The Blood Talisman (14 page)

Ram stood up and offered his tanned
hand to her. She stared at it. He wore a sterling silver ring on
his left ring finger. She placed her hand into his gently and he
pulled her up until she was eye level with him. He seemed much
shorter than Alex but stronger. She looked back at the screen on
which she’d watched her husband betray her earlier. It was now a
snowy picture. The horrendous video had disappeared from the
screen. She looked back at Ram and he led her out of the monitor
room. The security guards waited out in the hall, until they had
exited, and scurried back in to work.

“Why are you being so nice? Up until
now, I thought you were an evil guy with his own agenda.” Amalia
said after a bit of silence between them.

“Every man has his own agenda. Whether
it is evil or not is in the eye of the enemy.”

‘Well that’s very
philosophical.”

“It’s something my father used to say
to me. He was always thought of as being evil but he had the same
plan as I have. We only want immortality amongst all supernatural
beings. Wolves don’t want to be immortal because they look forward
to death. Undoubtedly it’s painful to change into a wolf and they
don’t want to do it for an eternity.”

“As angry as I am with Alex, I couldn’t
ask for a better punishment for that cheating piece of
crap.”

They stopped in front of the
conference room with double doors. He placed his hands atop her
shoulders and said, “Us vampires get a bad rap. We aren’t all evil.
We only wish to live.” He opened the conference room doors and took
her into a place just off from the board room. It had five white
salon chairs with IV lines placed beside each one.

“There is a more humane way of doing
this. It’s less messy. Doing it this way doesn’t mean that you can
avoid killing someone. You will eventually want to. I’m afraid it’s
part of the disease.”

“Are these chairs for me or for
them?”

“They are for the donors. We hook them
up to take their blood and you can drink it directly from the
vein.”

“Why not just drink it from a
bag?”

“It doesn’t work that way. You don’t
get the full effect unless you drink it from the source itself. You
would have to drink twenty bags to get the energy you could from
one person. You ready?”

“Yea, I’m starved, but can’t I eat
regular food?”

“You can but you will never get full
until you drink blood. Most of us don’t even eat anymore. Think of
it as you drinking in their energy rather than their
blood.”

A young man in his late twenties came
and laid down on one of the elongated chairs. He was shirtless and
wore baggy black jeans. He was covered in tattoos and scars. He had
piercings all over his body and his face. Silver rings encased his
fingers. He looked like what society would dismiss as a lost soul,
someone whom most would think to be a vampire or some other strange
creature. He placed black earphones with tiny skulls on them into
his ears and relaxed his head on the chair.

Ram walked over and pulled a chair up
beside the young man. He inserted an IV into his arm. The donor
didn’t even flinch. There were several scars on his arm. Amalia
wondered whether they were self-inflicted or a result from donating
so much blood. Ram glanced up and noticed Amalia looking judgingly
at the young man’s arm.

“Some people find pain to be
pleasurable, Miss Amalia… and don’t worry about getting a disease.
He’s a regular donor.”

“I honestly didn’t even think about
that.”

“We are not immortal yet. You still
need to be cautious with your life. You are a new vampire and when
you have been introduced to this much power, this quickly. Let’s
just say you will have an overabundant need to want to throw
caution to the wind.”

Ram sat Amalia on another chair. He
unhooked one tube from the extensive machine and handed it to her.
She placed it up to her lips and the blood began to flow into her
mouth.

At first it made her sick to her
stomach, to think that she was drinking someone else’s blood. Then
her entire thought process changed. It started to feel like
drinking water. Her body felt immediately energized and overcome
with happiness. She drank more and more. She still wasn’t full when
Ram pulled her back from the tube.

She took a deep breath of air as she
released her mouth from the red, flowing wonderland. She lunged
forward for more but Ram pushed her back. “That’s enough. You must
take this slowly.”

The donor lay asleep, oblivious to his
surroundings. Ram unhooked the blood IV and pushed fluids into the
donor’s veins. Amalia watched every move he made.

Ram finished up with the donor and
turned back to watch Amalia in her new-found state of wonder. Her
eyes were as big as saucers and her black pupils practically
covered the brown irises.

“How long does this euphoria
last?”

“It is different for every vampire.
Some feed often and others feed not so much.”

Amalia lowered her head and looked at
her feet. She wanted more but resisted the urge.

“I can’t even think about Alex right
now,” she said.

“It’s okay because you don’t have to
until morning. I can show you to your room, if you
like.”

Amalia lifted her eyes back up to meet
his. “I really don’t want to be alone right now.”

He placed his arms around her and
hugged her tightly.

“You don’t have to be alone, my sweet
Amalia,” he whispered into her ear.

She luxuriated in his embrace. She felt
nothing and even if she were to spend the night in Ram’s arms, she
wouldn’t care. She relished this new freedom from emotion she’d
found. She relaxed in his arms and thought of nothing.

Chapter 17

The salty sweat burned his eyelids from
looking up to the sun in the desert. Alex was back in the heat,
back in the desert, back in his own small version of hell. He
dreamt of killing hundreds, if not thousands, over a course of
time. The wolf plagued his dreams with its memories of death. His
covered eyes raced back and forth as he fought to awaken from the
nightmare, but as he opened his eyes from the hot desert a new
nightmare was revealed.

He was still prisoner in a hospital
full of vampires and evil wolves that wished nothing more than to
keep him from Amalia and completely destroy his life. His eyes
searched the white, crackled ceiling for answers but it gave none.
He felt a breath of air come from a silent nose next to him. It
brushed his arm and disappeared into the room. He immediately
thought of Amalia. He entertained the idea that his nightmare had
ended.

