Indulgence (233 page)

And then I realized something else. In saving me, he had
damned himself. He had broken his society’s cardinal rule by transforming me
without my consent, and there was only one punishment for that.

“Where’s Vincent?” I demanded.

“We’re not sure,” Felix replied.

“Does that mean he’s still alive?”

“He’s not
alive
. None of us are.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes, he still exists,” Marlo assured me. “But we don’t know
where he is.”

“We can promise you he won’t show his face here though,” Max
said sternly.

“Why?” I asked, fully aware of the answer I was about to
receive.

“Allison,” Marlo said, “Vincent broke a rule.”

“If he shows here, he’s a dead man,” Max added.

“What? But he’s your brother!” I exclaimed.

“Brother or not, the rules are the rules and if we don’t
enforce them, then all of our existence is on the line,” Marlo explained.

“But this is different, isn’t it?” I asked. “You said
nothing like me ever existed before so how could your rules apply to me?”

“Simple,” Lorenzo coolly replied. “No one outside of this
room knows of you and what you were. No vampire suspects that he can conceive
with a mortal. Therefore, the rule applies because you are, I should say were,
a mere mortal to any other vampire. Therefore, the rule applies.”

“Why would anyone have to know that I didn’t consent?” I
asked. “We could say that I did and everything would be okay. Vincent could
come back.”

Marlo shook her head. “There were four of us there, Allison.
We were all witnesses. Eternity is a long time to hold a secret like that with
that type of consequence at stake. There’s no telling what the future holds. If
one of us lets that secret slip, all of our fates will be sealed.”

“We won’t seek him out, Allison,” Max chimed in. “But Vincent
understands what he did. He knows we have no choice but to enforce his
punishment if he comes back.”

“But---” I started, but Marlo cut me off.

“Enough.” She firmly pronounced. “For now that is. There are
more important things to discuss at the moment.”

“Like what?” I demanded.

“We gotta teach you how to hunt,” Max announced. His face
lit up with excitement.

I groaned at the thought.

“Gotta get you out there before you drain our stash,” Felix
said as he shook the empty flask.

“That was blood?” I asked disgustedly. I looked at the
sleeve of my shirt where I had wiped my mouth earlier and noticed a red stain.
I felt disgusted.

“Of course it was,” Marlo replied. “What did you think it
was?”

“But it tasted so good. It wasn’t what I expected at all,” I
mulled. “I guess I didn’t really think about it.”

“Come on; let’s go,” Max eagerly commanded as he headed for
the door. Felix and Lorenzo followed.

I swung my feet over the side of the bed and attempted to
stand up.

“Whoa,” I exclaimed.

I looked down and the floor was a dizzying sight. I could
see every granule that created the stone floor, every flaw and nook and cranny.
I looked up at the wall and it appeared to lunge at me and again could see
every detail of the stone. I stared at the painting, a framed picture running
the length of the wall. I saw all of the individual dots that created the scene
but couldn’t see the complete painting. It was a mass of varying shades of blue
and oddly enough a mass of black dots running through the center in what
appeared to be a word. And then there was the noise.

“What is that?” I yelled and covered my ears. I heard
nothing but noise, and lots of it. I heard a stereo playing, crickets chirping,
the noise of a bird’s wings as it flew through the air outside. I heard a
vacuum running and a car motoring down a street and a rush of other noises.

“Allison, concentrate,” Marlo yelled at me as she pulled my
hands from my ears. “You have to concentrate. Look at me.”

I gazed into Marlo’s eyes. I could see every pore in vivid
detail on her face. Her eyes were a blur of lavender and blue and her face was
surrounded by a red glow.

“Concentrate,” she yelled again. The noise was killing my
ears.

I stared into Marlo’s eyes deciding to focus on the gold
flecks. I counted them; thirteen, just like Vincent, just like me. I repeatedly
counted them as Marlo continued to instruct me to concentrate. The noise
started to fade as I counted and recounted the flecks in her eyes.

