Exsanguinate (14 page)

“Go ahead.”

“I have her,” Amicula said. “She just fed and is conscious. Where do you suggest I take her?”

“Bring her to the marina. I will have assistance for you at the lower entrance,” the voice replied.

“I need you to send the abstergers out for clean up,” Amicula continued. “It’s quite an untidy little mess she’s created, again.”

I gawked at her.

What the hell does she mean, again?

“They’ve already been mobilized. Bring her to the Resurrection.”

W
e arrived
at a yacht named the
Resurrection
not far from the docks from where I had murdered and consumed those kids. When we arrived, my clothes were stripped off me. I expected the worst. To be tied, bound and gagged. Holed up in a cargo bay with rats. Instead, what I found was a Jacuzzi tub bubble bath awaiting me. I was asked to clean up before meeting a Lord Stovall.

Pretty confused, I finally opened my mouth to gain clarification on all the details Amicula had explained on the ride over. Despite the odd circumstances, the luxurious bath was welcomed. “Okay, so let me get this straight. I was attacked by a rogue, unregistered vampire at Halloween Scream Nights. I spent one week in the hospital while you fed me a blood diet of more vampire blood. I healed as fast as I did because of the amount of vampire DNA I ingested during my attack. Plus to top it off, you’ve been watching me murder and eat people to make sure I could take care of myself?” I pursed my lips. “So, bottom line is, I either choose to stay a vampire or I am to be exterminated?”

“Well, yes. That about sums it up, Cheyenne. Great to see you’ve been paying attention. Here’s a scrubby to get under your fingernails. Oh, and you have a glob of yuck up by your ear. Be sure to get that when you wash your hair.” She handed me a wash cloth.

“How do you expect me to make this kind of decision without understanding the full ramifications?” I looked at her as any sane person would look at Cthulu. “All I want to do is go home. I still don’t believe this is even happening. I am most likely dreaming this madness and should wake up any moment with Beano at my back, or I’m in the hospital having a lousy reaction to the morphine.”

Amicula looked around the room. “This doesn’t look like the hospital to me. Cheyenne, you drove yourself home, remember?”

“Look, I appreciate cleaning me up, but I don’t have time for this. I need to get home to my father and to find my sisters. They’re missing from that night I was attacked.”

“Yes. We are well aware your sisters are missing.” Amicula made a
sit
gesture with her hand. “Scouts are in place to help you find them. I assure you, however, as tragic to your humanity as this change is, you are very much Vampyre now. You must make this decision if you want to help your sisters. Otherwise you’ll be dead. And, last time I checked, being dead isn’t exactly helpful to others.”

“How long am I going to be held here?” I settled into the soapy water and used the soft cloth against my skin. “My father is sick, and I need to take care of him.”

“Don’t worry about your dad. He’s being taken care of right now.”

“Is he all right?” I sat up abruptly, splashing water onto the tile floor. “If any of you have hurt him, I’ll –“

“Relax, wait a minute, don’t eat the last chip in the bag. He’s fine.” Amicula held up her hands. “We needed him to be safe while we talked you through this business. So rest assured – he’s doing quite well. Do you want to see?”

I sneered at her but nodded.

Amicula pulled out her smart phone and streamed a live shot of him sleeping in Dakota’s bed. “See, check the date and time. He’s been given sedative doses to help him not remember. Soon this will be settled. You’ll be assigned a pedagogue and be home to cook his supper. Albeit, a couple days later, but he won’t miss a thing. He might feel a bit confused when you get home.”

I bit my lower lip.

Amicula sat at the vanity and brushed her silken, black hair. “You see, Cheyenne, now that you know the Vampyric people exist, you need to know how to handle the lifestyle change and learn to control yourself. Right now you are endangering yourself as well as the rest of us by feeding and hunting on humans the way you are. There is a much safer way to obtain the sustenance you crave. If you continue, it’s a simple matter of time before you’re found out by the authorities. If that happened, then there would be no choice but to eliminate you. Such a waste, don’t you think? So, technically, if you want to live and find your sisters, this
is
the better way.”

I swallowed trying to contain the bile in my throat. I sat blinking at her again. It seemed as if all I did lately was sit and blink at people. My mind weighed her argument, and I tried to understand the situation.

