The Meridian Gamble (71 page)

“Adam, what are you doing here?” I
sputter, through the pain.

“I’ll explain later. We’ve got to
get you out of here,” he says. “It’s not safe.”

Adam spies the chunk of Roland’s
head I tried to reattach, and he lifts it by the hair, hurling it across the
living room, out the window.

And Roland’s body turns to dust.

Adam disappears into one of the
bedrooms, and comes back with a blanket that he wraps all around me. And
despite all that’s happened, it’s a comfort, to see him once again, to have him
hold me in this way.

But as he covers me, I get one more
strange sight. There’s a girl, standing over him, past his shoulders. I’m not
sure how she’s even in the room, but she’s funky and futuristic all at the same
time, with a nose ring and tattoos on her neck, ones that change and move
around her face in a magical way. Her hair is red and shaved on the sides, and
she looks at me and smiles.

Nikki. Her name is Nikki. And she’s
me. A future me. And I’m dead now, or dying from my change as a vampire.
Instinctively, I know I’ll be her some day, and the sensation is the most
bizarre one of all.

Adam covers my
face, and I can feel him lifting me, carrying me from the penthouse with ease.
And finally, it’s all too much, and I drift into darkness once more as I think
of the girl who will be my future self, knowing that seeing her means I’m not
going to make it out of this alive.

I shoot awake to the sounds of a
horrible noise, one that’s incredibly loud. It’s a hideous sound that hurts my
ears, and I realize it’s sirens. They’re close by, and I’ve never heard
anything like it before.

There’s a terrible pain in my
stomach, and I realize I’m hungry, again. My need for food has awakened me, and
I groan in dismay, because I’m too weak to cook anything. But I realize that I
don’t need to cook, because someone is preparing a delicious meal close by,
wherever it is that I am. For a moment, I think it’s Nivina, but I remember
that she’s dead, Adam shot her. And I realize the smells that I’m smelling
remind me of her, somehow.

No, not Nivina, but rather, the
scent of her warm blood. That’s it, I smell human blood, sizzling fresh in the
vein. There are people nearby, and my hunter’s instincts tell me I can get to
them and fulfill my needs.

I remember now; I’m a vampire. And
my heart sinks, because I never wanted this experience again.

It finally occurs to me to look
around at my surroundings, to try to figure out where I am. I’m in a spacious
master bedroom, but it’s not the penthouse, it's not any place I've ever been
in before. The furniture is nice, thick wooden pieces that are more mundane
than the usual brand of luxury the vampires dwell in, a ranch style, perhaps.
There’s art on the wall, a few abstract pictures that are filled with bland
geometric shapes, but what really draws my attention is the thick curtains.
It’s daytime outside, but the light seems to burn from the other side, like
there are raging wildfires all around the house, or whatever it is that I’m in.
And I feel alarmed, for a moment.

I go to the curtains, and pull them
back slowly. But the bright light from the other side burns my eyes, so much so
that I wonder if they’re permanently damaged. I turn away, but a tiny ray of
light streams into the room from the opening in the curtains I’ve made. And I
have a strange compulsion I can’t resist. I reach out my hand to touch it, and
slowly the skin at the tip of my finger sears. I scream, and carefully shut the
curtains once more.

I’m afraid to walk around the
house. It seems far better to stay in the room where it’s safe, but my hunger
is too great. And I grab a blanket from the bed and venture forth, seeking out
the scent of human blood.

The house is fairly large, a
mansion, you could say. The rooms are all closed on the second floor, but
they’re not what I want. I walk down the stairs, instead, and there are big
open windows in an entryway that contains the front door. So I cover myself to
walk past them. There are more open windows in a kitchen and dining area, but
there are enough shadows in the hallways that connect those places, safe spots
for me to hide in, and I’m unsure which way I should go. But I see a door, and
somehow I know the scent of blood is coming from within it. It seems more
powerful that way.

