Her Yearning for Blood (4 page)

“I can’t stay here till then,”
I protested
. “Rachel and I are taking the bus to the mall on Sunday.”

“There’s always next week,” Evan suggested.

“Stephen King won’t be signing books at Books-A-Million next week.”

A loud crash came from
a
nother
room
. People were yelling.
Evan snatched the phone back.

“I’m sorry but you won’t be
seeing
Stephen King
Sunday
.”

I
opened
my
mouth to argue but Evan had already left the room
, slamming the
door
behind him. I heard the
ominous sound of a lock
snapping
in place.

What had I
gotten myself into
?

4

Thomas sat at the huge mahogany desk and stared out the large window beside him.
An ultraviolet coating on the
glass made it possible
for him
to look out at the sunlit grounds of the meticulously manicured estate, a property that had been in the clan’s possession since colonial times. One of the human gardeners swirled around a tree with a state-of-the art
riding lawn
mower
.
Apparently u
naware
of the
hundred
brutal
souls
inside
who would
like
nothing
so much as t
o drain the life from his healthy young flesh
, the young man sang and bobbed his head to music
that
pour
ed
from a pair of ear buds. Thomas could easily have dissected the music from the small engine clatter to identify the melody, but his
thoughts were
elsewhere.

His eyes flicked
to the tear-off calendar on the right corner of the desk. Most members of the clan kept some version of
a death calendar
, a stark reminder of the price one paid for exposure to the vampire virus. The last page of Belinda’s calendar sat there like an enemy flag to remind him that even the strongest among them couldn’t outrun the tragedy of their condition. Belinda had
so far
beaten the odds by almost two weeks, but ultimately she too would fall prey to mindlessness and rage.

Thomas tapped her calendar page and stared at the blood red numerals: 1825.

1825
days,
five years
, usually
to the day, that was the lifespan of a vampire
’s mind
.

He leaned back in Belinda’s—now his—deep leather chair and smiled grimly. The irony was not lost on him. The clans were easily the most powerful force on the planet, bar none. Money, power, stealth, the clans had it all. Even individual vampires were physically stronger and often more mentally acute than the humans from whom they were spawned, but nature had issued one irrefutable, terri
fying
decree: the genetic mutations that gave them so much superiority would ultimately burn like a torch inside their
skulls
until nothing remained, nothing but hunger and rage.

“Zombies,” Caroline said as she stepped into his office, “I’m so sick of seeing them advertised on TV and in the movies. Have you heard of that show “The Walking Dead”? Makes me feel like flying out to California or wherever
the hell
it is that
they
film that disgusting mess
—”

“What have we heard fro
m the team in Maine?” Thomas asked
. He had no time for pop culture
n
or
novice
vampire
s
who
actually still cared
about
anything humans said or did. It wouldn’t be long before the
dwindling of her short lifespan
would burn away
all
interest in anything but survival, but for now
s
he
had to be i
gnore
d
. The short,
previously plump but
rapidly thinning
,
redhead was at least efficient in her duties.

“Carlson called in,” the young woman said. “He and the others are spending the rest of the day in a motel in Portland. They’ll be in the
Town of G
roacherville early tonight.”

“Keep me posted,” Thomas said, turning his chair to face out the window again.

“There’s one more thing, sir.”

Curious, Thomas glanced back at her.

“Our people caught two Vermont clansmen. Carlson wants to know what to do with them.”

“
The bitch
must know about the rogue,” Thomas s
pat
,
placing his hands on the cool wood of his desk. He was, of course, referring to the impetuous Vermont clan queen Claudia. His claws extended but his iron will
kept
them from scratching the
desk’s
perfect glossy finish.

“The Vermont people are under control?”
he asked.

“
’
Captured
’
is the term Carlson used.”

“Tell them to feed on
v
ampire blood today…but carefully. And leave no evidence.”

“I’ll convey the message,” she said. She turned to leave but then paused. “I’m not really sure how all of this works,
sir,
but if I
wanted
to fly to California or wherever they’re filming
that ridiculous show
…do I get vacations?”

