The Meridian Gamble (50 page)

“She’s never going to transform
him. She has the same look in her eye that she did back in England, when she
consumed the man who pretended to be your father. It’s an affection, but not
love.”

“She might do it for Roland.
Vampires are complicated creatures. Who knows what deals they’ve made over the
centuries, what favors she owes him. The only reason Marion rules in the States
is by his permission. Roland is our true leader. It’s his rightful place to
retake his kingdom, if he so chooses.”

The enormity of what he’s saying
takes a moment to sink in. And when I finally figure it out, I shake my head,
confused.

“No, Adam. No! I don’t want to be
with Roland, despite what’s happened between us in the past. I don’t want him
to turn me into a vampire. I want to be with you. I know that now more than
ever.”

And he puts his hands on my
shoulders in a forceful way that’s not filled with his usual gentleness. He
stares at me with an intensity that I haven’t quite seen before.

“Meridian, it kills me to say this,
but Roland is the only one who can save you. We need him, and we can use his
arrogance against him. He doesn’t think we’re meant to be together, he thinks
you’re destined to be with him. He would change you, just to get the chance to
prove it. He would let us be together, thinking you would run back to him
eventually.”

“This is crazy! How would this even
work? Would I have to pretend to break up with you? Would I have to pretend to
fall in love with Roland, so he could transform me? It’s ridiculous, Marion
would see right through it. She would never allow that to happen.”

“We could make it work. We could
put our feelings aside for a while, if it meant your survival. You did it for
me, once. You stepped aside, and gave me to Marion, so that she could change
me. I would do the same for you in an instant.”

And I shake my head, overwhelmed by
it all.

“Why do we even have to talk about
this? I haven’t even decided that I would want to be a vampire, even if I had
the chance. Why can’t we just enjoy our time together, while we finally have
it?”

“You’re right. We don’t have to
think about this right now. But we will have to make a decision. And very
soon.”

But, I don’t want to make a
decision. I don’t want to think about the possibility of my transformation. And
besides, there’s something more important to me right now, more important than
anything in the world. My desire for Adam.

I pull him toward me, and wrap my
arms around him, holding him tightly. And I want to keep him that way, so that
nothing can take him away from me, not the vampires or the Luminos or any
questions about my unresolved fate. I realize that I really do love Adam, and
it’s not a dream or a fantasy, or some fractured memory from the past. I love
him in a way I never have before, and I can’t let him slip away from me again.
I can’t let anything break us apart.

I lean back, and I look up into his
beautiful eyes, the ones I could get lost in forever.

“Angel said she wants to taste
pizza again, before she’s transformed, in case it changes for her,” I say. “But
if I’m going to change, you’re what I want to taste to see if it’s different.”

“It’s not going to be different,
it’s going to be better. But not because of the transformation. It will be
better because we’ll finally have our forever. I promise you that.”

He smiles, and I pull his face
toward me, pressing his full lips against mine. I kick off my shoes, and he
pulls the little jacket off of me, and deftly unbuttons my jeans in a few
smooth moves. Adam lifts me, and carries me to the bed. And I know in a few
moments, I’ll be in paradise. He’ll be inside me, we’ll be naked together under
the covers. And I’ll feel a kind of joy that will be worth coming back to Earth
for, lifetime after lifetime.

The kind I
would do anything to have forever.

I wake up the next morning with a
strange sound in my ear. It’s a tiny beep that’s low, and goes off in long
intervals. I instinctively look for my cell phone, thinking it’s telling me
something, but when I find it, the little device is silent. I don’t even have
any messages. I start to look around Adam’s bedroom for an alarm clock, but I
realize there are voices in the room.

They’re speaking softly, by the
door. Adam is already dressed, talking with Marion and another vampire I’ve
never seen before. And there’s a light that flashes in the hallways, to the
timing of the beep.

And I realize it’s an alarm.

Marion looks to me every once in a
while, and when she sees I’m awake, she lowers her voice even more. It’s
creepy, the way she can regulate it so perfectly, so that I can’t quite hear
her words. But at least they aren’t speaking psychically, which is even more
bizarre.