When I open it, the smell hits me
like a wave. It’s stunning, and I’m immediately drunk on the sensation.

There are stairs, and I go down
into a basement. It’s dark and cool here, far more appealing than the rest of
the house. And that’s when I see them, all handcuffed and gagged, tied to their
chairs. There’s an older Hispanic man and an African-American woman, with a
younger man who must be her son, a teenager. And they all look delicious, so
helpless and filled with fear. But what catches my attention is another young
boy, cowering in the corner with his hands tied. And somehow I know the child
also belongs to the woman.

Though they’re all disgusting,
covered in their own filth, the delicious scent of their blood overpowers
everything else. And I feel drunk from the contact high.

When the woman sees me eying the
young boy, her eyes widen, and she begins to panic, struggling against her
binds. And I hate myself, but I can’t stop from doing it.

I call out to him, in my sweetest
of voices.

“Come on, honey. Come with me.”

But he looks at me, with frightened
eyes.

“No,” he says.

“Come on, we’ve got to get you out
of this place. It’s not safe here,” I coo.

“No, I don’t want to go with you.”

“Get over here, you little brat,” I
hiss.

And it’s instinctual, the way I
reach out to him with my mind. I can feel the energy extend from me, and wrap
around his brain like a vice. I can feel the child losing his own will, as he
stands there placidly, allowing me to untie his wrists. And he walks by my side
up the stairs with robotic movements as I drag him along.

Behind me, I can hear the muffled
screams of the woman, as she struggles against her binds. She falls over in her
chair, hitting the floor, and for a moment, I wonder if she’s hurt herself, as
she sobs against the gag with her face pressed into the floor.

But the morsel in my hands is too
delicious.

I close the door behind them,
locking it. And I kneel on the ground, facing the child.

“Who are you, sweetie? What are you
doing here?”

“My family is on vacation. We’re
visiting Mazatlan.”

“That’s nice,” I say. “Vacations
are fun.”

And it’s horrible, what I’m about
to do. I struggle with the idea of letting him go, as my mental powers over him
weaken.

He can’t be more than five or six,
maybe a bit older. And it’s sad, to see his face wrinkle with concern.

“My Daddy is going to find us. He’s
going to come after you and teach you a lesson.”

“Your Daddy is a fool,” I hiss.

And the fangs pop out, before I
even realize what’s happening.

I hear the child gasp, a pathetic
small noise, and I’m on the thick vein pulsing in his neck. I drink and drink
and drink with wild abandon. The boy doesn’t even struggle, and I wonder if
I’ve hurt him, burst his small heart. But I realize it’s the venom that’s
relaxing him, and I wonder what it feels like to his system. The sensation is
probably more than he can comprehend, but I don’t really care, because the
taste of the blood is intoxicating. It’s more delicious than anything I’ve ever
known in this life, more delightful than any gourmet meal they could hope to
serve in the vampire tower. And suddenly, it comes to me again, the strange
feeling of sensing another being’s life. But the boy isn’t like the last one,
Nivina. He’s not full of greed. His life is sweet, he’s known joy, growing up
with loving, wealthy parents and an older brother who dotes on him. He watches
cartoons and is obsessed with collecting toy cars. He’s mischievous at times,
plotting to sneak away during recess at school for more playtime, but overall
the child is a good boy.

There’s more that comes to me in
waves, more than I can handle, and I pull away, realizing it’s too much. I’m
absorbing him.

But it’s too late, and I look down
at the lifeless body cradled in my arms, and realize that he’s dead. And the
most bizarre thing happens. I look up, and see him standing beside me, as if
he’s still alive. And the child’s face is filled with anger.

“You’re a bad lady, a very bad
lady,” he says.

He’s right, and I can’t stand
myself. But the coldness of my vampire heart takes over.

“Go,” I say, cruelly. “Go find the
others. See if you can help them.”

