Microsoft Word - The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.doc (37 page)

The local news was still dwelling on last night’s multi-car crash. Slow news night, I supposed. “Isn’t there a gang war or a car chase you could cover?” I complained to the television. “I’m bored.”

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“You don’t feel bored,” Tiana said, coming up beside me.  “You’re unhappy. I don’t mean to snack on your emotions,” she  added when I glared at her. “You know I can’t  help it. Why are  you unhappy? Anton?”

I snorted. “May he rest in peace, but I don’t give a damn about Anton,” I turned my glare back on the TV screen. “What’s so important about last night’s car crash?”

“Four people died on scene,” she said. “Everybody  else is  hospitalized, most of them in critical condition. But the real  reason the networks are still covering it is  ”
–

Her timing was perfect, because at that moment
 
his
 
picture

appeared on the screen.

“Oh, good God!” My heart felt like a knife had been

plunged into it.

Tiana’s hand touched my shoulder. “I know you’re a fan,

but  ”
–

“He’s not dead! Tell me he isn’t dead?”

I only realized I was shaking her when she shouted, “Stop

it! Let go of me!”

I did. I pointed at the television. “That’s the man in  my

dream.”

“The man of your dreams? He’s an actor you’ve got a crush

on.”

“I do not get crushes. And I mean he’s the man that was in

my dream last day. We were dancing.”

303

“Vampires don’t dream. And he was in intensive care while

you were sleeping.”

The  relief might have killed me if that were possible. As it was, it felt like I was having a heart attack. “Intensive care? So he isn’t dead?”

“Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time.” She glanced at the  face of the reporter now on the screen. “His death-watch is what  all the media fuss is about. They’re worse ghouls than I am.”

I automatically patted her shoulder, knowing that this admission hurt her pride, but my mind was racing on another matter. It hadn’t been a dream. Somehow, it hadn’t been a dream. He’d been there and I’d been there, only where the hell was there? “How did it happen?”

“He and some friends were going out for ice cram when  they ended up in the pile-up and the car went off the side of the  mountain. He was the only survivor, but he’s on  life support and  he’s been declared brain dead.”

“His brain isn’t dead,” I said. “It’s been out dancing.” I was

sure this was true. We’d been in telepathic contact. But how?

I heard the voice in my head again that had speared into my

brain back at the crash site.
 
Help me! Where are you?

“Of course! He’s psychic. He called out for help when we  were up at the crash, and I answered him! That’s how we met!”  I grabbed Tiana’s cold grey hand. “Come on, ghoul-friend!”

“Where are we going?” she asked as I pulled her towards

the door.

I laughed, all my depression blown away by exaltation. “To

the rescue, of course!”

304

“We’re here. Now what?” Tiana asked as we moved across

the ER waiting room.

“Go up to the ICU,” I answered. “And take him home.”

“He’s on life  support. There’s probably cops and private

security in the halls.”

“I’ll take care of them. All you have to do is create a

diversion.”

She licked her lips and nodded. Her skin was flushed to an almost-normal human colour. This was one of her feeding

grounds and she’d shown me where to sneak in. It had been

easy, even with the circus in the streets.

Outside the media and fan frenzy was as thick and chaotic as I’d ever seen it in all my decades of dwelling in this town.  There were news vans sprouting satellite and lighting equipment and chuffing power generators. Reporters looked solemnly into cameras as they spoke. Paparazzi were as thick as roaches in a tenement. Helicopters circled. Cops held a crowd back beyond a cordon surrounding the hospital. People  held signs and candles and flowers. Some were singing the theme song from one of his movies.

I wondered if what I was doing was any less ridiculous than

the behaviour of his grieving fans.

In the ER people were bleeding and screaming and crying through  their own problems. It was quiet and peaceful compared to what was going on outside. No one paid any attention as we made our way through a wide doorway, down a hallway and to a door past a row of elevators. You learn to take the stairs when you want to live an under-the-radar life.

305

“There are three people ready to die here,” Tiana said after  we reached the critical-care floor and slipped into an empty  room. She looked sad. Hey, she’s a ghoul, but that doesn’t mean  she isn’t a kind person.

“Can you work with that?” I asked. Hey, I’m a vampire,  remember? She nodded. She prefers living off residual death  energy instead of any direct involvement. “I hate doing the soulsucking thing, but, yeah, there’s nothing that can be done for  any of them.”

“Is my guy one  of the three?” I asked worriedly.

She looked thoughtful, then shook her head. “Low energy,

but stable. Now let me get to work.”

I backed out of the room as she opened her mouth for one of those screams that only the dying could heat. The dying would give up their energy to the ghoul when they heard that sound.

Pretty soon there was almost as much activity on this floor of the hospital as there was outside. Alarms went off at the nursing station, crash carts were hurried into rooms. There was running and  shouting, and I moved unnoticed to the room with the guard outside the door.

The guard wasn’t a problem. I made him look into my eyes

and he was instantly stunned.

“Is there a security camera in there?” I asked.

“No. There’s a nurse,” he volunteered.

“Tell the nurse to respond to the code blues. Follow the  nurse and volunteer to help.” I hoped that was enough of an  excuse to keep the guard from getting into too much trouble  when I kidnapped his charge. I rushed into his room at once.

