Requiem for Blood (35 page)

“I can't believe she left this for me.”

Olivia didn't turn to him as she sifted through Alexa's closet. “That's a very shallow thing to say. Do you honestly think money will keep someone from leaving?”

“Well it'd give them fewer reasons to,” he said, shrugging.

He picked up a child's book he recognized from her desk and felt their hard, unbending pages as he flipped through it. He placed it down and picked up a medical book and then one about Mayan culture. Her desk had been completely covered in books, stacked several feet high and tumbling over each other.

“She really loved books,” he commented.

“She did. She has read me every single book from her collection twice. It had been her second greatest love.”

“What was her first?”

Olivia pulled out two small
Kris
daggers and held one at his neck, the point pressed against his skin. He felt the tip poke into his flesh when he swallowed and forced his Adam's apple out.

“Fighting.”

He raised an eyebrow when she drew back the dagger and tucked each of them into the pockets inside of her jacket. “She was a great hunter,” she continued. “She didn't enjoy hurting others but she couldn't deny that she was great at it.”

Troy thought back to the girl he had met at the beach and just couldn't see her, as frail as she was, as a skilled fighter and huntress but it must have been true if she fended off a man like they had said. Olivia pulled out
chakrams
and held them out to Troy.

“What's this?”

“A projectile weapon, like Japanese throwing stars,” she said when he finally took them. “I don't know how many people are with my mother but I do know of one person and those are good things to have against her.”

“Felicity?”

Olivia's eyes shot up. “How do you know of her?”

“I just guessed it was the girl from the blood drive. She told me her name was Felicity,” he lied.

He suffered a suspicious stare from Olivia but she didn't question further and instead, went to her own room. She grabbed a weapon, leaving Troy outside the door for a brief moment and then she was back out. He gawked at the long sword she had in her hand, it's blade slightly curved and golden.

Watching his gaze, she said quickly. “A
dao
.”

“Was that always your weapon of choice?”

“No,” she said, slightly amused. “I'm not that showy.”

They were back downstairs and halfway out the door when Olivia caught the scent of something. She turned and walked briskly in the direction of the scent. She passed the living room and then the kitchen and was about to pull open the door to where her mother rested when she heard a faint heartbeat and a whisper of words.

“Olivia...is that you?”

“Allison?”

Twenty Three

Olivia had given the
dao
to Troy and was on her knees crawling underneath the table, sure that she would be able to restrain herself. Her fingertips fell in the pool of blood underneath Allison's head and she pulled her hand back and shook at the sight of the blood that was trickling down her white palm. When she brought her hand up to her trembling lips and smeared it across, her eyes became hollow shells of their former selves, totally consumed by the lust for the little girl's blood.

Troy had been shouting her name but she couldn't hear through the thickness of her thirst. Though Allison's heart was faint, it pumped loudly in Olivia's ears as she focused on it. She reached down and tugged the girl's arms but was snapped up by Troy, pulling her away from her prey but not out of her bloodlust. She turned on him and put her hand to his neck and slammed him against the wall. He let her keep him on the wall as he looked in her eyes and hoped for the best.

“Snap out of it. You don't want to drink her blood,” he said through a struggled breath.

Though his eyes were on hers, she couldn't fall prey to his manipulation because she couldn't see his eyes. Her vision had been blurred by red and she only saw the outline of the humans when she attacked them. Troy repeated his words but when he saw that he wasn't getting through to her he yelled out, “Think about Alexa and Noah! Do you want to do to this little girl what you did to them?”

Despite his best efforts to bring her back, she was gone. She tossed him to the side and was clawing her way to Allison once more. Troy groaned and shook himself off as he staggered through the kitchen. He picked up the weapon he had dropped and was standing behind her with it in his hands.

“Listen to me! I don't want to stab you but I will! Stop, now!”

“Please,” a soft voice choked, “don't hurt her...”

Troy hadn't heard Allison's words and he was coming down with the
dao
straight to her heart when Olivia spoke, “Allison?”

His heart was beating heavily when he just barely stopped the
dao
from entering her back. He saw her crawl out from underneath the table, pulling the little girl by her arm. She barely had a breath to take as she lay quietly across Olivia's lap. There was a ghost of a smile on her face as she sat there contentedly.

“Allison, wake up. Please do not go to sleep.”

“I'm awake Olivia,” she assured her.

What happened
, is what she wanted to ask but she knew Allison couldn't survive a question and answer session in her condition. She wanted to know how it happened to her and she briefly thought of her mother, but had to know for certain who would have left her like this. She sat her upright and tilted her head to the side and before the child or Troy could react, she was draining her of her blood. She took her bleeding wrist to the half dead girl's lips and forced her to drink. She knew she wasn't doing it right but hoped that it would work itself out anyway, unable to allow another friend to die. When Allison had gotten enough blood, Olivia resumed her draining until she had no more life inside of her.

Allison still hadn't come back when they got in the car and drove away. Olivia ran an unsteady hand through her dark curls as she lay on her lap while Troy raced down the road. She could hear the hasty pounding in Troy's chest as he maneuvered through the streets. They were back at his house and Olivia had Allison in her arms as she quickly darted inside and out of the rain. David had a hot towel and medicine for the girl but Troy explained that she was already dead and that they were waiting for her to be undead. Bear scrambled across the now wet foyer and jumped onto the couch where Allison lay. His coat soaked up the water on her skin as he walked over her body, trying to figure out who it was. The dog bayed as small fingers crawled up the side of his body and the hand pulled him down onto her chest. His large brown eyes were staring into the little girls when they snapped open.

