The Blood Talisman (6 page)

He sobbed into his hands, thinking
about everything that had happened to him within the last few days.
Now his wife was missing. He would peel his own skin from his bones
to get her back. He lay there on the living room floor looking up
at the ceiling fan. It turned slowly. He watched it every turn and
concentrated on the hum to calm himself. He drifted until he was
asleep.

Chapter 7

Commander Fortner pushed what was left
of Dr. Jackson into the crematorium located in the basement of the
hospital. He brushed his hands together as if he had just taken out
the trash. A hand patted him on his shoulder. It rather startled
him until he noticed it was the hand of the CEO of the hospital.
Fear immediately spread into his stomach and it gurgled with
uneasiness.

“
You need to stop and eat.
Keep your strength up, John,” he eerily whispered into the
Commander’s ear.

Not many people got away with calling
him John but he didn’t object to anyone in Administration calling
him by his first name for obvious reasons.

“
Yes sir. Been busy, Mr.
Strix.”

“
Please call me Ram. My
last name kind of gives it away, don’t you think? I come from a
long line of vampires. Maybe it’s time to change our
surname.”

John wrinkled his forehead up at Ram
in confusion.

“
Strix is Greek for owl,
but it soon became a bad omen when we were cursed to feed on the
blood and flesh of humans. Since the turn of my blood line, we have
searched for immortality and the necromancer that made us. As soon
as one of us got close enough, death would always swoop in to claim
us. My father got the closest and even attempted to kill him.
That’s when we learned that he can only be killed by one of his
children. Nobody wants his power more than his son Sol so I set out
to make him my best friend,” Ram responded to his puzzled
look.

John locked the door to the crematory
and turned to face Ram. “You think he would really kill his own
father?”

“
Undoubtedly he hates the
guy. An eternity is a long time to wait for power that you would
inherit upon your father’s death. Sol has his own agenda though. He
doesn’t want to share the power so he wants his sisters dead as
well. We will see how it goes when they are all in the same
room.

“
Anything else?” John said,
as he rubbed two fingers across his lips.

Ram’s knowledge made him nervous and
he wanted to be done with this conversation. He found the less he
knew in this place, the better off he was.

“
I wanted to commend you on
getting our escapee’s wife and bringing her to us. However, we were
not happy with the guy that went with you and we want to know how
you lost control of the situation.”

“
I was looking for Jacobs
in the house and…”

He was interrupted by Ram’s hand over
his mouth. Ram pushed him back into the sheetrock wall of the dim
basement. The sheetrock cracked under the pressure of the
Commander’s body and the vampire’s strength.

“
We are not to call them by
any name other than what they are, and, in this case, he is an
‘escapee’. When he is found he will be an ‘asset’. Do I make myself
clear? If I have to tell you again, you will be joining Dr. Jackson
in the crematory.”

Ram slowly took his hand off of John’s
face, finger by finger, and pulled him away from the wall. John
dusted the sheetrock bits off of his clothes and looked back up at
Ram.

“
Yes sir, I understand. It
won’t happen again.”

John continued staring into Ram’s face
for further approval but his blank stare was hard to read. Ram
really never showed emotion on his face other than when he was
about to eat someone. “The escapee was believed to be hiding within
the house and I was searching for him, but I had to leave my
assistant alone with the escapee’s wife to do so. When I came back,
he was feeding on her and I stopped him. It was my mistake for
leaving him there and it won’t happen again.”

John lowered his head, waiting for the
punishment that would surely result from this incident.

“
You were lucky to escape
from him. I’m surprised he had that much control. Most vampires
cannot stop until their victim meets death. You are right though,
it will not happen again. I sent you guys there to do a job and he
wanted to prove himself, but he will never get the opportunity
again. He has been fed to our assets. Its good game for them, you
know? Nothing like practicing on your own kind, of course, but
vamps are close enough. Wolves and vamps are not all that
different: both were created by witches, both gain their strength
from the blood energy of humans. The difference is that we are
smarter than those stupid little mutts. We will gain control of the
blood talisman before they get close to even finding out that there
is a blood talisman that will make them immortal.”

They began to walk back towards the
large meeting room where Dr. Jackson had had his first and last
meeting with Administration. John’s normal demanding footsteps were
light and soft as mice. He made no attempt to overstep Ram in any
way. He knew to never cross a man that could overtake him and kill
him in the same death stroke. He never minded handling assets, but
at the end of every day, Ram and the other vamps in Administration
were in charge.

Ram held the door to the meeting room
open for John and they both walked in together. The long table that
decided every hospital worker’s fate was being cleaned by two very
weary housekeepers. One wiped the long table down while the other
mopped the floor. Administration’s ‘lunch’ had gotten a bit
messy.

“
Rameses!” a familiar
female voice called from the back of the room. Its owner began to
trot towards John and Ram and she put her tan, manicured fingers
around Ram’s arm. Ram kissed her on the forehead, just below her
glowing blonde hair, and she smiled in approval.

“
John, you’ve met my wife,
Ember. Ember, this is Commander John Fortner. He has been quite a
blessing. He follows instruction really well.”

“
Yes, I believe we have met
before when you brought in the escapee’s wife. She’s been next to
unmanageable, Ram. I need to know what you have planned for
her.”

“
The escapee will search
for her. My plan is being set forward as we speak. It won’t take
him long to follow the scent back to here. In the meantime, I want
John to take some of our other assets to condition the escapee’s
environment. I need him strong. I need him to feed on human flesh.
Do you think you can handle that, John?”

“
Yes Mr. Strix… I mean,
Ram. May I request one of your vamps to tag along? To help keep our
assets in line.”

