Blood Reaction A Vampire Novel (17 page)

Unable to get the picture out of my mind, I could see poor Ms. McElhaney’s death playing out. Seeing her awakened in the home where she had spent sixty safe and happy years and opening her old eyes to the monster beside me as he ripped her to shreds.

“She’s with her family now, so she’s at peace. You didn’t take that from her. You can’t take that from anyone no matter how you kill them,” I noted, shoving my finger towards him while I spoke.

His laugh, sarcastic and cold, filled the room before he retorted, “You are so naïve and unlearned in my ways. I can take anyone’s peace and I have been considering doing exactly that to you. You should not tempt me to teach you a lesson just for spite.”

“We had an agreement! You promised to leave her alone,” I hissed at him, my voice shaking with fear for my daughter.

“Do you never cease to quit thinking about your daughter?” he sounded exasperated. “She will be safe. I have given my word so long as you do not betray me. I am talking about you, solely about you. I can destroy your peace in ways you have never even considered.”

“What are you talking about?” The words were barely out of my mouth when we both heard a door squeak open and then very quietly was pushed shut, the way you do when you’re late for a funeral.

I pretended not to notice and after what I had been through in the last few days, I was becoming a much better actor. But the noise had definitely brought Asa up short.

Still crouched in the defensive stance he had adopted earlier, I marveled at his ability to keep that pose for so long as he pivoted in one quick motion in the direction of the car. My reflexes were certainly not that precise yet.

Pretending to follow his lead, I turned my gaze in the direction he had indicated. Standing as still as I could, I listened to the sound of Michael climbing the fence surrounding the horse pasture. He was fairly nimble and was soon walking through the knee-high grass in an apparent move to come up on the back of the house.

Hearing each step he took, I followed his progress and expected he would make it to the back yard in about ten minutes, since he would have to walk all the way around the pond in order to approach the house from the back.

Wondering if he even knew that the large pond was there, I got my answer when I heard one of his boots get sucked down in the muck of the pond bank. Swearing lightly under his breath, he struggled for a moment before continuing on. I knew the feeling having lost a boot there myself once.

Casting a glance at Asa, I was caught off-guard as he swung me up in his arms and dashed up the stairs in the span of a second. Setting me down quietly, he gently opened a window without making a sound
.
Probably the same one he used to break into my house,
I thought irritably to
myself.

Grabbing me up again, he lightly stepped out onto the roof of the house and then climbed up to the highest peak of the house, holding me in his arms during the ascent.

Settling against the scratchy tiles of the roof, he settled me down into his lap and pointed to where Michael was making his way slowly into my new view across the pasture. Now skirting the back edge of the pond, he was turning north and heading back towards the house.

Wondering briefly if he would see us perched up on the roof, I glanced up to make sure no shaft of moonlight would bring attention to our position, but the night sky was black with the clouds of a February night. It probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway, Asa could move faster than the human eye could track.

Twisting around slightly to see Asa, I noted he was watching Michael’s progress closely, eyes dilated with perverse pleasure at the sight of the unsuspecting human.

“Don’t hurt him, Asa. He’s just doing his job. Besides, it’ll just bring unwanted visitors if you do.” My voice was pleading and that was probably not a good thing when dealing with a deadly vampire.

“I am not planning on killing him. I am only up here to observe him. Maybe play a game or two with him.” He smiled down at me, fangs wet and exposed with anticipation. Hearing Michael swear quietly again, I turned my head back in his direction as he began to scrape his boot on the grass. So much for those polished boots. Horse pastures are so unforgiving.

Finally giving up on getting his boots any cleaner, he continued on, making it to the more recently mowed grass. From there, his progress sped up as the walking became easier. Stopping as he stepped out into the back yard, it was there I finally caught his scent.

Inhaling quietly so as not to bring attention to myself, I realized I liked the way he smelled of horses and leather. And blood. Yes I could smell that too, and I liked the aroma.

Feeling Asa inhaling behind me, I didn’t have to wonder if Michael smelled as good to him. It was obvious in the slight sigh he let out between his red lips. And I realized then that I might be a threat to Michael too as I matured in my conversion.

Climbing the steps to my back deck cautiously, I watched Michael look around, clearly expecting the unexpected. But his idea and my idea of what constituted unexpected were probably as different as night and day at this point.

Watching warily from my position high above him, I saw him approach the windows. Cupping his hands around his eyes, he peered into a couple of different windows before walking over to the door and rapping sharply on the glass. Waiting a couple of minutes for me to answer, relief washed across his face when no one answered. Then with a look over his shoulder, he pulled what looked like a brush out of his pocket and then started sticking pieces of tape around the doorknob.

Realizing what he was doing, I laughed inwardly to myself at the thought of him being able to trace Asa with fingerprints. But you had to give him credit where credit was due, he was really giving this case extra effort. Although I did wonder absentmindedly if what he was doing was legal.  Shouldn’t he have done that today when he had the search warrant?

Making his way around the house, he took a few more samples before starting back to his truck, keeping close to the tree line after he made it out of the backyard. It was then I felt Asa suddenly move beneath me and at the same time clamp a hand over my mouth.

Despite landing without as much as a quiver of unbalance, the force of his landing caught Michael’s attention and he jerked his head back in our direction only to find nothing there. By this time, Asa had moved ahead into the shadows of the trees that lined my driveway, keeping us well hidden.

Turning his head slowly from side to side to scan the area, Michael pulled his gun from his holster, holding it up in front of him. One hand on the grip of the gun, and the other hand holding the butt, I could see the weapon was shaking slightly. From where we stood, I could smell a scent that was fairly new to me. Testing it a little more with my new sense of smell, it didn’t take me long to name it. Fear. Michael was afraid and his respirations had picked up, along with his racing heart .

