Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (18 page)

“These are all signs of the primary
stage of your evolution. Soon, you will sleep only during daylight, no longer
eat, and will become a slave to a thirst far beyond your comprehension. After
the transition is complete, you will require human blood as your only
sustenance.”

Kate regarded him in wide-eyed horror.
Not over being told she was a vampire. No, that was crazy talk. Horror filled
her. She’d dived in head first with a mad man. Despite her thoughts, she
remained true to her word and bit her tongue.

            “You
were born to the house of Cacciatori---”

            Okay,
she couldn’t resist that one. “Like the chicken?”

            “Yes.
No. Well, sort of. Cacciatori is the Italian word for hunter. The Cacciatori
line is the original and only natural family of vampires. Vampire royalty, if
you will. The members of the Cacciatori family are born with a mutation in
their genetic make-up that manifests as they reach maturity. They are not the
undead monsters of fiction, but humans turned predators by an ancient deal with
the devil.”

            Kate
shuddered at his words. She wasn’t so sure his distinction made the idea of vampirism
any more palatable. Or believable, for that matter.

“Evidence of your heritage marks your
body.  The triangular birthmark next to your right hip bone has marked every
Cacciatori child ever born. It marks you for what you are.” He hesitated and
pulled down a portion of his waistband to reveal his left hip.

Kate’s eyes flew to the exposed skin,
zeroing in on the small triangle of pigmentation, fractionally darker than his
deep olive skin. How had she not noticed it before? Oh, that’s right. She’d been
too caught up in the big, beautiful naked man to notice a faint mark in the
shadow of his hip bone. But she saw it now, clear as day, a penny-sized
triangle, much like her own, only inverted and proximal to his left hip instead
of right.

 “And mine marks me for what I am. A
werewolf, Kate. We are the genetically mutated reciprocal of your kind. Your
natural enemy. Our families are the immortals and we have been fighting each
other for thousands of years.

 “Falling for you has been the ultimate
betrayal to my family and my kind.” The corner of his mouth tipped into a sad
smile. “But I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Kate had stopped listening around the
time he said werewolf. Was he insane? She’s a vampire? He’s a werewolf? How
could he possibly expect her to believe that? She’d never believed in anything
supernatural in her entire life. Now, he wanted her to buy that she was
descended from an ancient bloodline of royal vampires? Yeah, right. She’d
sooner grow a mermaid tail and discover Atlantis.

She knew he believed it. It was written
all over his face. But could she? The coordinating birthmarks were pretty
remarkable, but people were born with birthmarks all the time. Coincidence,
that’s all.

Every rational cell in her brain
rejected his words. Who in their right mind believed in vampires, let alone
wanted to be one? Yet her stupid heart, wanted to believe him. No matter what
he said or did, she loved him and didn’t want to accept that he was nuttier
than a jar of peanut butter.

Her heart broke as she weighed her
realities. Option ‘A,’ the man she loved was a raving lunatic who needed to be
locked away in a padded room for a really, really long time. Option ‘B,’ this
was some kind of cruel joke and the cameramen were going to jump out laughing. Any
minute now… Option ‘C,’ which she actually considered Option ‘Z,’ he was
telling the truth and she was about to become a bloodsucking parasite. That
about summed it up. Not a whole lot of appealing options there.

Regardless of how she spun it, he was
still a liar.  Everything between them had been built on a foundation of lies.

“I have to go,” Kate whispered,
scrambling from the couch. Dominic followed her across the room in silence. She
tugged her jeans on beneath his white button down dress shirt and searched for
her shoes.

“Kate, please don’t do this.” Dominic
reached up to touch her face, but she recoiled. Kate couldn’t let him touch
her. Not now.

 His face fell as he dropped his hand.
“You’re killing me, Kate.”

“That would be impossible. You’re
‘immortal,’ remember?” She snapped at him, sarcasm her only defense against the
pain. Flitting around the apartment, she gathered her stuff as though the place
were about to go down in flames.

