Bulletproof (Healer) (25 page)

             
Without another thought, I kiss him and this kiss is completely different from Maurice's. It's alive, real. With Maurice it was a guise to cover up my pain. Being with him shut me down but kissing Gabe is waking me up. I am aware of all of my senses. I'm aware of how this kiss feels on my lips, how it feels running down my spine and I can even feel it at the bottom of my toes. And he's really kissing me back fervently. It is brilliant.

             
The kissing is interrupted when the door swings open. Why didn't I hear the footsteps? It's Maurice. I jerk away. Rose warned me to keep my feelings for Gabe to a minimum in case I upset Maurice, kissing was definitely off the list.

             
"I..." I can't think of anything to say. Maurice's face is changing. I can't see the angelic beauty. It's morphing as the fury takes a hold of him but his face is more familiar to me than the boy band good looks. It is the face Gabe has tattooed on his arm, the one that haunted me in my dreams. A demonic face. His fangs are on display, he is breathing heavily from his nose like a dragon. It is petrifying.

             
He bellows, "Get out! You've served your purpose for me, Gabe, you can leave. For good. I don't want any more from you."

             
Gabe squeezes my hand which makes me feel safe but then he's gone. He ran away leaving me to soothe the beast. I fear Maurice saw too much, is too far gone. There's nothing I could say that will pacify him now. He caught me kissing his employee when I was supposed to be his lover. I have just sped up the process to which he wants nothing to do with me. I could have had weeks of sweet sex every night and collection during the day. Maybe it could have lasted months if I appeased Maurice but any sympathy he had for me was severed with that kiss.

             
Maurice's face is relaxing. Vampires have bad tempers but excellent self-control. Thousands of years of life experience will give that to you. The man from my dreams, that face gnarled with anger,               is subsiding and the angelic face of my lover returns. I can't forget how that looked though. How terrifying it was. "This is how you thank me?" he has stopped yelling thankfully.

             
I tremble. I shake my head. I'm looking around for some way to escape. But the only hope I have of revival is if I charm my way back into Maurice's good graces. I doubt that's going to happen either. "I'm sorry," I stutter.

             
"I bring you to my home. I shower you in gifts. Thousands of pounds. I treat you like a princess. I show you the best nights of your life. And this is how you repay me?" he spits. "Kissing the stableboy? How cliche!"

             
I don't have anything to say in return. I want to slap him, punch him so hard but I don't want to summon that evil face again and I don't trust my condition. A Healer. That's what Gabe called me. And there are more Healers in the world. I'm not alone. The idea is something I should toy with if I ever make it out of Maurice's grasp alive, which seems unlikely.

             
"Come with me," Maurice tightens his fingers around my wrist and I fear he is going to crush the bone. He has more strength in his fingertips than I do in my whole body but I shouldn't be frightened. If a fast moving car can't kill me I should also be immune to a vampire's deathly wrath.

             
He takes me to the Surveillance room and shoves me onto the chair where I sat while my blood was taken. His movements, once so fluid and careful, are jagged and angry like he has truly yielded to the devil inside of him, giving into all that anger and hate that poisoned a vampire's humanity. I could see it in his haunted eyes, watched it come forward when his face changed into that monster. The Maurice with compassion and a gentle touch is a tiny treasure which he holds in his heart, a small piece of his past as a human being with real feelings, but this memento was easily broken by the hundreds of years of loneliness turned into hatred. Any pleasantry was shattered the minute he saw me kissing Gabe. Nice Maurice, warm and tingly Maurice, has gone home and now the vampire had come out to play.

             
Metal chains are wrapped around my arms. It's not like I could have escaped if I wanted to but maybe he was more wary of my powers than he should be. Maybe he thought Healer blood gave me strength he should fear. I could use this to my advantage. He tightens cuffs around my ankles. His breathing is like a high pitched hiss like ice cold water on hot coals.

             
Before I can think, Maurice plunges a dagger-like needle into my chest sending a shockwave of pain straight through my body. I have never felt pain like this. It doesn't normally last this long. It eases away, melting like ice cream on a Summers day, but this is maintained. Hot and cold meeting at once in my lungs. Burning, searing. Ice and fire. I yelp but Maurice thrusts his palm against my mouth. "Shut up," he scorns.

             
The pain is subsiding at a slow rate. I am willing my Healer blood to kick in. I've never longed for its qualities before. I always wanted rid of this disease that lived inside of me but now when I was grateful for its existence, it seemed to be unable to help. But it must be doing something, although the ache is still there, I can focus on my surroundings. I see a thick plastic tube emerging from the hole in the chest, blood is weeping into it and I can feel the sticky substance trickle down my skin, congealing on my stomach. I feel delirious. Too much blood at once.

             
"What are you doing to me?" I say, "You're going to kill me."

             
"I don't care. I'll have enough of your blood to last until I find another Healer, the next of freak,” he spits, tying a knot into the first bag filled with my blood and throwing it carelessly into a freezer box.

             
"A freak?" I'm becoming light headed. My voice doesn't sound real in my own head like the weak strained sound of my words are detached from my body and coming from somebody else. My lips are dry, my tongue feels swollen and foreign, "You're the freak."

             
Maurice is becoming a silhouette, a dancing reflection in a rippling lake. His body could belong to anybody now. "How does it feel, freak?" he says, another bag is full. Where is Gabe? He can't just have left me but would I want him to come back? Maurice has set him free. He no longer has to be tormented. He can be happy. He can be sober and find a girl, maybe he can go back to Claire and convince her to fall for him again. I should want him to be happy but I am loosing blood so fast, I just want him to be here.

             
"You're going to die and you've got no friends and no family just like your mother." Maurice drives another needle into me, this time into the thick muscle of my thigh.