The minute details of her face blended back to reality and
the noise faded into the distance. One by one her pores smoothed back into the
canvas of her skin. The individual flecks of purple and blue faded to reveal
the lavender eyes that were familiar to me.

“What was that?” I asked. I glanced at the painting on the
wall and could now see it in perfect clarity. It was a storm over the ocean
with menacing waves and ocean spray splashed against a black sky.

“Listen to me,” Marlo said seriously, turning my face back
to hers. “You need to learn to control that. You have to focus at all times on
what is around you so that you aren’t distracted by all of the details.”

“Okay, but what was that?” I asked, still not understanding.

“That’s the hunter in you, your untamed senses. You can see
vivid details for miles, allowing you to easily spot the pumping heart of your
prey. You can hear miles beyond what you see, expanding your hunting territory.
Once you find what you are looking for, your sense of smell will take over and
only one thing will be on your mind – your prey. Your sight and hearing will go
back to normal after you drink. But lose control of this and you will lose your
existence. Understand?”

I nodded, understanding that if I let me senses overtake me
– again – I wouldn’t be able to control my hunt and that would be the end for
me. I didn’t like the serious tone Marlo had with me. I missed the jovial
spirit she had when we met at the Halloween party. Then again, she was dealing
with a lot. Her own brother had committed the most serious of crimes, and she
would never see him again or it would result in his death. And me, the newborn
vampire she felt the need to babysit so I didn’t slip in my ways and subject
myself to Vincent’s fate.

Marlo stared at me to make sure I understood her
explanation.

“Come on,” she said as she twirled around and leapt into the
hallway.

I started towards the door but my reflection in a full
length mirror caught my attention and I took a double take. I stopped in my
tracks and inched backwards towards the mirror. I looked at my reflection. It
was me but somehow different.

My skin was smooth like porcelain, not a blemish in sight
and surprisingly paler than when I was a human. Not a single hair on my head
was out of place; it looked like I had just left a salon. My hair was styled
with sharp angles framing my chin, and was a vibrant shade of blonde. I should
have looked like a mess after the hell I just went through, but I didn’t. I
looked at the rest of my body which was amazingly fit. I grabbed a bicep and
felt a muscle. I was never able to build muscle as a mere mortal but seemed to
have developed them through my transformation. I lifted my shirt to see my
stomach and to my surprise found chiseled abs. I looked up in shock and then
saw my eyes. My naturally blue gray eyes were anything but average. A dark ring
of blue bled into a lighter shade which bled into a light gray. And the tiny
gold specks, which had been present before, were still there but now circled my
pupils.

“Hey,” Marlo called from the doorway.

I looked at her and back at my reflection, still not believing
what I saw.

“You’re even more beautiful now,” she whispered.

I continued to stare at myself. I had never considered my
mortal self beautiful. Sure I thought I was an attractive woman, but this
transformation was something else. No plastic surgeon could have ever achieved
such results.

“I don’t get it,” I whispered.

“What’s that?” Marlo reentered the room.

“How? How did this happen?” I waved a hand up and down my
body. “Where did the muscles come from?”

Marlo chuckled. “The venom, of course. You are now the
perfect hunter. No one will be able to resist you.”

Her words stung –
perfect hunter
. More like perfect
killer. A wave of revulsion ran over me at the realization of what I had
become. I was part of the living dead; a soulless, eternally damned killer
whose only purpose was to condemn man just as the devil had wished. I couldn’t
stand to look at myself any longer.

Come on,” Marlo called out from the hallway.

It wasn’t difficult to tear my eyes away from my reflection
in the mirror. I imagined that most would have found it easy to stand there and
stare at the perfection – the flawlessly sculpted muscles, impeccably coifed
hair – but I was very uncomfortable knowing the source of all that perfection
was pure evil.

Marlo was heading down the hallway to my left and I followed
behind her, keeping her pace. I felt different, as if I were floating over the
floor, my feet never touching the cold stone. One glance at me feet told me I
was in contact with the ground but I seemed to be moving with a grace and
agility, almost an airiness, I never had before.