As the detective continued to grow more and more nervous, I finally recognized it as the overwhelming sense of fear that I had experienced the first time I had felt Asa’s presence. It would get stronger and, eventually, I knew, it would overwhelm him and he would lose control of himself if Asa didn’t end it.

Continuing to back up with the gun held close to his body in front of him, he side-stepped his left foot first and then his right foot, making slow progress back to his truck. I could sense the confusion in him; the knowledge a predator was close by was apparent to his subconscious, but not to the logical part of his mind.

Seeing nothing on which his unease could be blamed, he finally turned and started to run wildly back to his truck, gun still in hand. Setting me down behind him, Asa sprinted away so quickly that I had no time to implore him to stop.

As a human, I had only been able to see a blur of movement but not what was creating it. I could now follow Asa completely with my eyes. I watched as he overtook the detective in a quick second and with what looked like barely a touch, Michael was thrown to the ground, making a complete revolution and landing on his side.

Digging his fingers into the ground to get traction, Michael pushed up, regaining his footing, only to be thrown down again, this time hitting his head when he went down, a small rivulet of blood snaking its way down his forehead where it had made contact with a rock. Appearing slightly confused and glancing furtively around to see his attacker, Michael didn’t try to get up immediately but reached for the gun that had been thrown from his grasp.

From my position against the trees, I could see the beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead. A couple had made their way down to his temple and were about to drop onto the ground below. I tried to focus on one of the beads of sweat, but it was impossible to look away from the blood. Sweet but not too sweet, I knew he wasn’t a diabetic, and the fear added a nice spice. I now understood what Asa had been talking about and as I watched, I saw Asa slide by him and run his finger through the trickle of blood on his way to a nearby tree.

And I saw red. The red on Asa’s finger as he turned towards me and, smiling, licked the lovely liquid off of his finger, swirling his tongue around it for emphasis. But I was jealous and angry at Asa because he had gotten the blood and I hadn’t and I wanted it.

Smiling at me from his position high in one of the old oak trees, I could only watch him, trying to keep my expression bland and not let on how much I wanted to run my finger through Michael’s blood too.

Asa’s touch on his forehead had pushed the poor detective over the edge and I turned back to him just as he fired his gun wildly overhead. Dropping down face first onto the ground, I hadn’t come this far just to get shot accidentally, I covered my ears as the noise of the shot was deafening. So deafening that it brought on a wave of nausea followed by a rush of anger so intense, images of killing the detective raced through my mind.

Luckily for us both, Michael had scrambled to his feet and had made it back to his truck. I listened as he jerked the door open and pulled himself into the seat, closing it quickly behind him and jamming his finger down on the lock button. Not wasting any time, he was revving the motor up before he had even gotten it in gear and I could hear the gears grinding as he pulled out of the woods on to the dirt road, clipping the edge of my fence as he went.

Laying there in the dirt, I tried in vain to bring my emotions under control before Asa noticed. Conversion was not a pretty process and the emotional instability alone was pure hell.

It’s a known fact that more violent crimes are committed when humans are more irritable, such as in heat waves or overcrowding, and right now I was the one who was irritated. The noise had been deafening and even after the sound waves of the gunshot had dissipated, every nerve in my body was still vibrating with anger and pain.

It was in that moment that Michael’s smell in combination with my own rage brought images to my mind that were appalling in every way. I could see my teeth cutting down to Michael’s pulsating arteries. His hot blood spurting up to run between my teeth and course down my throat.

I could see my hands holding him down, the blood running between my fingers, staining my fingernails as I forced him to lay still, drinking the life right out of him. I could see his eyes beginning to glaze over, and even knowing I was killing him in my night dream, I didn’t stop the images running through my mind. And I knew that if he had really been lying beside me in the dirt, I wouldn’t have stopped until I had killed him.

My body started to rise of its own accord. I could catch Michael, I was sure of it. I would have him tonight. His scent danced on my tongue and every impulse begged me to pursue him.

Starting to get up, I could see Asa in my line of vision. I knew I would have to share Michael. That image finally broke my violent train of thought. Michael’s smell was just beginning to dissipate on the breeze, which helped to clear my mind, bringing me back to a more normal state of mind.

Disgusted at what I knew I was now capable of, I lay back in the dirt wondering how I had ever come to be in the situation where I would crave another person’s blood.

As I lay there considering my fate in this life, Asa nearly flew over to me, laughing as he landed beside me in the dirt. “That was fantastic, Annalice. Conjuring up that kind of terror in your lesser species never gets old. Could you see the look on his face from over here?”

“My lesser species? Your arrogance is impressive. Lesser because we lack your strength and speed, or lesser because we lack your need to kill? I think, Asa,” I paused, turning to lie on my belly and look at him, “that you might be the lesser species. Yeah, you’re stronger, faster, and prettier, but your self-control is lacking. And how about that death by sunlight thing? Tell me, Asa, does that make you superior to us?”

Flipping over onto his belly in one rapid movement to join me in deep conversation, the smile on his face was wholly sadistic, but still undeniably breathtaking.

“My superiority is unquestionable. The mere fact I will never die is proof enough. Your species can die from most anything and yet the only thing that can touch me is the sun. And as for my lack of self-control, your species has nothing comparable to mine. Humans can barely resist a Twinkie and yet I have managed to keep you alive for nearly an entire week despite my insatiable thirst for blood. And you speak of self-control. It is laughable when I look around at this entire culture. Let me just say that America has not improved over the last one hundred and fifty years.”