“Allison!”

Allison sat up and Bear ran away and took shelter between behind David's legs. She put a hand over her chest and clenched her shirt. “Olivia...my heart...it's....” her hands moved up to throat as each word burned coming out, “I'm so thirsty....”

Troy couldn't be the one to give up his blood as he was gearing up for a fight so David slit his wrist and let the blood pour into a cup before handing it to the girl. As soon as she caught the scent of his blood, her eyes came close to darkening but Olivia grabbed her shoulders and forced Allison to look into her eyes, “You will drink this blood and no longer be thirsty.”

“Maybe I should try?” Troy offered but Allison nodded her head and repeated after Olivia, shocking them.

She downed the blood and looked at Olivia. “I'm a vampire?”

“You are. But I need you to listen to me, I need you to tell me how this happened,” she spoke quickly as she pressed her palms on Allison's face. “Did my mother do this?”

“No, it was Felicity. The Matriarch never came back but she ordered us to leave and just before we were to depart Felicity locked me in the house and said I had run away.”

“Where were they going?”

“I heard Dr. Wilkinson say something about a recreation center...” she said, uncertain.

“Why were you covered in blood?” Olivia tried as calmly as she could to ask but the word alone made thirsty.

“I found human food in the refrigerator and cabinets but when I tried to eat them, I just threw them up...eventually I started throwing blood up. Olivia, what's going on? How did you become a vampire? When Noah left, she said he was as good as dead outside the colony and you probably died yourself. Have you seen Noah?” Her lips quivered and her body trembled as she asked.

Olivia shook her head slowly.

“We have to find him!”

Olivia shook her head more fiercely. “That is not what I meant. Noah is gone. He is dead.”

Allison fell into Olivia's arms and began sobbing. She tossed her head from side to side, refusing to believe that Noah had truly died. “You mean he's a vampire, right?” she screamed. “That's what you mean, right?”

Olivia crossed her arms behind Allison's head and pressed her inward in an effort to stop her rampant shuddering as she shook frantically. “No Allison. He is dead and it is my fault.”

She let out a muffled yell, “No!” Her tears streamed down Olivia's pants leg.

“Please listen to me. I will try,” she paused, “
I will
take vengeance out on....”

She couldn't finish her sentence. To take vengeance out on his and Alexa's killer would to be to kill herself, but if not for Erika she wouldn't have been turned. Though, if it hadn't been for her mother she wouldn't have been able to be turned in the first place. That single thought was the only thing that justified the insanity in Erika's plan and her actions.

Allison was still screaming when she unfixed the girl's hands from her clothes and pulled her off of her. She didn't want to let go, she couldn't let go, but by the time she opened her eyes she was struggling in the arms of David and Olivia was gone. Troy didn't glance at Olivia as he drove through the town after she had said just a few words.

To the recreation center.

It had been, after all, where all of it started and it helped that Allison confirmed her suspicion when they briefly spoke. David mentioned that Erika had left, saying that she was headed to the fight. Olivia had hoped her manipulation would be strong enough to hold while she was away but how could she really contain a new vampire's thirst in just a few words? She wanted to ask Troy if he thought his father would be OK but he had been staring too intently onto the road to be disturbed. There was once again a heavy pounding in Troy's chest and as deafening and sporadic as it was, it sounded like battle music and gave her a sense of ready for the fight to come.

He was anything less than steady as he drove into the parking lot and jerked unevenly into a spot. Olivia was already out of the car and standing at the door of the recreation center before he shut off the car's engine. Troy trotted through the rain drenched lot, pools of water splashing as he made his way toward her. It was dark under the canopy and he could barely see Olivia as she stood there but he could feel her presence. They had awaited Erika who gave no word as to when she would show up or what she would do when she did and after a few minutes, he let out a breath and spoke quietly, “What is your plan of action?”

“I don't plan. I just do.”

She turned to walk inside but Troy pulled her back, their fingers touching for the first time. She thought she heard a flicker of sparks when they met but she wasn't sure. His hands were warm and instead of fading away as his touch usually did, it lingered as if the warmth was pouring into her and filling her body.

“Clearly, Erika led you to this place outnumbered and she's not here, so it's a good idea to have a plan...”

“How do you know we are outnumbered?” She had a look of genuine shock on her face.

“I've learned a skill or two since finding out about my
kitsune
blood. I can tell there's humans walking around in there...I don't know how many, but I can hear them.”

“Nine.”

“Are you planning to kill them? These could be people you've grown up with...held hostage...”

Her first thought was of Sam who rarely spoke but when she did, she had said something so profound Olivia couldn't escape those words.
When I become a vampire, I'm going to eat her first.
Those words alone showed Olivia the type of person Sam really was. She had been the type who would've been better suited as the vampire to fight for Troy, but it was too late for that. Her second thought was of Natalie and how much of her trust she would be betraying by storming the building with the intent to kill and she briefly wondered if telling the truth of Noah's death would alone kill her. Her final thought was of Troy and what she was going to do to keep him out of her way. Out of harm's way. Her fingers slipped out of his grasp but there was something cool pulsating in his hand as it replaced hers. She had pulled the daggers out of her jacket pocket and told him faintly to protect himself.

She left him outside, reasoning with herself that the bulk of the fight was inside and therefore he would be better off not in the recreation center. She had long since rid herself of the urge to drink his blood but she knew anything could happen with a bunch of blood drinking humans so all she wanted for him to do was stand outside and wait for it to be over. It had almost been ironic the last words she heard from him as she let go of his hands.