The Meridian Gamble (70 page)

Roland paces about the living room,
examining it, determining the strategic layout of the land. He eyes the samurai
blades hanging on the wall, and takes one down, removing it from its sheath.
Roland puts it back in and hangs the blade from his shoulder, and looks to me
again.

“Meridian, go, get dressed. They’ll
be here very soon.”

“First, some knives,” I say. “Get
me knives.”

It’s another of Saga’s skills from
the past I’ve remembered. And I silently thank the General for the first time,
because he forced her to learn to throw them with skill. And now, with my
memories, I’m just as talented.

We go into the kitchen and quickly
look through some drawers. Roland finds some steak knives, but they’re not like
normal ones. They’re made all of steel, and have sharp edges, not serrated
ones. I grab one and hurl it through the air, toward a wall. And it sticks in
perfectly.

“These will do.”

I gather a few of them up, and take
them back into the bedroom.

I quickly get dressed. I put on
jeans and a T-shirt, and some ankle boots with a low heel. And I slip on a
leather jacket I’ve collected during my travels. By the time that I’m done,
Roland comes back.

He puts his hand on my shoulders,
seriously.

“Meridian, I want you to stay here,
no matter what.”

“I want to help you,” I say. “Isn’t
that what you’ve been training me for?”

“I’ve been training you for dire
circumstances, and we’re not at that point yet. You’ll be helping me the most
if you stay here, so I am not distracted with worry. Go, close yourself in the
bathroom.”

He pushes me inside the room, and I
lock the door behind me. And I’m suddenly alone. I lower myself onto the floor
and lean against the sink, feeling stupid, sitting there with my knives.

And even though he’s an immortal of
great power, with mental abilities that can be used to fling people across the
room, I feel horrible knowing that Roland is out there alone, fighting for me,
facing who knows what. Are Marion’s forces coming for me? The Paris vampires?
Or something else?

But I wonder if there is something
I can do to help. Apparently I do have abilities beyond the Luminos fighting
skills I remember. It scares me to try it, because it might all be a trick on
the part of the Elder vampires, to get me to do exactly what they want. But
they’re not here, and I don’t see how they can be using me, not in this moment.

If I can escape this place, it
might be the best thing I can do for Roland. It might be the only solution to
the crazy conundrum of my life.

And before the fighting begins, I
calm my mind. And I try to go to the place I’ve created with Adam.

It’s hard at first, I don’t think
I’ll be able to do it, because I’m nervous. But slowly, I begin to sense it;
the energy begins to fill the room, more strongly than I’ve ever felt it
before. And from the corner of my eye, I feel like I see someone, moving within
it, moving inside the energy in the room.

And that odd feeling overtakes me,
the one that always freaks me out, and I feel myself rushing through a tunnel
of white light.

I’m in the strange world, at the
base of the hill, and my jeans and jacket are white, sparkling with bits of
light. I wonder if I’ll see Adam here, but I don’t really have time to look for
him or call out his name. I can’t have anything stop me now, and I run for the
top of the hill.

When I get there, I stand at the
edge of the cliff, and look down to the chasm beneath. It seems endless, and I
wonder what lurks there, I wonder what will happen if I jump. I look back over
my shoulder toward the black forest, and I hear a kind of rumbling coming from
the place. There’s something within it, and it’s coming for me. And I can’t
help but to think it’s the Elder vampires, hungering for their opportunity to
come after me.

I look up into the clouds, which
are billowy and thick, but nothing is happening. They aren’t parting for me, I
can’t see into the Golden Realm. And I wonder why it’s not working this time.

Maybe I need Adam here, maybe his
energy helps me to connect to that place.

I call out, in a panic.

“Help! Help me! Someone help me,
please!”

But nothing happens.

“Mother!” I call out, in
desperation.

And finally, it works. The clouds
part, and I see the rolling green hills from that other dimension. There are no
little girls playing there this time, but I see the gates of the gleaming city,
and they open for me. And someone approaches. The person looks like a tiny dot
at first, but then I realize it’s the woman with the flowing amber hair and red
dress who comes toward me, seemingly in slow motion.

