Indulgence (227 page)

Any breath left in my lungs now escaped through my parted
lips. I knew this was what he was trying to tell me and I thought I needed to
hear it. But hearing that ultimatum, if it could be called that, was a shock to
my system.

“Wait, you need my consent?” I asked. “Couldn’t you just
transform me whenever you wanted?”

“No Allison, it’s a rule. Consent is needed from the person
being transformed and it’s a rule that can’t be broken without severe
consequences.”

My head hurt with all of this information. “Great, so my
choices are death or eternal damnation?”

“Immortality isn’t all that bad,” Vincent responded.

“No, just gotta get use to drinking blood and killing
humans, eh?” I snickered.

“Our cuisine isn’t as bad as it appears. Your instincts take
over and you barely taste a thing. Yes, you have to kill the occasional mortal,
but we have detailed plans around that. Think about what immortality can offer
you, Allison! You will be able to do all the things you could never do in a
mortal lifetime, see all the places you always wanted to visit. We could watch
every sunrise and sunset together. We could do whatever you want, whenever you
want.”

“I don’t know that I can do this! Any of this,” I stammered
and turned to walk back the way we came.

My mind was overcome with too much information. The images
Vincent had shown me were so vivid and real, there was no denying they were
authentic. His explanation for why I felt so comfortable after dreaming about
the garden made sense. That was my home. And he could explain all of my
ailments; symptoms that mortal doctors couldn’t explain now made perfect sense.
After starting the night out a non-believer, I now fully believed what Vincent
was telling me. I was, to some degree, a vampire. The serpent’s venom, the
devil’s poison, was running through my veins.

“Allison…”

“Really Vincent? Put yourself in my shoes. I’m going about
life, the way it should be, and one day this beautiful stranger…you…sweeps me
off my feet only to blindside me with information that I am part vampire and
need to choose certain death no matter what decision I make. I can’t do this.”
I leapt over a crevice and smoothly started my descent down the rock, this time
noticing the gracefulness with which I moved.

“You really don’t have a choice, but you do have to
consent,” Vincent said right behind me. I stopped and whirled around. He raised
his index finger to my mouth, stopping me from saying anything further. “But
you don’t have to consent tonight. You have a lot to absorb. Take some time and
think about it. I’m having a Halloween party next week. It’s a huge event that
my siblings and I throw every year. Come. I’ll introduce you to my brothers and
sister. You’ll see that our life is not as bad as you think.”

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“About the party? No.” Vincent held up my motorcycle key. I
hadn’t realized we had made it back to the parking lot so quickly. “Now let’s
get you home.” Vincent stared up at the sky. Black clouds rolled over an even
blacker sky. “I have no idea how your half mortal riding skills will handle the
approaching storm,” he said with a smirk.

My mind couldn’t stop thinking about
it
. Four days
had passed since Vincent had told me that I was a descendant of the first
vampire ever created and that the devil’s poison ran through my veins. A mere
96 hours ago, I learned that the symptoms that had haunted me for so long were
my body’s way of telling me that I was one of the eternally damned. Thousands
of minutes had passed since I had last seen Vincent and all I could think about
was my predicament, for lack of a better word. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself
to say out loud that I knew what I had to do. All I could do was wonder: why
me? Why now after so many generations of others like me?

None of the options Vincent had presented was palatable, but
something had to be done with me. I could no longer ignore that something was
wrong; this had become more and more painfully obvious since that night at
Whipps Ledges. It had been four days since I had slept or eaten a morsel of
food, and yet I was neither tired nor hungry. There was, however, a pain in my
belly, a deep burning within my core that had slowly grown over the past days.
At times it was almost unnoticeable, but at other times I felt the fireball
churning away only before it faded back to nothing again. I was constantly
thirsty, but so far I had managed to quench this thirst with water. I could
only wonder how long that would last.