The child stares at me wide-eyed
for a moment, and I try to cover the sight of his body, out of some form of
pity. And he runs off, straight through the closed basement door, the way a
ghost would. Which I guess is what he is now.

And I’ll never forgive myself for
this, for the stupidity of what I’ve just done.

“I can’t leave you alone for a
minute. I told you, you’re not supposed to drink them to death.”

It’s Adam. I run up and hug him,
desperate to never let go. And I was wrong about the blood, it isn’t the
sweetest thing in the world. Adam’s touch is far sweeter.

I realize for the first time that
I’m filthy, unwashed and still in the jeans I fought the Luminos in, though
he’s changed my T-shirt somewhere along the way. And I curl my nose, because I
sense something foul. It’s the body on the ground, and already it smells like
something rotting and offensive to me.

“Can you get rid of that?” I ask.

“We’ll wrap it up in the blanket
and I’ll bury him later,” Adam says. “The sun is going down, you won’t need it
anymore.

“Adam, what’s happened to me?” I
ask.

“You’re a vampire now.”

“But … how?”

“The Luminos. Their experiments
created this. They’ve turned our blood into a virus, and it’s spreading, like
wildfire. Can you hear it out there?”

I listen, and I can hear more
sirens. And even from where I am, I can hear screams of terror. It chills me to
the bones, because it’s just as I’ve feared, the Luminos did the wrong thing.
They played with the vampire blood and have created a plague, and I’m nervous to
think what it might do now that it’s been unleashed on the world.

But my mind shifts, and I recall
what happened, in the penthouse.

“Adam, Roland is dead.”

“I know. I killed him.”

“But, why?”

“He was in my way. And he shouldn’t
have tried to put the moves on my girlfriend,” he says with a smile.

I shake my head. But looking at
Adam, I feel guilty now, because I remember something else that happened.

“Adam, I betrayed you with Roland.
I’m sorry, I just … I need to let you know, before we go on.”

“It’s all right, Meridian. I know
you had your residual feelings for him. And besides, you have all of eternity
to make it up to me, if you want.”

Adam smiles again, but I have a
sinking feeling over what he’s done.

“Yes, but you shouldn’t have killed
him. That was a mistake. There’s more to this than you can imagine.”

“No, there’s nothing more to this,
there’s only our life together, finally. Come on.”

He takes me by the hand, and leads
me toward the kitchen. I hesitate, remembering the light, but it’s already
cooled, somehow. The sun is dipping below the horizon, and the rays of light
have diminished enough so it doesn’t hurt my eyes to look outside, my skin
doesn’t burn. And he takes me out onto a patio just past the kitchen, onto a
balcony that overlooks some trees and a few scattered homes, beautiful ones on
a hill that overlook the city.

“Do you see this? It’s all ours The
whole world is ours, a playground for us to enjoy, forever.”

“Yes, but look around you. Listen
to what’s happening, it’s chaos out there.”

“And chaos is where vampires
thrive,” he says. “It doesn’t matter, none of it matters. All that counts is
that we’re finally together.”

And Adam leans over and kisses me,
and it all seems too simple. But I have to admit to feeling a certain thrill,
because he’s right. I can be with him forever, which is what I wanted all
along, in a sense. And who knows, maybe he can help me stop the Elders, no
matter what it is that they want me to do.

And I look him in the eyes and
smile.

“Okay, so where do we start?”

“We start with me teaching you how
to be a vampire, how to hunt. Maybe kill some of these newborns who are
spreading, out of control. Later on we’ll find some tanks where we can build a
stash of our own, in case things get really bad.”

Adam pulls me closer, and kisses me
again.

“And we’ll make love, as only
vampires can.”

He takes my hand and pulls me up
onto the railing of the balcony, which I easily jump onto. And for a moment, we
stare off at the vista of the city, as the noise of chaos fills our ears. We
leap, and as frightening as it all is, I can’t help but to feel a selfish
thrill at the thought of our grand new adventure.

As Adam and I head off into the
night.