She finally gets close, and even
though she’s far away, I can see her face. And there’s an expression of sadness
upon it. I take several steps back, ready to run and jump toward her, but
somehow, she stops me.

“Do not try it. You cannot return,
my daughter.”

“Please, you have to help me.”

“No,” she says, sadly. “The Golden
Realm is closed to you. At least for now.”

“But you have to help me! They’re
coming for me! They’re going to kill me!”

“You must stay where you are and
live out this life. If you’re going to help that place, you’ll have to do it
from within. And there are very dark days ahead for you. But rest assured,
we’ll send you what help that we can.”

“But …”

“I’m sorry. What I do now, I do for
the safety of the Realm. But always remember that I love you.”

Suddenly, the clouds close up just
as quickly as they opened, and she’s gone.

And I shake my head. Send me help?
How is she going to send me help? If she’s going to help, then I need help
right now.

I look to the forest, and the loud
thundering continues to come from within it. It’s so loud that it shakes the
ground. I see a crack form in the earth beneath me, and for a moment, I think
I’m going to fall through. But when the loud thud sounds again, I’m suddenly
back in the penthouse bathroom, the quickest I’ve ever returned.

And I realize the thundering is
coming from the walls. Roland is fighting in the other room, and the noise is
from something that crashes against it so forcefully, it forms a crack above
the sink.

And I can’t sit in here any more,
no matter what Roland said.

I take my knives, and open the door
to the bedroom. And I slowly creep out into the hall.

I peek out, and Roland is fighting
them in the living room. There’s more than one of them, and they’re moving
around so fast they’re almost blurs.

But one of them stops for a moment,
landing a few punches on Roland, and I get a better look at him. He’s armored
and wears a dull green suit, one that I’ve seen before. It’s the same as the
Luminos armor, the one the soldiers had on when they rescued me from the
basement of the vampire tower. It makes no sense, but I don’t wait for answers.
I let instinct take over, and throw.

It’s as though the soldier can
sense the knife slicing through the air. He turns and dodges it easily, but
Roland catches the blade in mid-air. And he buries it in the man’s throat,
dropping him to the ground.

“That’s my girl,” he says, smiling
at me.

But two more of the soldiers come
at him. And as he fights them off, one more tries to grab me.

He comes at me, down the hallway,
and this is my moment. I had wanted to help, and now I have no choice but to
fight.

We trade blows. I throw punches at
him, from the left and right, and he blocks them. I try to kick him, but he
sidesteps with ease. But I finally land a punch to his chest, knocking him back
a bit. And I think that it’s not so bad, maybe I have a chance. But the man
comes at me, pinning me against the wall.

I knee him in the groin, and hear a
gasp of pain, and punch at his throat, stunning him. The man lets out a choking
sound, and backhands me with such force it sends me reeling. And he’s far
stronger than I had thought.

The man picks me up and lifts me by
my shoulders, pinning me against the wall once more. He has an ironclad grip I
can’t break, and for a moment, I’m sure this is the end of me.

“What are you doing?” the man says,
as noises of violence come at us from the living room.

“Killing vampires,” I say. “It’s
what we Luminos do.”

“We are the Luminos. We’re here to
rescue you. The General sent us.”

There’s a trickle of blood coming
from my mouth, and when he sees it, fangs pop out from behind the man’s mask.
But he shakes his head, and retracts them.

And none of it makes any sense.

“You can’t be Luminos! You’re
vampires.”

“We are vampires. We have the blood
now,” the man says.

And it dawns on me. Roland’s
sample.

“No, the blood was supposed to be
used to create a biological weapon.”

“Their blood is impervious to
disease. Only vampires can kill vampires. We are the weapon.”

And it finally dawns on me, what
their true intent was all along. The Luminos are creating a vampire army.

And it all happens so fast. Roland
rips the man off me, and throws him against the wall. They trade a few more
blows. Roland still has the samurai sword, and he whips it out in a flash, and
brings it down on him, cutting off his arm.

It’s disgusting, the Luminos
soldier spins around, flailing, and a spray of blood comes at me from the
severed limb. I watch as Roland grabs the man and hurls him with such a
terrible force that he goes crashing through the glass of the living room,
falling to what must be his death.