“We can still die, we’re just a lot
harder to kill.” He laid a hand on her shoulder and tried to turn her to face
him. “You’re doing a pretty good job of it though.”

Kate shrugged his hand away with a
snarl. “You’ll get over it. You’ve known me what, a month? What’s that in
immortal time? Like ten seconds?”

“Enough.” Though spoken softly, the word
had an edge to rival any blade for sharpness. This time he caught both her
shoulders in his hands, forcing her to face him.

“You love me? Damn it, Kate, prove it.
Stay with me. Trust me. Believe in me. I promise, I’ll never lie to you again.”

Angry tears stung her eyes as her
defenses crumbled. “Please,” she begged. “I need to think and I can’t do it
here with you.”

She jerked out of his hold. Without a
backward glance she made a beeline for the door. As she stepped into the hall,
the sound of her name stopped her in her tracks.

“Kate?”

She whipped around at the raw pain in Dominic’s
voice.

“Yes?”

 “I love you, always remember that. I’ll
wait for you,
cara
, no matter how long it takes. I’ll be here. Come to
me when you’re ready.”

Yeah, when Hell freezes over… or when
she turned into a vampire.

 Avoiding the pained intensity of his
gaze, Kate turned away from the velvet caress of his words. Shutting the door
behind her, she walked away as the last of her resolve crumbled. She needed to
get away from his lies. Away from the biggest mistake of her life.

Tears streaked down her face as she rode
the elevator down to the foyer of his building. Stepping out into the sunlight,
Kate hailed a cab to take her home. She felt hollow, the raw emptiness of loss
tearing a gaping hole in her chest.

Chapter
15

Dressed in her favorite pair of comfy
Christmas print pajama pants and a ratty t-shirt that read ‘Nurses call the
shots,’ Kate planted herself on the couch, with no intention of ever rising again.
Wrapping up in the protective cocoon of an old quilt made by Grandma Murdock, she
hid from the pain of reality with a tub of her favorite Ben and Jerry’s ice
cream.

Kate thanked the Lord above for the two
dependable men in her life, the men who faithfully provided her with Half Baked
ice cream when she needed it most. They would never let her down. They would
never tell her crazy stories about vampires and werewolves. She shoveled a
heaping spoonful of sugary frozen deliciousness into her mouth.

The sound of a key turning in the lock drew
Kate’s attention to the door, through which she could hear Lindsey’s cheerful
whistle. Kate groaned. She was so not up for this.

Lindsey energetically burst through the
door, words rushing from her mouth as soon as it was open. “Hey Kate! Did he
ask you?” Throwing down her bags as she proceeded into the room, Lindsey turned
to look at Kate. Her shrewd blue eyes narrowed in assessment, taking in pajamas
and ice cream.

“Oh, no,” Lindsey groaned. “What
happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kate
muttered, picking up the end of her quilted shroud and stumbling down the hall
to her bedroom, ice cream in hand. Her escape attempt was futile, for Lindsey
was never put off so easily. The pigheaded blonde followed Kate into her
bedroom. Kate crashed onto the bed and pulled the quilt up over her head.

            “Come
on, Kate. Tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help.” Optimism was Lindsey’s
specialty, especially when Kate had resigned herself to a huddled lump of
ragged pajamas, tears and ice cream.           

Pulling down the blanket to peek at her
persistent roommate, Kate grumbled, “I told you I didn’t want to talk about
it.” She crossed her arms over her chest and set her face in her best stubborn,
‘I’m so not going there’ scowl. Deep down, she knew nothing could stop the
irrepressible force that was Lindsey.

            “Kate,
enough of the dramatics. I admire your tenacity and all, but you know if this
turns into a stubborn contest, I will win. So, just get it over with and tell
me already.”

Lindsey folded her legs beneath her to
sit cross legged on the floor across from Kate’s bed. Kate leveled an irritated
glare at her, but Lindsey beamed right back.

            “You
really want to know, Linz? Okay, here it is. I’m the biggest frickin’ idiot in
the world. I’m a loser magnet of the worst kind. I finally fall for ‘Mr.
Right,’ only to find out he’s also Mr. Psychotic and ‘Mr. Big Fat Liar—”

            “Back
up,” Lindsey interrupted, shaking her head in confusion. “What the hell did he
do?”