306

Inside the door I  stopped with my mouth hanging open. The man on the bed was hooked up to so many tubes and gadgets I didn’t know how to start freeing him. I didn’t have much time, so I whispered an apology for any pain I caused him and started ripping and pulling the life-support equipment off him. Trails of his blood stained my clothes when I picked him up. The scent and warmth of it was intoxicating, but I fought off the sudden bloodlust. My fangs ached like a virgin’s on her first hunt as I carried him away with me.

His weight was no problem, but I’m a small woman and he’s a very tall man. Carrying him was awkward, but you manage what you have to.

I took him downstairs, through the closed cafeteria and to a courtyard garden beyond it where I set him down gently beneatha squat palm tree. I sat beside him and settled his head in my lap. My fingers touched his temples.

Are you there?

You came for me!
 
His voice called from so far away I barely

sensed it.

Do you want to live?
 
I asked.
 
You know I’m a vampire. I will try to change you if you want me to. Think carefully before you choose.

In the long silence that followed I had to fight very hard to keep my fangs from sinking into his flesh. I’d never been so aroused by the scent of blood before, but I wasn’t going to tastea drop without his permission. He had to make the choice.

I thought I’d have to be Wallachian,
 
his thought came at

last.

You’re part Hungarian. There’s a chance you’ll change.

307

It depends on if my grandmas got raped by the right sort of

invaders?

Pretty much.

I’ll die otherwise, won’t I?

Yes, but that shouldn’t ne why you choose to become a blood drinker, a nightwalker, an exile from every part of the daylight world.

It really isn’t all that bad being a vampire, but there are difficulties and the lifestyle should not be glamorized for potential newbies. No matter how much you want to share a coffin with them.

Can I stay with you if I change?

My heart sang at his question. And, oh, how my fangs ached!
 
Yes
, I told him.
 
For as long as you want. For ever if you

want.

Forever sounds good to me. Do it.

Remember that it might not take. That  ”–

Shut up and bite me.

I couldn’t argue with that. So I did.

And I’d never had a rush like it in all my years of sucking the good stuff! I couldn’t count the orgasms that shook me before every drop of him was flowing inside me.

I didn’t have to share my blood with him. Some sort of enzyme in my saliva was transferred to him from the bite and

308

the enzyme would trigger the change if it were going to happen.  But just in case, I bit my wrist and poured a few drops of my  blood into his mouth. Not that he was capable of swallowing. At  this point he was essentially dead. He’d either get better or I’d  have to dispose of his body in a way that the marks on his throat  would never be seen.

I didn’t want to think about disposal. I didn’t want to think of him ever being dead. I held his limp body and felt it grow heavier and colder, and I worried and cried those disgusting blood-drenched vampire tears. I don’t know for how long.  Long enough for my mood to turn bleak and heartbroken.

Long enough for me to be aware that the sun would be up in

an hour or so.

There’s an almost physical pressure on the skin the closer daylight comes. Normally I’d be starting to think about getting to  cover. Instead, I vowed I’d stay here and let the sun take me if he didn’t come around before the end of the night. I didn’t care if my ashes blew away so far there wouldn’t be anything left of me. Perhaps the fire that took me would burn him as well and our ashes would blend together.

Sentimental, aren’t you?

I heard the thought but it took a long time before I came out of my grief enough to realize that the voice wasn’t my imagination.

“You’re alive!”

Don’t shout. I have a hangover. That’s not right.  My throat

hurts. I’m thirsty. My mouth tastes like sweet copper.

“That’s my blood. You’re alive,” I repeated, the words

whispered in his ear as I helped him sit up. “You’re a vampire.”

309

“I guess the right Cossacks raped my grandmas.”

His voice was a rough croak, but the most delicious sound  I’d ever heard. He struggled to his feet and insisted on giving me his hand to help me up. Living  or dead, he was always a gentleman. When I was on my feet his arms came around me.  He was weak enough that I ended up holding him up as we embraced.

“We could dance like this for ever,” He said.

I sighed romantically. “We could.” I looked around. “We could if the sun wasn’t coming up soon. We need to get out of here.”

He cupped my cheek and looked at me with his new night vision. “You’re as beautiful as I dreamed you were, my Stella.  Thank you for saving me, thank you for being with me now and for ever.”

There’s no way a girl can’t respond to that. I kissed him, and he kissed back and it was real and deep and better than any dream. After a while he lifted his head and gave a dry, hacking cough. “Sorry. Thirsty.”

I put my arm around his waist and helped him to the garden door. “I know just the place where we can get a beer. Now that you’ve changed you can find it on your  own.”

“I’d rather go with you.”

You have no idea how much that meant to me.

Tiana met us outside the cafeteria and guided us along her secret route out of the hospital and away from the crowd. He

310

noticed all the fuss as we drove away, he and I squeezed  into the

trunk of Tiana’s car.

“You have no idea how happy I am to leave the celebrity era

of my life behind,” he told me.

“You’ll miss acting.”

“I’ll think of a way to get back to it. Do vampires work? Do

I need a job?”

“I’m a real-estate mogul. You  can live off me. Wait  ”
–
 
I’d  remembered Anton. “The place we’re heading, the Alhambra  Club, needs a bartender. I know the owner. That would be me. If  you’re interested.”

We were squeezed in pretty tightly, but he managed to pull

me closer. “Does this place have a dance floor?”