As I slowly become more alert, I
start to realize the significance of the alarm. Even though they seem calm, I
can tell the vampires are panicked. And if something scares them, it must be
very frightening, indeed.

Finally, Marion and her flunky
leave, and Adam closes the door. He comes to me, sitting at the corner of the
bed. And I sit up, wrapping the sheet around me.

“What is it? What’s going on?” I
say, in concern.

“We’re on lockdown. It’s the
Florida tower. It’s been breached.”

“Breached? As in entered?”

“At least an attempt. It’s just
happened, so we don’t know for sure the extent of the damage, though it seems
that whatever they tried failed.”

“An attempt? Are we talking a
couple of kids breaking a window, or …”

“No, Meridian. If it was a couple
of kids we could deal with them easily. We’re talking about the Luminos. It was
an attack. And what makes it all the more disconcerting is that they haven’t
challenged us in years. They must be up to something. But I won’t know for sure
until I’ve investigated.”

He comes to my side, and puts a
hand on my shoulder.

“Listen to me, I need you to remain
in the room, at least for a day or two. I need to go to Florida and
investigate.”

“Wait, you want me to stay here?
But if the Florida tower was attacked they might try to hit this one.”

“They won’t, it’s safe. The defense
on this tower is 10 times what it is in Florida. They wouldn’t dare,” he says.
“All of the companions have been called in to remain in closed quarters, all
the vampires in the area are to return here until we have investigated, and
moved the Florida tower to safety. It’s very dangerous for you to be on the
outside.”

“You have to close it down, just
for a failed attempt?”

“There is a reason we live for
thousands of years, and it’s because we are very cautious. Come here …”

Adam pulls me from the bed and has
me sit in his desk chair, in front of the computer. He clicks the space bar to
rouse it from sleep, and hits another icon at the bottom of the screen. It
looks like a little camera, but it’s clearly something custom made, because I
have a Mac of my own and I’ve never seen a symbol like this one in their set of
standard programs.

An image of the hallway outside
comes onto the screen, and it must be from a security camera. But the view is
crystal clear and in color, not like the typical grainy, black and white image
you might see. And as he presses a button on the computer keyboard, different
views begin to toggle through the screen.

“This allows you to see outside,
what’s going on in the corridor. Do not open the door to anyone. There are
clothes for you in the top drawer of the dresser, and food in the refrigerator.
If you need anything, if you want to order something else, dial zero on the
phone and ask for it from one of the assistants. But watch the monitor, and
make sure they have left the tray and gone. Make sure the hallway outside is
empty before you bring it inside.”

The Adam who speaks to me now isn’t
the same sweet Adam I know, the one who is filled with affection. He’s a
Luminos general, a vampire bigwig, all business and full of grim concern. And I
find it just a bit upsetting.

“Adam, you are really freaking me
out. I don’t want to be trapped in here.”

“You have to trust me. It’s not
safe, none of us are safe until I know what’s going on. I’ll call you later to
check in on you.”

“I …”

But he kisses
me, and suddenly he’s off, leaving me sitting there naked beneath a sheet,
feeling ridiculous. And I slowly realize that I’m about to have another
vacation day from work, whether I like it or not.

Roy Thompson is annoyed when I
call. I can tell he’s mad, since I was already out the day before, after being
disoriented from my memories of Saga. And I don’t have my supernatural
boyfriend to calm his mind. But what can I do? Adam hasn’t given me much
assurance of when I can leave, so I pretend that I’m sick, that my illness has
returned. And I suspect Roy is peeved because it’s the most work he will have
done since my week-long vacation last year.

 And it feels strange, to have
a man disrupt my life in this way, on what feels like a whim, though I know
it’s something more. I’ve been the only one in control of my life for so long,
but now I have someone else in it. And I know that Adam is something more than
just another guy. But I begin to feel worried over how much more of a
disruption he will cause in my life.

I begin to wonder if I will ever be
going back to the agency again. I wonder if I will be returning to my old life
as a human being, or another type of creature.