Embarrassed to repeat what he’d told her,
Kate flushed. It sounded even crazier when said out loud.

            “He
says I’m a vampire and he’s a werewolf.”

            Lindsey’s
eyebrows shot up.

“Interesting. Is this some kind of kinky
role playing game you two have going on? If so, please, do tell.”

Kate opened her mouth to protest and
Lindsey rolled her eyes.

“Kate, I’m kidding, chill,” she said. “Okay,
so he’s a little crazy. Did he have reasons for thinking these things?”

            “A
little crazy? That’s the understatement of the century. He explained it all as
though my family was the answer. He said a recessive trait causes a genetic
mutation as we reach maturity. He thinks I’m already changing,” Kate said.

            “The
Murdocks? Vampires?” Lindsey’s face proclaimed it the most ridiculous thought
ever. Which it was. Kate’s family was as wholesome and All-American as could be.

            “No
my other family,” Kate sighed. “The ones I thought were all dead. He claims he knows
them and there’s this big war between my family and his.”

            “Do
you believe him?”

            “Linz,”
Kate groaned. Maybe crazy was in the water.

            “No,
I’m serious. Crazier things have happened before. Okay, maybe not crazier than
you being a vampire, caught up in the middle of a war with werewolves. But doesn’t
at least a tiny part of you wonder if it’s true?”

            “Great.
You think I’m a vampire too. Now everyone’s crazy,” Kate muttered. “Stay over
there, it might be contagious.”

            “That’s
not what I meant. All I’m saying is that I thought you really loved this guy.”

            “Of
course I do. Or did. Or, I don’t know… What’s that got to do with anything?”
Kate didn’t like where this was going.

            “I
think some things are worth fighting for,” Lindsey shrugged.  “I for one
wouldn’t want to cut him out of my life without finding out the facts for
myself.”

            “Linz,
he thinks he’s a werewolf. He thinks I am a vampire. What part of bat-shit crazy
don’t you get?”

The small part of her that wanted to
believe him was developing a whole cheerleading section in her head. The crowd
full of angry Dominic fans was wild over the idea of an important ally on the
outside.

            “Hear
me out,” Lindsey backpedalled. “I’m not saying he hasn’t completely lost it,
but what if he’s telling the truth? I know it’s really out there, but if you
love him, you need to find out the truth before you push him away.

“I know you. You don’t fall easily, but
you’ve fallen so hard for this guy. Hell Kate, you’ve never done anything
remotely impulsive in your life. Yet, you agreed to marry the guy after you’d
known him for what, five minutes? He’s something special.

“It can’t be as bad as it seems. Find
out. If he is a psychopath, you never have to see him again. But at least you’ll
know. Just think about it, Kate.”

Her words made Kate wonder if Dominic
had hired Lindsey to do a little post-crazy PR. Her friend seemed awfully level
headed about the whole vampire thing. It pissed her off. Not so much because Lindsey
had sided with the possibility of an alternate reality, but because she’d given
Kate hope. She didn’t want to be a vampire, but she didn’twant to lose the love
of her life either. Part of her was grateful to Lindsey for being the voice of
non-reason

            “So,
what do I do now, Miss Glass is Half Full?” Kate asked caustically.

            “Dominic
said you were changing, right?” Lindsey waited for Kate to nod. “Then we wait
to see if you change.” Lindsey paused again, a Cheshire cat grin spreading from
ear to ear. “Only I’ll be locking my door at night. You know, so you don’t suck
my blood while I’m sleeping,” she said, clutching her throat in mock horror.

With a reluctant grin, Kate swatted her
shoulder. Lindsey always had a way of dragging her kicking and screaming out of
her doldrums. Lindsey rose to give Kate a quick hug.

“You’ll be okay, Kate, no matter what
happens.”

Kate found that hard to believe.

