Vampire Redemption (29 page)

"What is happening to me?" Theo's voice was quiet. Not panicked, not terrified. More dazed than anything else.

Selah forced herself to her feet, swaying as if she might fall over again, and tottered around to stand next to Dominique and hold on to her arm. She stared down at Theo. The blood sweat was growing worse, small beads joining to run in miniature rivulets down the side of his face. His clothing was sticking to him now, and blood ran from his ears, nostrils, and the corners of his eyes.

She stood frozen. The moments passed by, measured by the sterile ticking of a wall clock, and Theo sat still, silent, his body being ravaged from within. She gripped Dominique's arm with terrified intensity, not sure she could believe what was happening. Sure on some primitive level that he would simply force himself to rise once more and finish the job.

Instead, he gasped, exhaling a mist of crimson into the air, and let his head sag back against the table leg. Closed his eyes. Blood pooled in the hollow of his neck, the delicate troughs above his collarbones. His mouth was seamed in blood and brilliant flecks of vermillion spotted the floor around him.

He opened his eyes. "Selah," he said. There was a tone of entreaty in his voice that she had not heard before. "Selah."

She tore herself away from Dominique and walked around him, to stand before him at a distance of three yards. He looked up at her and she saw that the blackness of his eyes was fading, looking like morning mist before the sun. Even as she stared down at him, she saw his sclera lighten to gray, his irises warm to a dense and nut-hued brown.

"Selah," he whispered, voice choked.

"I'm here," she said, and slowly lowered herself down to one knee. He didn't track her with his eyes, but continued to stare blindly up at the ceiling.

"Selah. I don't know what's happening to me."

"You're dying, Theo." She felt tears prick her eyes once more. Gone was that flat hunger, that predatory need. Instead, she sensed that he was back, the Theo that she had known, perhaps even a Theo that predated his vampiric self. For a moment, even as he died, there was a new cast to his features, a rounding and gentling of his expression that made him seem a mortal man.

"I love you, Selah. My Sethe, my light in the darkness. I'm sorry. I'm so ... sorry."

Selah felt a sob rise up within her, and moved forward. She reached out and cupped his cheek, the harsh scarred cheek that had haunted her so since she had first met him back in the dark streets of Miami. He placed his hand over hers and squeezed it gently.

"Theo." She couldn't think of anything to say. Nothing that could encapsulate the heartbreak she was feeling. Her terror was sluicing into pity, into a profound heart-wrenching sorrow for him, for McKnight, for everybody she knew and loved that had been damaged or killed by this vampiric curse.

"You have to be strong," he whispered. He was starting to shiver, the vibration almost imperceptible. "End times are coming. Final hour. You need to be strong. You can do what needs to be done. You are beautiful and good. No more doubts. Reckoning."

She felt the tears overflow and run down her cheek. Flashes of memory came to her. Dancing with him in Miami that very first night. Fighting alongside him against Sawiskera. Their quiet conversation in the Japanese garden in LA. That horrific final dawn when he had given her his heart. The ancient pain he had carried through his entire unlife.

"I will," she said. "I promise, Theo. I will."

"Selah," he said. She saw that his eyes had turned a perfect white mere moments before he closed them. "Sethe."

He grew still. His hand fell away from her own and his head rolled away from her palm. Blood dropped from the edge of his chin. Selah stared at him and pulled her hand back, cradling it with the other. Dominique breathed in rapid, shallow breaths, and Selah forced herself to stand. She blinked, rubbed her forearm across her eyes, and looked to the other woman.

"Rebecca," said Dominique, and turned back to McKnight. "Oh, no," she said as she touched the side of McKnight's neck. "No, no, no."

Selah moved to her side and placed her hands on the gauze, pressing down once more. McKnight's face had become waxen and she was breathing in an irregular manner. Dominique turned to the wall and activated an Omni, punching in an emergency code. The Omni's screen flashed red three times and a young man's face appeared.

Dominique began to explain their situation and Selah turned to McKnight. Tried to find her pulse, found it fluttering and weak. Blood was pooled beneath her and had started to drip off the side of the table. So much blood. Selah stared down helplessly at McKnight's face and a wave of anger rolled through her. The young man was explaining that they would send an armored ambulance as soon as they could, but it might taken up to fifteen minutes to reach them. He was asking Dominique if the victim was breathing. If she had a clear air passage. Dominique was yelling at him, telling him to get a damn ambulance over to the lab immediately.

Selah released the gauze pad. McKnight was leaving them. She felt it deep within her bones, deep within her soul. These were her final moments. The span of her life had reached its end, and this was it.

"Rebecca," she said, leaning down close to whisper it in her ear. "Rebecca. Thank you. Thank you so much. For your help. For everything." Nothing seemed adequate. She took McKnight's hand and squeezed it tightly. Ran her other hand through McKnight's blond curls. All toughness was gone from the Sergeant's face. That implacable attitude that made it seem like she could endure anything, overcome any obstacle.

Not this time.

Selah held her hand tightly and smoothed down her hair, watching McKnight as her breaths came slower and slower. They were just little gasps at the end, separated by five, six, seven seconds. Little hitches of the chest. Dominique returned and took McKnight's other hand. Together, the two women watched as McKnight died. And when her final breath came and no other was taken, they hugged each other and wept.

Awareness crept back, and with it, a cold, mind-clearing fury. Selah pulled free from Dominique and ran her forearm across her face, wiping away the tears. They had to move. They had to keep going. She crossed the lab and pulled out each vaccine ampoule. Pocketed them all and then turned back to her friend.

"Dominique, we have to go. We can't be here when the ambulance arrives." Dominique blinked away her tears and looked up at her, overwhelmed. Selah walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Dominique, come on. We've got to end this war."

VAMPIRE REVOLUTION will be published in April 2014.

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Other Books by Phil Tucker

The Human Revolt Series

Vampire Miami

Vampire LA

Vampire Redemption

Vampire Revolution (coming soon)

High-Octane Demon Hunting

The Grind Show

Psychological Horror

Crude Sunlight

CoffinCam

Literary Dystopian

One by One

Dark Fairytale

Throne

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
©
2013 Phil Tucker All rights reserved.

Cover art: Copyright 2013 Sophie Wong
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form.
Made in the United States of America