He turned his eyes, expecting to see a
beautiful brown-headed Amalia next to him, but it was Selene
instead. He jerked himself up and away from her. She remained
asleep as he gazed down upon her naked back. She lay face down on
the bed with her blonde hair encircling her face. Every time she
breathed, her hair blipped a little more across her face, revealing
her rosy cheeks and freckled nose.

He slowly eased himself out of the bed.
She didn’t wake but rolled over to the other side of the bed. He
found his boxer briefs on the carpeted floor and pulled them on. He
snuck off to the bathroom and quietly shut the door. He backed away
from the door, then gazed at himself in the mirror and barely
recognized the man he had become.

“
Murder and now adultery?
What have you done?” he whispered to himself in the
mirror.

The man in the mirror returned no
answer. He only stared back, judging.

Alex looked away from the image, down
towards the sink. The water was running down into the drain. He
stared at the sloshing water for what seemed like hours but in
reality was only minutes. He heard a soft knock, followed by an
even softer, caring voice.

“Alex?” it whispered. “You
okay?”

He slammed the tap off and jerked the
door open. Her hair swished inward to the bathroom as he stomped by
her. He began to search the room, ripping open drawers on the giant
mahogany dresser and hurling open doors of the wardrobes that were
filled with suits and dresses.

Selene watched him, in amazement. She
didn’t know what she had done to deserve this unjustified
treatment, but she took it anyway. She stood silent in the
doorway.

“I’ve got to get Amalia and leave. This
place, these things I’ve done… they’re ruining me,” he yelled
out.

“Alex, I… I don’t know what to say. I
thought everything was okay. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t you do that. Don’t you go and
blame yourself. I could have stopped what happened here last night,
way before it ever ended in the way it did.” He was pacing the room
incessantly. Eventually she grabbed his arm and stopped
him.

He now stared intently at her. He had
so much fury in his eyes that she wondered why he wasn’t
turning.

“It will be okay. Amalia doesn’t know.
I won’t tell her. It’ll be like this never happened,” Selene said.
“I promise.”

“But it did happen.” He
pushed her hand off of his shoulder and walked over to the bed. He
plopped down and stared at his fidgeting hands. “I can’t change
that.
I’m
going to
know.”

Selene came and sat beside him. He
looked up into her eyes and she could see the moisture in them
begin to build.

“I think you needed comfort in an
uncomfortable situation. Look at what you have been through, these
past few weeks. PTSD would not even begin to cover it. You have to
give yourself a break. You turned to a woman that cares about you
and loves you for who you are now and for who you used to be,
unconditionally. You showed me that you needed love and that is
what I have given you.”

“I should have waited for the comfort
from Amalia. I need to see her. I need to talk to her…
alone.”

Selene sighed. She left him to his
thoughts and retreated to a shower and a fresh change of
clothes.

When she returned to him, he was
dressing in khaki pants and a dress shirt. All she’d been able to
find was a tight pair of workout pants and a spaghetti strapped
tank. She felt extremely underdressed compared to him.

He tucked in his shirt and zipped his
pants up quickly, turning away from her so that she could not see
what was underneath. He glared into the bedroom mirror and combed
his fingers through his overgrown hair. He was starting to look
like the type of man who would do the things that he had done. The
scruffy hair, half-unbuttoned pinstriped shirt, khakis, and stubble
on his face fit him perfectly. He would wear this face for now. He
needed to get Amalia and get home with her and explain everything.
She would understand. She would have to understand. He hoped the
love they had for each other would overcome this. It had
to.

There was a rattle as the door to their
room was unlocked. Selene and Alex looked at one another. He
prepared to fight and she prepared to support him, as she had this
whole journey. The door opened and Amalia stood there, her arms
crossed. Alex could tell that she wasn’t happy. Ram was behind her.
He placed the keys back into his pants pocket.

“Amalia!” Alex exclaimed and ran over
to her.

He put his arms around her and held
her tightly. She didn’t hug back but she didn’t push him away
either. He smelled her fragrant hair and reveled in the soft
clothes covering her tan skin. She always smelled tropical, like
suntan lotion and coconuts. Her clothes and skin felt like silk.
For the moment of that embrace, he was back home.

“Alex. That’s enough.”

Alex released her. He pushed her hair
away from her glowing face. He could tell that she was irritated
but he didn’t care. He needed to touch her. He needed to feel her
warmth

She pulled away from him and walked
into the room, leaving Alex and Ram at the door. Alex followed
her.

“Alex, I know what went on here last
night in this room.” She looked over at the disorganized bed
sheets. It made her sick to her stomach. She rolled her eyes at
them and her gaze turned to Selene, who stood there, looking
innocent and blank. Selene nervously smiled at her.

“Why the fuck are you smiling? Oh I
guess you should be since you fucked my husband!” Amalia
yelled.

“Baby, please don’t. It wasn’t what it
seemed,” Alex cried.

“Don’t ‘baby’ me, Alex.”

Alex touched her arm, gently. Amalia
shoved him back across the room. Alex landed against the mirror. It
shattered into shards and fell onto the floor with him. He felt his
heart breaking in his chest and his head throbbed to no end. Blood
trickled down the back of his neck onto the clean shirt.

Selene ran over to Alex and helped him
up. He brushed the back of his head with his hand and wiped the
blood onto his pant leg, leaving behind a smeared bloody
handprint.

“Amalia, what did you… how… why?” Alex
spluttered.

“She’s a vampire,” Selene
stated.

“That’s right. I’ve joined the crazy
house. You’re a werewolf, I’m a vampire, and she’s a witch. Oh,
what a tangled web we weave,” Amalia said, taunting
Alex.