“My choices sound like a death sentence no matter which direction I choose.” Anger grew deep inside my gut, twisting me in more knots than a sailor’s rigging. “Why did this happen to me? I don’t understand. Aren’t vampires supposed to be dead? Dr. Laren said I was alive and well. My heart is beating. I can feel my pulse right now under my thumb.” I lifted my arms up out of the water, my right index and middle fingers on my left wrist. “I’m breathing. How in the world can I be a walking corpse?”

Amicula stopped brushing her hair and refocused her eyes to my reflection in the tub. “This is the most common question I get. It was Hollywood who told you that vampires are the undead. It is true, however, but that undead business does not occur until the vampire experiences the undeniable death. The true death. If you’re lucky, that won’t happen until much later in life.”

“You’re saying I am some kind of living vampire?”

Amicula nodded. “Of course, we’re all viable until we meet the undeniable death. But until then, you can consume normal human food and drink. However, you must feed the vampire DNA coursing through your veins, or you’ll go rabid insane. You’ll find a balance in your system in a few weeks. Human food might not be the most appetizing right now, but soon you’ll start to appreciate and experience flavors as you’ve never known them before. You’ll be amazed at the delicacies of the foods you’ve been eating and never knew how fantastic they were.”

“Is that what happened to the rogue vampire who attacked me?” I sank back under the suds. “He tried to go without human blood?”

“Mmm, most likely. He probably had an attack of conscience and decided to go vegan. Now you’ve seen first-hand what that can do to you. Your body must consume human blood. Cow blood, or any other form is acceptable, but your cellular structure isn’t bovine. Cow blood won’t support your human cells. You must have the human cellular structure to support your vampyric host DNA.”

I nodded. “So, no mountain lions or antelope will do it, huh? Bears, maybe?”

Amicula actually smiled a genuine smile in her reflection. “You were one of the lucky ones in that attack, Cheyenne. We had to dispose of quite a few people who were injured by the rogue vampire. They either couldn’t accept the possibility of what had happened to them, or they didn’t get enough of the DNA to change them. A couple of the victims even begged us to kill them because they felt they were an abomination before Christ and would never be able to return to their lives.”

“What happened to them?”

“We obliged with their wishes of course.”

My jaw dropped. “Of course.”

“You, however, despite the natural tendencies for hunting humans already, are managing quite well. And there is this business of your missing sisters, isn’t there?”

“What do you know about Sheridan and Dakota?” I shot straight up out of the water. “Where are they? Are they all right? Have they been turned into vampires, too?”

Amicula lowered her palms again, motioning me to sit down and relax. “We’ll help you find them. No, we are not aware of any further changelings. You were the last one to leave the hospital.”

I grabbed the shampoo bottle and sat back down in the water.

“Truthfully, Cheyenne, no one expected you to leave because of your extensive injuries. But somehow you managed to get quite a lot of vampire DNA blood in your system. I must ask you about that sometime.”

Memories flooded back to me like a melting glacier. “You were my nurse. You know where I live. What else do you know about me? Is my life no longer private? Am I in your vampire database now?”

“First. Tonight. You need to meet Lord Stovall and understand the covenants of the local clan.” Amicula stood from the vanity and opened a cabinet. She pulled out what looked like a brandy decanter and a couple of glasses. “If you decide to remain vampyre, then you will be assigned a pedagogue to help you in your first few weeks of acclimation. All of your questions will be answered. I promise.”

Amicula opened the second cabinet door and removed what looked like a bottle of dark juice. The crack of the seal sent instant pleasure to my nose.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked as I moved in the water toward the massive tub’s edge.

Amicula turned to face me.

“Mm – hmm.” She poured the blood into the cognac and offered me the glass. “Would you enjoy a taste?”

My mouth instantly salivated and my hands shook. Meth addicts had stronger control over their bodies than I did at that moment. She held the glass close to my face. I grabbed it with wet, soapy hands and raised it up to my mouth. I hesitated.

“It’s okay. Your body will digest the cognac as long as the blood is included.” She gestured for me to drink.

Still not entirely sure I bought this whole idea, I watched Amicula drink the same concoction she had made for me.

I downed it. I smacked my lips savoring the extraordinary heat and intricate flavors of the cognac melding in my mouth. The wood casks, caramel exploded across my taste buds. Delicious. The brandy warmed all the way down and didn’t make me sick to my stomach. I held out my glass in request for a refill. Amicula smiled and obliged.