             
"What?" the dizziness is stifling. Fight through it. I heard him rightly, I am sure he said my mother. I can't be that far gone that I’m hallucinating. My senses are numbing, I am loosing grip but I know what he said. "What did you do to my mother?"

             
Maurice cackles. The sound is unearthly. Vampires are an abomination to this world. I wish I'd listened to my father and never developed an obsession with these dark, demonic creatures. I may be a freak but not like them. "Oh, didn't you know? Your mother was a Healer too," Maurice's voice sounds like a slur in my head. Everything is hazy, black and white, light and sound and taste is bleeding into one dull ache. "And I killed her."

             
I'm sure I'm dead. There is nothing.

             
When I'm aware again, I’m not entirely sure I'm not dead. I can't hear anything but white noise, my body is too heavy to even twitch and I can't open my eyes. My blood is trying to regenerate and I need to keep perfectly still so my body can use all its energy to procreate more of my Healer blood. I need to be strong. If I'm still alive then I still have a chance. I won't end up dead like my mum. I won't let Maurice take another person away from my dad. He doesn't deserve this. All he does is love and care for his family but he made a mistake by falling in love with a Healer.

             
My ears are waking up now. The white noise of death is fading away and I can hear that I'm not alone. Maurice must still be here. Watching over my lifeless body making sure he gets every single last drop of my blood. I need to fight harder. He can't have all this blood. He can't be allowed to roam the streets during the days, killing innocent people, no longer a need for recruits. He'll be too strong.

             
"Let her go, Maurice, you have enough," a voice is heard, sounds like a radio finally picking up signal after driving through a tunnel buried deep underground. It feels like a breath of fresh air after drowning for hours. It's Gabe. He didn't leave. Of course he didn't. He promised he would save me. I know he will die trying and suddenly I want him to run again. It is enough to hear his voice in my dying hour now I just want him to be safe.

             
"There is no such thing as enough, Gabriel. Lucinda wasn't enough," Lucinda - my mother? "Claire certainly wasn't enough after our little altercation and even if I drain Cassie of every last drop, it still won’t be enough. It never lasts long enough. Never enough.”

             
"So why can't you just let her live? Find the next Healer, find the one after that, just let her go. She's given you all she's got," Gabe begs. With every word from his mouth my senses are heightened. He is waking me up.

             
"She knows too much now anyway. She'll run back to daddy then to the police and isn't that just a pain ?"

             
"Erase their memories, you know enough witches. You did it with Claire."

             
My eyes slowly break open. It's murky but even the dim light is sore on my sensitive eyes. I see Gabe, he's bleeding, Maurice must have hurt him when I was unconscious. I close my eyes again trying to remember Gabe how I want to. His black hair slicked back, sober and clean, the Parisian sun shining down on him, smiling into the horizon. His life was so filled with darkness, I just want to die thinking about him how he should be. Happy.

             
"Now aren't you being greedy, Gabriel? First young Claire and now this? You can't go falling for all of my Healers and won’t it be sad to erase Cassie’s memory and leave you loveless once more?” he laughs. Maurice speaks so nonchalantly like human life is something to waste. Our families and futures are nothing worth considering to him. I squeeze my eyes. I don't know whether it's the blood loss or the thought that I let Maurice touch me and take my virginity that is making me feel unbearably sick. "Or I'll just have to kill you."

             
"Why don't you?" Gabe asks. “You’re killing her, kill me too."

             
"I'm not a bad guy," Maurice's laugh makes me wish I was unconscious again, so shrill. "We made a deal. I gave Claire her life, took away all those nasty memories and in exchange you helped me find the next Healer and now you are free. It seems… callous of me to kill you. What a horrible ending."

             
"I want to die," Gabe spits. "You're killing Cassie. You took Claire away from me. You have taken them both, rid them of their innocence, made them feel things they shouldn’t and you killed me the day we made that deal. I have no life anymore. I want to die."

             
"Precisely why I shouldn't kill you," Maurice retorts. I manage to open my eyes again. Maurice has his tight fist wrapped around Gabe's shoulder. Gabe looks exhausted, his body is giving up, he's not as strong as me - physically. I want to reach out to him and give him my blood. I'm a Healer. If I can't save him then living, dying, with my condition will have meant nothing. "My punishment to you can be living forever with your guilt."

             
"I won't live forever. If you set me free, I'll kill myself," Gabe growls. I hold back a cry. Gabe committing suicide. He couldn't. He could fight past this. I want him to brave. If I die, I want to know he will live. I want to scream. Tell him to run and run as fast as he can. I know it will do more harm than good.

             
"Suicide might be hard if you're immortal," in a flash, Maurice has torn his own wrist open with his fangs. Black blood falls like a waterfall and he shoves his arm into Gabe's mouth.

             
I can't hold back anymore. I scream. I rattle my fists beneath the shackles that bind me. Gabe's eyes reach to me. He is trying not to drink the blood but he'll start choking soon. His eyes are pleading with me. "I love you," I start to cry. He has to know I love him.

             
I watch intently. Gabe gulps, swallowing Maurice's blood which I am certain will turn him into a vampire. There are tears flowing from Gabe's eyes as he stares at me. I know he is telling me he's sorry. Telling me that he loves me back. "Stop it," I cry.

             
Maurice turns to look at me with a crazed look in his pale eyes. The damage is done, Gabe is gone now. The blood will be running through him now and he will become one of them. A monster. I sob.

             
Maurice turns to me, “You're supposed to be dead.” He picks up a long metal skewer and jabs my jugular vein. Any blood I had managed to recreate will be gone soon. It won't take long before everything is gone and I'm just a shell.