick breeze by people on the streets.
Dani looked around the room. She’d known to expect a
blood bath after what she had witnessed in La Rochelle that horrible day so
long ago. Before she’d left her loft with Elizabeth in search of Adrian, she
had first gone to her closet to grab Bruce’s gun.
Time was of the essence and they might
need it.
She’d said nothing of this
to Elizabeth and felt it better to explain later.
It was all too easy to argue with her
maker and she had long ago become used to making decisions for herself.
Looking at the number of bodies as the police sirens grew
louder, she didn’t have enough time to mask the bites with her own healing
blood. There could be no explanation for the blood loss or torn limbs or
decapitation, but she could remove evidence of fang marks. It was the best she
could do to protect herself and her brethren.
From victim to victim she sped, shooting the bites he had
left, mutilating the skin and removing the evidence of vampire.
Rebecca was her last stop and she shook
her head in disbelief at the dead girl’s youth. Outside, the police cars
screeched to a stop. Car doors opened and slammed shut. The sirens were
deafening.
She guessed there to be
three cars, six officers. The front door opened and an officer, gun poised,
edged in. A gust of wind knocked him against the wall. “What the hell…” His
partner, just behind him felt it, too, but when they looked around they saw no
signs of life. They took in the scene.
Dead bodies everywhere.
No
Dani... no wind.
2012
When Dani walked into the loft she was surprised to see
Julian sitting with Elizabeth. “I put him in the safe. Go lock the door.
Can he get out of it?”
“No. He can’t get out. I didn’t put him in the computer.”
Dani frowned at the memory.
“Good,
”
Elizabeth
said, approvingly.
Dani shot her a look, pointed at Julian and asked, “Why
is he here?”
Julian shifted uncomfortably at her cold tone, but
Elizabeth answered coolly,
“Best to
have the help of someone who is awake during daylight hours.”
Dani shrugged. “Great. Perfect. Why don’t we call Anj,
Stewart and my whole team while we’re at
it.
And now
Julian knows where I sleep.
Fantastic.”
She went inside and closed the door.
“You can trust me,” said Julian quietly to the empty
space where she had been.
Elizabeth
looked at him and then
back
out the window. They had
about an hour before dawn.
Inside the computer control room, Dani changed both
password codes. She closed the door to The Safe thinking about how, just three
hours before, she’d watched him sleep so peacefully and had kissed him tenderly
as he’d slept. She locked it up behind her.
“I changed the passwords.
I want to be the only one who can let
him out. You have to give me that.”
Emotionally exhausted, she collapsed on the couch next to Julian.
He looked at her.
She did not look back.
From her position at the window, Elizabeth broke the
news, “I’ve sent out calls to William and Joshua.
They said
they’ll
be here tomorrow night.”
Dani jumped up in anger. “What
?!
How could you do that?
What could you possibly hope to achieve
by
– ?
"
“As you remember, Daniella,” she said, turning to face
her progeny, “it has been since 1812 that the last cacodemonic vampire was
turned.
And you must remember how
difficult things were for us then. He left quite a mess tonight.
Our brethren need to know. We need help
before taking our next step.”
“Elizabeth, that’s why I didn’t stay as your
companion.
You always need a
committee to make a decision.”
“And you rush to action before thinking things through. I
think the families of those who died needlessly tonight would agree with me. I
know you hoped this would end differently,” Elizabeth said dryly. Dani sat down
and to Julian’s shock she began to cry.
She sobbed on the couch, head hung down between her knees, her hands
cradling the top of her head as she rocked and sobbed.
She looked so helpless and vulnerable,
except for the red tears.
He began
to reach out to hold her but a warning look from Elizabeth stopped him.
“That’s two hundred years… since this has happened,” Dani
said through sobs.
“Why did this
happen to him?
Why him? He’s not a
demon. I know he isn’t. He’s inside there still.”
Elizabeth leaned against the wall as she and Julian both
watched, helpless.
The only thing
she could offer to make sense of it all was an explanation. “Daniella, when an
addict is turned – a person who has an addiction to drugs, gambling, sex,
alcohol, food - they could become cacodemonic.
This is why we vet the humans we wish to
turn.”
“You didn’t tell me that!” Daniella looked up through
swollen eyes to listen to her maker’s words.
“You never told me that, Elizabeth.
You never once told me that!”
“After I turned you, you were so happy and everything was
beautiful.
Then I got word that a
cacodemonic vampire was in La Rochelle and I was summoned to help.
I had to take you with me because you
were too young to be left alone.
But in the heat and intensity of those nights, other things were on my
mind and you were lost in whatever soft fabric or bright light caught your
fancy.”
Daniella listened, filled
with disbelief and anger when Elizabeth finished with, “As time went on… I
simply forgot.”
“You. Simply. Forgot. Amazing. Great.”
Daniella laid her head on her knees and
was quiet.
Elizabeth hated the way Daniella spoke to her, looked at
her and her face was stone as she ventured, “I’m guessing Adrian is an addict.”