After four more shots of my new favoritest drink, I considered my options while questions poured into my brain. Shampooed, conditioned – I stood up again and rinsed off the bubbles. Amicula handed me a warmed towel as I stepped out onto a plush white rug over the Crema Marfil tile. I stole a couple seconds to take in the beauty of the boat. I’d never been inside a yacht before, let alone in a tub on one. The sleek, streamlined design of the ship’s features screamed old money. Everything beautiful in its own right. I asked the first question weighing on my mind.

“I thought vampires were all powerful, all mighty except in sunlight. If I’m truly a vampire, then how come I can go outside and not become a pile of ashes?”

Amicula chuckled. “Really now, you do watch way too many movies. That is so cliché and so
Interview with a Vampire
. Depending on your maker’s dynamics, you may be better suited with more solar resistance than others. We do manage to keep a few sunscreen companies well-funded, however. I suppose that’s why we purchased them. Oftentimes, newborn vampires require quite a bit of sunblock intervention. Obviously the rogue who attacked you must have quite an affinity for sunlight because you aren’t sensitive to it.”

“I’m still not entirely convinced this isn’t a nightmarish dream.” I thought about this for a minute. The rogue vampire who attacked me. Why me? The scaredy-cat, afraid of haunted houses, turned vampire?

A knock sounded at the door. A man’s voice said, “Dinner will be served in thirty minutes.”

“Thank you. We’ll be ready,” Amicula chimed back.

I wondered if
I
was the dinner. I towel-dried my hair. “You’re telling me I need to meet this Lord Stovall. Is he like a vampire King or something?”

Amicula laughed out loud. “Oh dear gracious, no. Far from it. But he is required to follow in the reign of the Vampyre, under Queen Civetateo. Just so you know. We call ourselves vampires, but our family name is spelled a little differently. So when you are referring to us as an entity, we are Vampyre, with a y in the spelling. The same goes for vampyric. Not sure why. The Queen’s English, I believe.”

I nodded, trying to take it all in.

Amicula opened a door from the bathroom into an en suite. She disappeared and left me to wait for a minute in front of the ornate vanity. I noticed the skin around my mouth and neck. It looked as if I had never been attacked. Not a flaw on me. Even that silly red mole up in my hairline was gone. I tentatively smiled at myself trying to unravel the insanity of the situation.

She sauntered back through the door, put the cognac away and closed the cabinets. “By the way,” she asked with a knowing gleam, “Have you had any weird dreams lately?”

“That’s an understatement. You know I have. You woke me up from those nightmares yourself while in the hospital. I lied to the hospital shrink about the dreams just so I could get out of there.”

“I thought so.”

As I relaxed in the subdued deliciousness from my drinks, the ‘reality’ of my situation sunk in.

“I’ve laid out clothes for you in the next room for you to wear this evening.”

“Thanks.” I sipped my bloodcognac.

“Amicula, are there others like me? Who survived that room?”

“Many were killed that night outright from the amount of blood he needed to consume. In essence, his cells were starving from the abstinence. Some, like you, were bitten with a large enough amount of DNA transfer. We’ve had to track all of you down to either complete the change or call out the abstergers.”

“You mean there were more humans than just me who were bitten and survived?”

“About five or so have cropped up now.”

“Is that why victims were coming up missing after they were released from the hospital?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“So it wasn’t that they were in danger, or a serial killer was after them?”

Amicula nodded. “We hope there aren’t many more to crop up. We’ve had reports around Tallahassee and as far as Jackson, Mississippi but the clans have been successful at capturing the sucklings.”

“Sucklings? Is that what you call us?” I crinkled up my eyes in question. “Exterminated - because they didn’t want to become a blood sucking monster?”

“We didn’t ever get the chance to ask them.” Amicula picked up the brush and began to pull it through my red curls. I looked puzzled at her reflection. “You see when a vampire is born, they usually cannot maintain any control over their feeding habits and are often in a fugue such as you were when I found you. After the Halloween attack, the clans banded together to find any sucklings and bring them home for care and education. A couple of the newbies lashed out at us while being captured. If the Vampyric Lady or Lord did not see that the candidate would be an appropriate fit to the clan, then he or she was slated for elimination, or simply removed from the gene pool right then and there.” After a delay, she quietly added, “Oftentimes a suckling could not survive the changes in their bodies or minds.” A sad expression washed over her. “They can’t deal with it. Whether they wish to die or not, all too often, it is by their own hand which forces the decision.”