            “Thanks,
Linz. Now, will you get out of my room, already? I’d like to mope in peace. You’re
ruining my gloom with all your sunshine” Kate chucked a pillow at Lindsey,
which Lindsey dodged. “Besides, you crashed my date with Ben and Jerry.”

            “Two
men at one time? Why Kate Murdock, you really are changing. Who are you and
what have you done with my roommate?” Lindsey grinned and flitted from the
room, closing the door behind her.

A week later, Kate finally managed to
crawl out of the safety of her cocoon. A new, stronger Kate emerged. This Kate
loathed self-pity and was tired of ice cream. This Kate channeled all of her
erratic emotions into exercise, specifically running.

So there she was, at The Club, the gym
sponsored by the hospital, running from her emotions and hoping to effectively
drive herself into the ground.

Kate cranked up the volume on her iPod,
her feet pounding on the track in time with the rhythm of the music as she
picked up the pace.

Pushing harder than ever before, Kate
forced her screaming muscles to give more, hoping the physical pain could drive
away the ache in her heart. Her lungs burned with exertion as she pressed on,
beads of sweat trailing down her face to sting her bloodshot eyes. Dominic’s
ring, relegated to a chain around her neck, beat against her chest in time with
her feet.

She’d always loved the freedom of
running, the escape she normally felt when she pushed her body past its limits.
Escape was elusive today, so she drove herself even harder, working out her
frustrations through sweat and tears.

            A
hand closed on her shoulder, dragging her back to reality. Kate jerked around
to see who interrupted her therapeutic solitude. Guy ran beside her, his sweat
slicked face red with exertion. Kate tugged the ear buds out of her ears.

            “Are
you trying to kill yourself?” Guy panted, slowing his pace to a brisk jog,
knowing she would considerately do the same. “Good thing you know CPR, because
I might arrest after trying to catch up with you,” he gasped, sucking wind
hard. “If you wanted a little mouth to mouth action, all you had to do was ask.
Do you have a death wish or something?”

            Kate
bit her lip. “Maybe.”

            “Ah
come on, Katie girl, it can’t be that bad.”

            “Trust
me, Guy, it is. Leave it alone,” she told him, wishing he would let her be.
Good intentioned friends were great and all, but she wasn’t about to break down
and cry in the middle of the gym. She had her pride, at least the tattered
remnants of it. Besides, she hadn’t cried in, she peeked at her watch, two
hours, forty two minutes and fifteen seconds. That was a record.

            “What
did that sexy piece of man candy do?” Guy asked.

Thus the problem with having a gay guy
friend. He was too damn insightful. It’s like he understood the male and female
side of every situation, and exploited that understanding to probe for
information.

            “Leave
it, Guy.”

            “Come
on, Katie-did. Talk to me,” he pleaded.

            “He’s
gone. Now, leave it.”

            “You
can’t keep going like this, Kate. It’s not healthy.”

            “Hey
I’m here aren’t I? I could be curled up in the fetal position with a frickin’
jumbo tub of ice cream, listening to sappy love songs and bawling my eyes out.
Believe me, Guy, that idea has its merits. I even showered today, which is a
big step up from last week. So, what are you complaining about?”

            He
swiped the sweat from his forehead. “You look like hell. When’s the last time
you slept?”

            “I
don’t know. Two, maybe three days ago? Insomnia, it’s the curse of the night
shift worker.”

            “You
haven’t shown up to work in a week,” Guy argued.

            “So,
I’ll see a sleep therapist or get a doctor to prescribe me some sleeping pills.
Feel better?”

“Not really. When did you eat last?”

            Hmm,
good question. “I, uh… um, think I had an apple… um sometime… yesterday?”

            “Exactly.”

            “Food
nauseates me,” Kate said, stopping their jog in the middle of the track to turn
and face him with her arms crossed over her chest.

            “Are
you pregnant?”

            Kate
gasped and swatted his arm, probably a little harder than she’d intended. Wait.
Was she? She was on birth control anyway to regulate her periods, but they hadn’t
used protection. That was an avenue she wasn’t ready to go down.