“He does drink a lot.
I saw him at the party and he had seven
drinks in about an hour…”
“Julian – shut UP!”
Dani snapped.
He sat back in his seat.
Elizabeth allowed the air a moment to breath before
attempting another method. “I see.
Well,
if
you had known, would you have decided
not
to turn
him? There is a chance, albeit a very small one, that he would have been like
you and me; a vampire who would listen to reason, who still had a conscience
and who would have been willing to play well with others. But it would not have
been likely.
Would you have taken
that chance
, ,and
played the odds?” She waited for an
answer from Daniella.
None
came.
Elizabeth nodded and turned
her attention to Julian.
“We need
your help, Julian.
We’ve told you a
lot tonight in the hopes that you will be our eyes during the daylight
hours.
Can you do that?”
He nodded.
“Yes. Whatever you need.
I’ll do it.”
“Good.
Dani, you made a mistake when you turned Adrian tonight.
And
you’re going to have a hard decision to make.”
Dani looked at Elizabeth, her face garish and ugly with
anger.
“I don’t need any lectures.”
“Don’t be a baby.
No one wants to hear when
they
’ve done
something wrong, but you need to know that when they arrive tomorrow you’re
going to have to do what’s best for the greater good.
This is not about you anymore.
This is about all of us.” She went to
the window and looked at the light, gauging how much time they had.
“Tonight you’ll need to sleep somewhere
else.
Do you have a place?”
Dani answered with
silence.
“You can come with me.
Julian, the news will be blasting -”
“No they won’t. At least not the story you’re thinking.”
Dani snapped at her.
“What story will they be telling then?”
“I’ll tell you when we leave.
Julian doesn’t need to be in this any deeper
than he already is,” Dani muttered.
She could feel his gratitude from where he sat, in the
way his heart beat faster, how he exhaled, how he sank into the cushion. He
looked and was surprised to see her looking back at him from behind those
blood-streaked lids.
Elizabeth,
too, was looking at him.
A chill
went up his spine.
“What?” he
asked, and a wave of fatigue hit him.
Were they hypnotizing him?
He didn’t ask.
Dani reached out touched his leg. “You’re exhausted.
Go home and nap, okay? But then today
keep an eye out and let me know if anyone comes here.
Or if
you see anything out of the ordinary.
We’ll talk more when I’m
ready.”
He nodded and got up, the gaze of the two preternatural
beings, still as statues, on his back as he left. He closed the door and in the
safety of the hall temptation hit him to listen at the door. No. He wanted her
to trust him.
Dragging his feet, he
trudged home.
It had been the
longest two hours of his life.
Inside, Dani walked to the kitchen sink and washed her
face.
“I wish you’d done that when Julian was here,” said
Elizabeth.
“He needs to see what he’s dealing with.
I’m not a photographer to him
anymore.”
The blood drained down
the sink, faint pink droplets splattering on the counter beside it.
“He already knew that.
He’s known for a long time.”
“He hadn’t
seen
it,” Dani said. She grabbed a
kitchen towel and dried off her face before wiping off the counter mess. “It’s
different when you see something.
You don’t know until you know. What are we going to do with him?”
Elizabeth knew she wasn’t talking about Julian
anymore.
“We’ll discuss it with the
others. Joshua was the maker of the last known-”
“Don’t say it,” Dani tried to interrupt.
“Cacodemon.” Elizabeth said it firmly. “Denial and
refusal to accept the truth will only hurt you more. Hasn’t time taught you
that yet?
You’ll just be setting
yourself up for more heartbreak.”
“That’s the point, Izzie. Don’t you get it? I didn’t know
I had a heart anymore. I was dead until I met him. Do you understand that? Do
you have any idea how this feels?”
Dani went to the door. Elizabeth watched her and to
herself alone said, “Yes, Dani. I know exactly how it feels.”
At the door Dani remembered, “Who cleaned up the blood
and broken glass here? You?”
Elizabeth shook her head no. “Julian.”
Dani nodded and locked the door behind them.
She shoved away from her an image of
Adrian inside, unconscious and sucked dry on his very first day.
What would be their decision when the others weighed in
and choices had to be made? Would they put him into the sun? Would they insist
on doing it themselves and exclude her?
Or would they make her show her loyalty to their rules, their creed, by
doing it herself?
She followed Elizabeth out of the building.
The sun was coming soon, though it would
not find them.
Not this night, no.
From inside The Safe, Adrian moaned, “Daniella.”
Daniella’s story
to be continued in “Sun”
Why did Elizabeth, desperate for
help, call
William
and
Joshua
, and who are they? Find out by
reading novelettes dedicated to them and their sides of the story, as we
journey between 2012, 1812, and beyond… in the Fire Nectar saga in search of
family, self-recovery and unconditional true love.
To read
Joshua
now –
Click here to purchase on Amazon.
William -
coming mid July
2013.
All books in the
Fire
Nectar
saga are intertwined stories, jumping back and forth with
flashbacks.
.
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