My decision seemed to change from one second to the next.
One minute I was certain that I wanted Vincent to transform me; the next I
wanted to take the risk and remain mortal, praying that my symptoms would
somehow reverse themselves. Then I would think about how unlikely that scenario
was and I was back to consenting, only to suddenly be gripped by the fear of
dying and my mind would change once again. It was an exhausting, vicious cycle
I didn’t know how to break. To make matters worse, always lingering in the back
of my mind was the realization that regardless of what I decided, my ultimate
destiny was eternal damnation. How ironic that I had wasted all of those years
trying to find my true calling, and this was what I got.

I turned on the television in a futile attempt to distract
my brain. A football game was on with a news alert banner scrolling at the
bottom of the screen. It announced the savage murder of a young couple the
night before in Columbus, Ohio. They were to be engaged that night, and worried
family members had called the authorities when they didn’t hear from them. The
couple’s bodies were found in a lake, hers drained of blood and his missing his
head.

“Vincent, I
need
to talk to you,” I said to myself.
But I wasn’t going to see Vincent until tonight at his Halloween party. Vincent
had left four nights ago, saying that he was going out of town on business.
But, I knew by the way he had said
business
that he really meant he was
looking for food. Or victims. He had mentioned at Whipps Ledges that there was
a plan around who was killed and when. All I could do now was wonder if that
plan had been executed against these victims in Columbus.

A knock on the door snapped me back to reality. I turned off
the television to go and greet my friend. Jenna pushed my front door open as I
welcomed her.

“I am sooooo excited about this party,” Jenna gushed, her
face glowing with enthusiasm. She dropped her overnight bag in the foyer. “I
can’t wait to thank Vincent for inviting me!”

When Vincent first told me about this party, he had sensed
that I was hesitant about attending, so he told me to invite Jenna. He probably
also sensed that I wasn’t about to put my friend in harm’s way by inviting her
to a party full of vampires, so he sent her a hand-delivered invitation. He
assured me it would be safe for her, that humans and vampires could coexist for
an evening without any mayhem and precautions would be taken to ensure that.
After initially being angry about the situation, I realized it might be a good
idea to include Jenna in something since I had seemingly shut her out of my
life for the past three years. And maybe having her here now would help take my
mind off other things.

“He seems like a great guy, Ali,” Jenna said. “I can’t
believe you have kept him from me all this time. How long have you two been
dating?”

“Um, I wouldn’t really say we’re dating.”

“Well you should snag him. A good looking guy like that
won’t stay single for very long!”

“Um, yeah I guess.” My mind was too occupied to care about
this idle chatter but thankfully Jenna’s enthusiasm kept her mind clipping along.

“So where are the costumes?” Jenna asked. She searched
around my living room and poked her head into the den.

After initially chuckling at the statement that I would dig
up an old costume to wear, Vincent assured me that he would take care of this minor
detail for both me and Jenna.

“They’re not…” I was interrupted by the doorbell. I walked
to the front door, Jenna close behind.

I opened the door. A tiny old woman stood on my doorstep
holding several large boxes which were almost too big for her short arms to
handle. Her skin was dark and creased and her gray hair was pulled back into a
tight bun. She wore a plain black pant suit with a crisp white shirt. There was
nothing special about her eyes; they didn’t glow like Vincent’s or have any
strange gold flecks, so I assumed she was a mortal.

“Hello, Miss Allison?” the woman spoke in an accent I
couldn’t decipher.

“Yes,” I replied. Jenna had her hand on my shoulder,
straining to see our visitor.

“I am Francesca Rousseau. Mr. Vincent sent me to help you and
Miss Jenna get ready for tonight’s festivities.”

“Of course he did,” I muttered under my breath as Jenna
pushed past me to help Francesca with the boxes. “And please, just call me
Ali.”

We moved into the living room where Francesca directed Jenna
to the boxes intended for her. Jenna anxiously ripped them open like a child on
Christmas morning.

“Ali, look at this,” Jenna gasped as she pulled her costume
from the box. “It’s beautiful! Where did Vincent find this?”

“I made it,” Francesca responded, a proud smile on her face.
“Do you like?”

“Like it? I love it!” Jenna exclaimed.