It would have been easy to snatch a pencil from his desk and
hurl it through her chest
but Thomas merely waved her away.
If necessary, h
e would have
her tr
ansfer
red
t
o
c
orpse c
leaning
dut
ies
fo
r a few months.
However, i
f she wasn’t better after that….

5

Hearing
a girl scream,
I
gritted
my
teeth and slid to the edge of
t
he bed.
Though my knee miraculously didn’t hurt
anymore
, i
t felt as though several layers of
my
skin
were
being
peeled away.
I fought back tears and wondered
why
my
gums
and fingernails also
ached.

“You can do this,”
I
told
my
self as
I
eased to
my
feet.
The pain was like a living creature
clinging to every pore of my body.  The ants had done their job well.
The clamor of voices beyond my room gr
e
w louder.
Though my knee
easily
supported me, there was so much other pain it was hard to focus.
I gasped and my vision blurred.

Something was wrong.

I touched raw fingers to the wall and willed myself to stay
upright
.
I
w
ould
not
allow myself to faint. Taking a
ragged breath
, I
shuffl
ed
toward the door.
Boys were
yell
ing
now
but I could no longer hear the girl.

Who was she?

“
I’ll lock you in the basement if I have to,”
came
Evan
’s voice
from what sounded like
quite a ways away.

Moving
slower than
a rusted robot,
I
crept toward
the door.
I had
never
felt such
agony.
The ants must have bitten every inch of my body. The skin on my arms
, stomach
and legs
was puffy with masses of red welts
.
I couldn’t see any evidence that Evan’s aunt had applied any cream or ointment, though that probably shouldn’t have surprised me
.
Judging by the lock on my door, i
t seemed obvious that I wasn’t really a patient
. From the sounds of the
commotion
out there
,
it didn’t seem that any of
us were.

I took two more steps and sucked in a breath each time. I
now knew what a lobster
in a pot
fel
t
like.
It took all my willpower not to scream.

“Get that witch away from me
!
” a boy bellowed.

“Can’t you all just shut up,” a girl screamed. “Just shut up!”

At least she was alive, whoever she was.

“Erica, you should go back to bed,” Evan said
.
“My aunt will
be
back in after—”

“I can speak for myself, Nephew,”
came
his aunt’s
high-pitched
voice
.
“
Young lady,
either you get back in that room or I’m going to give you something that will make you sick to your stomach for a week.”

I
paused, both to rest
my pain-wracked body and to put my
thoughts together.
I didn’t know any
Erica
.
I
also didn’t
remember seeing
any new girls
at the military base
,
but there had been a lot of kids there.

I
inched
forward again only to see the knob turning.
S
topp
ing
,
imagining
the pain of the door striking
my
raw skin
,
I
said, “Evan?”

“What are you doing out of bed?” Evan’s aunt
asked
has she pushed into the room
.
The rush of air from the door made me wince.
“Don’t worry. That will all be healed up in a few hours.”

I didn’t believe her. Not even a little.

“Maybe someone should just bring me home,”
I
s
uggested
.

“Might as well drive a wooden stake through your heart right now,” Mrs. Groacher said. She wasn’t smiling. “Now back up and get into bed. You’re not going anyplace, not until Sunday.”

Fearing the stern woman would grab at
my
raw arms,
I
did as told. The trip back to bed was quicker and, if possible, more painful.
I
eased
my
self down to a prone position and sighed as
stinging ne
rve endings
settled down. Exhausted,
I
could still hear
the
boys yelling in the background.
A series of thumps and slaps seemed to silence them.

Nurse Groacher leaned over
me. A vision of
Kathy Bates’ character from Misery, the
Stephen King
movie
,
came to mind
.
I
had a fleeting vision of a board being
propped
between
my
ankles as the woman smashed a
sledge
hammer against
my
feet.
I
knew
I
had to get out of th
is
place but
my body had done all it could do.
Already
my
eyelids were growing heavy.
I
ran
my
tongue across the inside of sore gums and
was glad I couldn’t remember
fire ants
crawling inside my mouth.

Nurse Groacher said, “I’ll be back in a couple of hours with….”

I
didn’t hear
anything else
because blessed unconsciousness
took me
.