Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series) (25 page)

“Finish it, my love,” she whispered as her eyes grew heavy.

“I will not end your life!”

It occurred to me that I didn’t know how to accomplish what Pandora commanded.

“Kill her, Aleron! It’s the only way for you to give her life!”

I knew what she meant and what I must do. In that moment it made sense to me. I began drinking again. Eliza’s eyes rolled back into her head. Her hands no longer gripped my neck. Her mouth lost all its luster and color. Her heartbeat became faint. I brought her to the brink of death. Now I must give her life. My blood! My soul! She must have it all.

Instinctually, I tore open my wrist and placed the blood-filled wound
on her open mouth. The blood dripped onto her tongue. Only a few moments passed before she began to suckle. With my blood flowing into her, her eyes opened again, her body reanimated with a single purpose—to drink more blood.

She clutched my forearm with both hands and gripped tighter than a vise. Something strange began to happen to me. I began to feel weak. This feeling was unlike any felt before. My fingertips began to tingle. My legs began to shake. My arms grew numb, and my eyes desperately wanted to close. I felt Eliza’s pull on my soul. It became an unbearable and delicate balance between life and death. Immortal death!

Give her more, Aleron. The more you give, the stronger she’ll be
. Pandora’s thoughts filled my head.

I felt paralysis taking me. It was as though the sun were rising, even though dusk was hours away. Eliza’s entire body held onto mine, restricting my movements. We became a symbiotic pair. She was getting stronger; I was getting weaker. The memory of the darkness overtaking me in the water rushed back into my head. The feeling was similar in the sense of hopelessness and mortality. I broke free of Eliza’s hold and tried to stand. Having failed at my attempt of rising, I stumbled like a drunken fool onto the foot of the bed, where I settled and, in a daze, watched what happened next.

Time stood still. Everything around us was frozen. Only Eliza and I were present. Sound was lost. Eliza’s body began to contort unnaturally. She began to scream and shake uncontrollably. It was as if she were screaming inside my head, thunderously loud.

She stood and stumbled backward, breaking the small wooden table behind her. The glass of red wine that sat atop the table fell and broke against the floor, sending tiny shards of glass in every direction in slow motion. She continued to act as if her body was aflame, tossing and turning violently. Again she tried to stand, and again she was defeated. With her back against the wall, she used her legs to propel herself upward, her body possessed by some demonic spirit, desperately trying to awaken itself. Using the wall for balance, she tried to walk to me. I was much too weak to move. Her legs gave way, and she fell. Her head landed next to my knee. While she looked directly into my eyes, her screams ceased
and became a cry, followed by a whimper. Her eyes begged me to help her, to somehow ease her pain.

I remembered the first time I consciously felt Mynea’s blood within me, like acid. I was helpless to Eliza’s cries. I could only watch, for I was also entangled between pain and pleasure.

Her body movements came to an end. Her eyes became a lifeless reminder of what was once mortal beauty. Now a gorgon. And in that moment, she died. I could almost see her soul escaping her breath. She was no more.

Pandora reentered the room. She looked at Eliza’s body on the floor.

“Gruesome, isn’t it, my dear?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Is she dead? Did I kill her?”

She looked at me with a smirk and uttered, “Watch.”

I heard a noise from Eliza and turned to look at her once more. Waste began to escape her body. Her bowels were releasing onto the floor. I noticed urine had silently preceded this event. Moments later she took a breath, and life filled her lungs. Eyes still closed, her breathing began sporadically. I couldn’t liken the rhythm to that of a mortal or immortal. Every few minutes her breast would rise and fall. She would continue in this manner for hours.

Pandora came to me and pressed my head to her breast. “Drink to regain your strength, Aleron. The sun is awakening, and you must take her to the bottom floor out of its harmful effects.”

I did as she commanded. Pandora stayed behind and cleaned up Eliza’s defecation.

I entered a stairway that led to a level deep within the bowels of the home. It was eerily similar to my cradle in Mynea’s castle. We would be safe here, for no sunlight would ever find its way in. I laid Eliza on the stone floor and then struggled, in my almost paralyzed state, to get to the other side of the room, where I immediately lost consciousness.

CHAPTER 21

awoke just before dusk. I’d been waking earlier and earlier, with little to no effect from the remaining sunlight apart from a slight burning sensation that eventually became tolerable. I could taste Pandora’s dried blood around my lips. The steady and unpredictable breathing of Eliza filled my mind, the stench of rotting flesh close by—her rotting flesh. My eyes focused on her. She was still lying in the very spot I had chosen. I recovered from the previous night, snapped to my feet, and walked over to inspect. She was still in a deep sleep.

Candles throughout the room were instantly lit, cued by my mind. The chamber was similar in luxury to Mynea’s room in Cairo. The furnishings were so ornate as to have a life of their own. I saw deep, rich cherry wood that had been carved by a skilled sculptor in the style of Michelangelo. The portraits on the walls resembled Pandora, yet they were slightly different, and I wondered if they were portraits of her from when she was a mortal woman. The scene painted onto the ceiling was
a bold parody of the Sistine Chapel, depicting, instead of the history of creation, two vampires reaching toward one another, separated by a winged angel with blood dripping from its feathers.

The furniture resembled the mental image I conjured when Pandora described how Mynea’s bedroom had looked before her transformation. There were no windows in the room, but there was a second door, which was much smaller than the door we entered. This door was fit for a dwarf. Made of iron, it had hundreds of rivets displayed in a perfectly symmetrical matrix. There was a tiny opening for a key, which was large in proportion to the door. I turned my attention back to Eliza.