She pulled an exquisite outfit from the box. Even standing
across the small room I could tell the gown was made of real silk. It was a
vibrant shade of blue and looked like it gathered at the waist with extra
fabric for draping over the shoulders. The bottom of the gown was stitched with
an intricate gold design and embellished with red jewels.

Francesca pointed out in her accented voice that the hem was
decorated with genuine gold thread and rubies. She then reached into her bag
and retrieved another box.

“Are you kidding me?” Jenna exclaimed. Francesca handed her
a beautiful headpiece crafted in gold and covered in jewels, no doubt real ones
since the dress was adorned with rubies. She held up a sheer veil of
coordinated blue fabric that attached to a gold piece that would cover the
lower half of her face.

“Isn’t this beautiful, Ali?” Jenna asked.

“Yeah, it’s great,” I answered honestly.

“Don’t you want to see your outfit?”

I wished Jenna’s enthusiasm would rub off on me, but my
conversation with Vincent from a few nights ago still lingered in my mind. I
thought my mind would be clearer after spending so much time over the past few
days thinking about everything Vincent had told me, but that unfortunately
wasn’t the case. I really couldn’t wait to see Vincent, and I hoped that he
would help put my mind more at ease.

“Ali…”

“Yeah, Jenna, what?”

“Don’t you want to see your costume?” she repeated.

“Um, sure.”

I walked over to a large box and opened it. “Oh Ali,” Jenna
exclaimed. “It’s out of this world!”

Lying in the box was the most exquisite ball gown I had ever
seen. As I lifted the heavy garment out of the box, it became apparent why
Francesca was here – I couldn’t get dressed by myself. The top of the gown was
crafted of deep purple crushed velvet covered with an ornate design sewn in
gold thread and speckled with gemstones. White swags of silk fell from the
shoulders. Jenna had to help me haul the rest of the garment from the box. The
skirt was full and made of white silk, just like the sleeves. The hemline was
bordered with a thick band of purple velvet which stretched out into an ornate
design of graceful swirls edged in more gold thread.

“It’s beautiful!” Jenna exclaimed as she struggled to hold
the gown to her body and twirled around, the skirt consuming my living room.
“It’s fit for a queen.”

I was stunned by the costume’s beauty. It was clearly custom
made and must have taken many hours, even months, to create.

“Ali?” Jenna asked trying to get my attention.

“It’s beautiful,” I cleared my throat. “It’s a bit much
though.”

“You no like, Miss Allison?” Francesca reemerged, pulling a
trunk behind her. “I made it just for you according to Vincent’s design.”

“Oh Francesca, the dress is exquisite. It’s just that when
Vincent mentioned a Halloween party, I wasn’t expecting such a lavish outfit. I
thought I would be dressing up as a witch or pirate, not the queen of England!
Did you say Vincent designed this?” I asked as I touched the design on the
skirt.

“Yes, Mr. Vincent is very talented. He will be pleased that
you like his creation.”

Not only was Francesca there to deliver the costumes, but
she was there to assist us with our hair and makeup too. We spent all afternoon
primping ourselves. Jenna gushed with excitement through the whole process,
thoroughly enjoying the pampering. My mind was elsewhere, wondering what this
evening would hold.

When it was all said and done, Jenna and I looked like we
had walked straight off of a movie set. Jenna’s blue dress clung to her tiny
frame, wrapped around her neck and draped over her left shoulder and hung down
her back. Maybe this was what Vincent had meant when he said there would be
precautions. If her neck was wrapped, no vampire could bite it. Francesca
placed a black wig on Jenna’s head that was parted down the middle and pulled
tight in the back. Her head was crowned with the gold ornamentation Francesca
had handed her earlier. It fit perfectly into the part in her hair, framing
both sides of her hairline, the light catching the rubies, sapphires and
diamonds. The face veil was connected to the headpiece and Jenna’s look was
completed with two matching gold bracelets that wrapped around her arms from
wrist to elbow.

“This is so cool!” Jenna exclaimed. “I feel like a genie.”

I could hear Jenna downstairs talking to herself as I made
my way down the narrow staircase from the loft bedroom.