“
I’d love to go, Ram,”
Ember offered, before Ram could answer.

“
I’m not sure that’s a good
idea, Ember. You’re too valuable. You and four other men? I think
that you would be a little outnumbered, don’t you
think?”

She pulled her manicured finger off of
Ram’s arm and looked at him in spite. She put her hand up on her
hip and said, “Outnumbered? HA!” She kicked off her heels and
walked over to the tired housekeepers. They immediately stopped
cleaning and looked up at her.

“
Yes ma’am?” the one
mopping the floor asked.

In one quick movement Ember snapped
her neck and her lifeless body fell to the floor that she so
assiduously attempted to clean. The other housekeeper began to
scream but, before she could holler out much of a shriek, she was
dropped to the floor in a similar fashion. Ember turned back to
look at John and Ram in a ‘how about now?’ way.

“
My wife, such the
dramatist.” Ram sighed and rolled his eyes. “Okay, you can go,
Ember, but that was such a waste of good blood.”

“
I will prepare right away,
sir!” Ember said excitedly. She saluted Ram as a soldier
would.

“
Now John, you guard her
with your life. She is not there to protect you. Remember that!”
Ram said as he poked one finger at John’s chest.

“
Of course, sir,” John
replied and bowed his head in agreement.

Chapter 8

A drip of water hit Alex on the
forehead as he lay asleep on the living room floor of the house
where he and Amalia had made so many great memories of their life
together. Thunder sounded in the distance and rain smashed
furiously against the windowpane outside. He sleepily cracked his
eyes open and turned his head to the side. A picture of the two of
them frolicking on the beach together was barely hanging onto the
wall above where their TV used to be. It now lay on the floor
beside him, in shambles.

Another drip of water hit his temple
and he turned his head back to see where this strange leak was
coming from.

“
Hey there!” a female voice
called from above him. She had a golden glow around her head until
he rubbed his eyes and realized that it was actually her wet blonde
hair.

“
Uhhh,” Alex muttered and
rubbed the water off of his forehead.

“
Alex? You
okay?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Wow, who woulda thaught
that you would turn into a wolf.”

Alex’s eyes popped completely open and
now he was surely awake. Selene’s familiar voice resonated with him
and his curiosity was piqued.

“
Selene? How do you know
what I am?” he asked, as he sat up and turned to face
her.

“
More importantly, how did
you get scratched by a werewolf?”

Alex rubbed his head. Her voice was
giving him a headache. He longed to hear Amalia’s sweet voice
again. He longed for her touch and her smell.

“
I was on duty overseas
and…”

He stopped short because he felt
slightly faint. He turned towards the back of his couch and leaned
against it.

“
You need to keep your
strength up, little wolf. When was the last time that you
fed?”

“
I… well… how do you know
what’s wrong with me?”

“
I heard the commotion last
night when I was passing by. I was curious so I peeped in through
the window and saw you, or rather the wolf, and I haven’t seen one
of those since I was a little girl.”

She continued on but it sounded more
like mumbles to Alex. Selene’s scent was beginning to overwhelm him
and it even made him a little nauseous. It was a sweet smell and
surely any normal man would be more than happy to have her as his
own, but Alex only wanted Amalia and her beautiful scent. She
always smelled of sweet fruits. Peaches and pears. Citrus and
apple. Selene was more lilac and fresh linen.

“
Smells,” he interrupted
Selene’s unwelcome banter.

“
Excuse me?” Selene
replied.

“
I can find Amalia by
smell.”

“
Of course you can, you’re
a wolf. That’s what I was saying, had you been
listening.”

“
I’m sorry Selene, but
Amalia is missing and I’m in some obvious deep shit that I really
don’t care to be in. Every time I get angry, I change and I’m
pretty angry at everything and everyone right now. I need to find
my wife.”

“
Of course.” She walked
over to sit on the floor next to Alex. “You’re gonna want to change
and clean yourself up first, though. You look a mess.”

Alex looked down at his bare feet and
the green scrubs that looked like they were barely hanging on to
his lower body. They were covered in dirt, mud, and grass. He
turned his hands back and forth to look at the red stains that
remained from the deer he had reluctantly consumed. The red stains
continued up over his pectorals and down to his abdominals. He
could not even imagine what his scraggly face looked
like.

“
Yeah, I guess you’re
right.”

“
Here, let me help you to
the bathroom and get you cleaned up and then we can go from there.
Okay?”

He looked at her
questioningly.

“
I mean, I will help if you
want, but you can shower alone.” She chuckled and her face turned
beet red.

“
I think I’m good now. Just
really tired. A shower’s a great idea. Anything near normal will
definitely help.”

Alex jumped up and headed into the
bathroom down the hall in his house, past the large bedroom off to
the left. He paused a moment looking at the four poster bed that he
and Amalia shared. He began to think of all of the fun and
sometimes the wild times they’d had together in that very bedroom.
Those warm thoughts followed him into the shower and helped him to
relax enough to get through the next few hours.

Selene remained in the living room,
waiting. She walked around, tidying up the place and putting things
somewhat back to normal. Some books were nearly hanging off a
shelf. She straightened them and noticed there was a yearbook
amongst the girly magazines and cookbooks. She pulled it out and
began to thumb through the pages. She passed a picture of herself,
with black hair and dark eye shadow. Memories started to flood back
through her mind of the high school sweethearts. Alex and Amalia
were inseparable even then. She had admired them from afar when
they were young and she still admired them now, although from
closer up. They had created a perfect little life together. A life
that she longed to have.