We arrived at another wooden door down the long hallway.

“The security center?” I asked, sensing this was the room I
was in the night of the Halloween party.

“Yes,” Marlo replied. “But it’s also our command center.”
Marlo pushed open the door. “Come on in,” she beckoned.

The room looked completely different from what I remembered
of that night. All of the furniture had been removed from the room including
the wall of monitors. I looked around for the couch I had sat on before all of
the mayhem broke out that night, but it wasn’t there. In fact, there were no
signs that my transformation had even happened. I didn’t know what I expected
to find, but there was nothing there. The only item in the room was one lone
computer which sat on top of a small but ornate wooden desk near the wall with
the stained glass window, the same window I had opened and unknowingly tipped
off my enemies that I was nearby. Felix sat behind the desk typing away.

“What’s going on in here?” I asked.

Max appeared out of nowhere behind me. “You’ll see,” he
said, a smile spreading across his face.

A noise, like stone grinding on stone, started from what
sounded like the middle of the room. The floor began to mildly vibrate and then
felt like it began to move.

“Oh no,” I said and covered my ears. “Concentrate,
concentrate,” I whispered to myself.

The room erupted in laughter. I looked up to see all of my
new family there laughing at me.

“No Allison, it’s not that. You’re fine, it’s not your
senses,” Marlo reassured.

I straightened up and removed my hands from my ears,
confused by what was happening. The noise continued and the vibrations
intensified.

“Look,” Lorenzo commanded and pointed to the middle of the
floor.

The center of the stone floor began to shift. A large
rectangular piece of stone gave way, dropping several inches beneath the
perimeter of the floor where we stood. The piece broke in a straight line down
the middle, each half moving to the side. In its place was what looked like a
giant piece of Plexiglas that rose to floor level. Lights flickered beneath the
surface like a television set being turned on. A world map slowly came into
view. At first it was just an outline, yet clearly that of a world map, and it
quickly populated with color. Finally, several different colored dots appeared
twinkling over the surface.

“What is this?” I asked. I looked up to find four sets of
eyes staring back at me, apparently waiting for my reaction.

“This is how we hunt,” Max said with a twinkle in his eye.

He walked to the map, glided over its surface and found
North America. He tapped it with his foot, and then tapped a few more times
until a map of the States was visible. I could see hundreds of colored spots
blinking all over the map.

Lorenzo leaned in and said, “Marlo did tell you that Max was
the hunter in the family, right?” He smirked as he looked at his brother with a
little brotherly pride.

“No she didn’t. What does this have to do with hunting?” I
asked.

“You see,” Max said, taking over the conversation, “the
colored dots represent different types of prey. Green represents herbivores,
blue is aquatic life, and red is for carnivores. The black dots represent
humans. Over the years we realized that we had to be careful how we hunted. Kill
too much of one species in one area and people start to become suspicious. We
knew we had to balance mortal and animal kills to spread out the damage. We
recognized we needed a plan that would meet our dietary needs yet be
inconspicuous enough to not reveal our existence. So over hundreds of years, I
amassed a group of hunters all over the world. They track the population of
various prey and report back to my brother, Felix.”

I looked over at Felix who raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m
the brain behind this operation,” he said jokingly.

“That’s right,” Max continued, “our resident tech geek.
Felix tracks the population sizes and makes recommendations as to which species
should be hunted in a particular area. This way, we don’t eliminate too many of
one breed thereby drawing unwanted attention to ourselves.”

“That’s very well thought out,” I mused.

“I know, right?” Max asked. “But check this out. Say you see
a lot of green dots in a particular area; that means there are a lot of
herbivores concentrated in one spot. Tap on the grouping of green dots and
they’ll break out into different shades of green, representing different
species. Keep tapping down and you’ll eventually get a picture of the animal
and the exact location. Then you’re all set for the hunt!”