The blood has splattered against my
face. I can taste a bit of it, a strange and metallic flavor in my mouth. A
drop must have hit my lips or gone past them, but something is terribly wrong.
A hideous burning sensation courses through my body that seems to start from
that one tiny drop, and I feel like I’m on fire.

I fall to the ground, and my body
is incredibly hot, as if I’m a burning ember. It’s so painful that I let out a
horrible scream. But even through my discomfort, I somehow realize what’s going
on. I remember the sensation from Saga’s life; I’m undergoing the
transformation. But it’s not happening slowly over days of repeated infusions.
It’s happening all at once.

I’ve been infected by the Luminos
blood. And it’s not supposed to happen this way.

My body is wracked with pain, and
instantly my senses are changing. I can hear noises on the street, 20 floors
down, sounds of panic over the body that has splattered against the pavement.
And I can tell from the sounds that Luminos soldier has survived somehow. He
gets up for a few moments, spraying blood on those around him. He’s lunging
onto people, trying to drink to stay alive. And there’s chaos down below.

But something else attracts my
attention, a sweet smell that I can’t resist.

It’s Lenny and Nivina, asleep in
their room.

And I realize Roland is above me,
looking to me with concern.

“Meridian. Meridian, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay,” I scream at
him, through gritted teeth. “You got your wish. I’m changing.”

And he looks at me, stunned, as the
reality of what’s going on sinks in.

But it’s not just my nose and ears
that are sensitive, my eyes are sharper, too. I catch sight of something, a
glint of light from a building across the way, through the broken glass of the
living room window.

A shot rings out, and I can see it
all in slow motion. The bullet coming through the window, and Roland turns at
the last possible moment, distracted by his fear for me. I watch as it cuts
into his head, some weird shot that explodes from within his skull. To my
horror, Roland drops to the ground beside me, and with my new keen senses, I
realize that the impossible has happened; he’s dead. And there’s so much blood,
all around me, everywhere.

It can’t be real, he can’t be gone,
Roland is too strong and powerful. I reach out, and try to lift the part of his
skull that’s been blown off, thinking I can put it back on and heal him. But
instead, I can’t believe what I’m doing. All I can focus on is the blood, and
my compulsion to taste it. I don’t even care about Roland anymore, and I scoop
some up with my finger, putting it to my lips.

But it’s wrong. It tastes coppery and
bitter, and I turn away from him. Because I know something close by will be
much better.

From behind me, the door of the
master bedroom opens, and Nivina comes stumbling out. And I’m certain she’ll
taste just right.

“Oh my God, what happened?”

I leap on her, instantly, in an
uncontrollable way.

Fangs pop out of my mouth, and I
bury them into her neck. And it’s ecstasy. I remember this feeling, from Saga’s
life, of drinking human blood. And the taste goes beyond any gourmet meal, it
transcends eating. This feels like I’m drinking in life, straight from Mother
Earth.

I can feel Nivina twitching and
gasping beneath me, sputtering for air. And I don’t care. I don’t care if this
silly bitch lives or dies. But it feels strange, my connection to her, as I
start to get images from her life. They’re distasteful to me. Her entire
existence seems like it’s filled with selfishness and greed. I watch her as the
images flow by, cheating and charming her way through adolescence and into
adulthood, flirting with teachers to get passing grades in school. Manipulating
Lenny with sex to get him to marry her.

But before I can experience more, a
shot rings out. I hadn’t even realized someone else was there.

I turn with a hiss, and see Adam
standing above me, smiling. And it’s like a miracle that he’s here.

“Don’t drink them to the point of
death. Never drink them that far. It’s bad.”

Lenny comes out of the bedroom, and
Adam raises a strange rifle he carries, one that looks like a futuristic
weapon. And he drops Lenny with a single shot. The young man falls next to me,
and it’s a heady scent, the fresh human blood that spills from his wound. I
consider drinking again, but my body is suddenly wracked with pain. Somehow,
feasting on Nivina’s blood changes me once more, and I can barely move.