Though her shadow was full of life, thanks to the flickering candles, she didn’t move. I knelt beside her and took her hand into mine. It was incredibly warm. I placed my hand on her forehead. It was an inferno. Every once in a while she would twitch and gasp, though her eyes remained tightly shut. Her mouth would open sporadically, the muscles in her jaw very pronounced as if to scream. However, no sound escaped her lips. The contrast of my bone-numbing coldness caused her to twitch even more as I ran my hands over her skin.

Eliza resembled herself except for the distinct skin blemishes characteristic of the dying or the dead. Her veins protruded beneath the skin, her lips cracked and dry. Death was at her door. Life eternal awaited on the other side.

“She’s between life, death, and everlasting life,” Pandora said as she appeared behind me. “Her body is dying, Aleron. It’s the same process you went through. The same we all went through. You’ve started the process, but your work is not complete.”

With my eyes still affixed on Eliza, I replied, “What else must I do?”

“If you leave her now she’ll become vampire, but she won’t be strong. She’ll be easily defeated by other vampires, though no man will be a match. More blood is necessary to make her a powerful protector. You must do this now, while her body is still warm with what life is left. This is when our blood leaves its most powerful mark.”

Again I punctured my lower arm and placed it over Eliza’s gaping mouth. Like a reflex, her jaws closed tightly around my open wound. Her eyes remained closed, yet her pupils frolicked beneath the lids. I
could feel tiny fangs biting harder and deeper into my arm. The pain was deliciously welcomed. Though I hadn’t yet fed, I wanted to give almost every drop of my blood to Eliza. And as her thirst grew stronger, I grew weaker. Pandora stepped toward us and told me that was enough. It was difficult for me to release myself from Eliza’s hold. Nevertheless, I managed to.

I fell back like a drunken vagabond as I tried to stand. Pandora made no attempt to catch me, though her eyes were fastened on my every movement. She was enjoying this. I felt excruciating pain and discomfort immediately following my collapse. My muscles were tense, my mouth was dry, and extreme hunger burned inside. Pandora finally came to me and again shared her blood. I felt strong enough to stand, but I was not yet my usually powerful self.

“Let us go into the night, Aleron. We need to feed.”

We left to nourish our souls with that of a few unfortunate mortals. Driven by our ferocious appetite, magnified a hundred times by feeding Eliza, we devoured victims with ease. So many fell to our powerful and persuasive minds, I scarcely remember the number. Pandora’s hunger was immense! She seemed to revel in the blood. Carelessly, she would pull her victims apart and allow the blood to purposely miss her mouth and drip down her face and chin, onto her sheer lavender gown. “It doesn’t matter whether someone sees me,” she said. “They would never live to tell a soul.”

The males were as drawn to her beauty as the women were to mine. Though men weren’t my preference, their blood offered more strength. Regardless the gender, the nectar was consistently sweet.

Our hunger satiated, we retreated to the shadows to talk. “Your work is done, my love. Eliza simply needs time. Time for her body to discard what it doesn’t need and to strengthen what it does. When she wakes, she’ll be a beautifully powerful specimen. You’ll be proud.”

“Why do I feel regret? Why do I feel I’ve condemned her to a life not meant for her? Eliza was good, and I feel she’s now damned.”

“She made up her mind to serve you the first night you shared your blood with her. You gave birth to a hunger in her, the likes of which you cannot imagine, for bloodlust pales in comparison to the infatuation of
a mortal woman for a vampire man. She would go to the ends of the earth and blindly into destruction to please you. This is the quality your fledglings must have. This is why the master has always made females. The devotion is entirely different. It’s unflinching. It’s completely illogical and irrational; however, it is undeniable.”

“And what of her love and devotion for Mynea, who shared her blood with Eliza before my existence? It was Mynea who gave her an unnaturally long life, almost as frozen in time as we.”

“That’s true, but it was you she fell deeply in love with. It was you who haunted her mortal dreams and whom she longed for in your and Mynea’s absences. And now it’s also you who’s given her the gift of eternal life. Her devotion that will last an eternity. She’ll be yours for all time.”

I knew this to be true. I knew it to be true because of the love I felt and still feel for my immortal mother. I also knew that I would never love Eliza as I loved Mynea. Pandora knew this as well. However, she was right in her conclusion of Eliza’s transformation. She was right about our love affair coming to an end. Pandora was the center of my affection, yet she was only a substitute for Mynea. Often, when in Pandora’s arms, I could smell my princess. If even for a moment, my complete bliss returned and then faded into unrelenting reality.

Pandora and I returned to our estate to find Eliza still lying on the floor. Her breathing was now steady, and her open mouth revealed fangs larger than those that pierced my skin just hours before. Pandora left the room as I continued to examine my fledgling becoming.

Eliza was again lying in filth. Defecation wasn’t the culprit; it was fleshy filth this time. True to Pandora’s words and the memory of my first day as an immortal, Eliza began discarding her useless organs. The heap of organs resembled a fleshy soup. I recognized them in an instant, though it would be nearly impossible for a mortal to label them, save a doctor or the like. The liver, large and small intestines, kidneys, gallbladder, stomach, etc., were all ingredients in this soup du jour. Absent were the organs necessary to sustain life as a vampire. The stench was toxic and the rodents had already found their way in. I moved Eliza’s cooling body away from the mess and allowed the rats to dine undisturbed.
This would save me the trouble of cleaning up. And besides, rats were a delicacy of sorts. I could feed on them after they fed on her. And indeed I did.