It feels strange to be trapped in
Adam’s room, alone and without all my stuff. But I begin to realize there is so
much I can do, and what a relief it is to not have to work. I go to the
bathroom, and take a long, luxurious bath in the tub, filling it with salts and
a delicious oil that smells like roses. I shudder to think of the expense. I
know it’s not the cheap, fake stuff, and rose oil is one of the most costly
essential oils. But this is one bit of decadence I’ll gladly embrace.

After the bath I’m wrinkled, like a
prune. I put on some clothes from the dresser, jeans and a T-shirt, underwear
that’s perfectly my size. I try to keep myself from rummaging through his
things, but I can’t resist completely. In another drawer, I find a sweater that
is filled with Adam’s scent, and I put it on. Just brushing it against my face
fills me with an erotic warmth that makes me wish he was here with me, right
now.

I go to the refrigerator by the
door, and grab myself a snack of an apple and yogurt. There is more food there,
bread and cheeses, more fruit, and I wonder if Adam has stocked it all just for
me, or if he actually nibbles on this stuff, sometimes.

I go to the computer and click on
some of Adam’s files, just out of curiosity. But they’re all unnamed and have
security passwords, so I don’t bother. Instead, I screw around on the web for a
while. And eventually, I become hungry again. Since I’m trapped here, I might
as well have some fun, so I pick up the phone and dial zero. After a few rings,
a young woman’s voice comes on the other end of the line.

“May I help you?” she says,
sweetly.

“I’d like to order some food. I’m
just not sure what’s on the menu.”

“I’m fairly certain we can
accommodate anything you’d like. Would you care for some suggestions?”

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind some
breakfast food, if that isn’t too inconvenient. Like maybe a waffle and two
eggs, sunny side up, with some bacon and potatoes. Oh, and coffee. Lots of
coffee.”

“Yes, ma’am. Will there be anything
else?”

I try to think of some extravagant
treat I can throw at them, but nothing comes to mind. I’m already being greedy
enough as it is, and have probably ordered more food that I can eat.

“No, that’s it,” I say. “Thank
you.”

The woman hangs up without even
asking me what room I’m in. But the phone system probably signaled the
information to her. I imagine she has already been briefed as to who I am.

About 20 minutes later, a knock
sounds at the door.

“Thank you, I’ll be there in a
moment,” I call out.

It feels rude not to answer right
away, and instead, I go to the computer, as Adam has shown me. I click on the
camera feed that gives me a view outside the door. A man dressed in white
leaves a service cart, and walks away. He’s wears the same outfit that all the
“assistants” have on, and I’m fairly certain he’s not Roland in disguise, since
he’s shorter and has black hair. But when the hallway is clear, I run to the
door, and quickly roll the tray inside.

And once again, I marvel at the
pleasures of the vampire tower. It’s like a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah,
though perhaps a bit less raunchy.

When I lift the silver dome, I see
a gorgeous waffle, sprinkled with powdered sugar and berries. There are pates
of real butter and warm maple syrup that’s infused with something, an herb,
maybe thyme. And there’s bacon, not just a few pieces, but a small mound on its
own plate, enough to give me a heart attack.

There is nothing I like more than a
yummy breakfast full of carbohydrates, even if I’m eating it for lunch, and the
meal the vampires have provided is as close to being perfect as I could ask
for. Now I can see why people covet a life with them, even it if means risking
being drained of your lifeblood in the end. I seriously consider for a moment
talking with Adam about moving in with him full-time, if only so that I never
have to go grocery shopping again.

When I’m finished gorging myself, I
check the security camera on the computer, and make sure the hallway is empty.
I quietly walk to the door, and look back to the monitor, to make sure the
coast is clear. And I push the food service trolley back out again, shutting
the door again with relief when no one attacks.

I go to the sofa and watch movies
for a while on his TV set, enjoying the plethora of cable channels. I consider
calling the office, to touch base with Staci, but that life seems as though
it’s millions of miles away. Plus, I don’t want to have to go through my
routine of being sick again, even though I know she wouldn’t tell Roy Thompson
I was faking.