Breach (The Blood Bargain) (13 page)

Yet, two weeks after I had been trying to push a needle through thread that my night did not go smoothly.

I woke in the middle of the night in a panic, sitting up before my brain could process my surroundings.  There was an aura of terror in the air, surrounding my body like a fog.  Dread washing over me in waves that made my stomach wretch and my chest feel heavy.  Drowning without water.

There was no reason for it, everyone around me was blissfully asleep by the fire.  Mark and Zoe curled up with their twins, Candice not far away.  Dad in his easy chair.  Content, happy as could be.

I exhaled sharply, rubbing at the sore spot in my chest.  A bad dream perhaps?  Just one of those I couldn’t remember.  Resolved to shake it off I stood and stretched, my bright pink fleece pajamas looked too close to blood red by the light of the fire.  The thought of being bloody from head to toe was unbearable.  I left the room quickly, my socks making no sound across the hardwood while my feet carried me into the dining room.  With the fading light from the fire the temperature followed suit.  I shivered in the darkness, the cold ripping the last throes of sleep from my consciousness.  If only it had freed me from the angst as well.

Pacing in the blackness I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth, repeating a mantra in my mind that everything was fine.  There was no reason for me to feel such despair.

Nothing was wrong. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Still I fought the urge to run out into the frigid night and keep going till my legs gave out.  I swayed slightly, realizing I had been hyperventilating so much I had begun to get lightheaded.  Perhaps this was a dream, maybe I was still lying on the couch in the dark blissfully-

“You felt it too.”  A male voice brought my head around, a silhouette lurking in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Adam.”  I breathed his name, as he stepped into the moonlight that seeped in from the windows there was something off about him.  His features were tight, his stance ridged like he could pounce at any moment.  Rather than his usual ratty jeans and shirt combination he was dressed for bed.  Or maybe fighting.  The tight black muscle shirt clung to his frame, his legs covered in what looked like black track pants.

He paused about three feet from me, his nose wrinkling.

“You still smell of Caius.”  He muttered, his expression dropping into a sneer that showed the tip of his fangs.   His fists ball momentarily at his sides, thin but defined arms flexing in the moonlight.  He was angry...but his eyes carried something else.  It couldn’t have been jealousy.  Adam wasn’t like that.  We weren’t like that.

“What's going on, why do I feel...”  I didn’t even know how to finish that.  I grabbed on to the back of one of the dining room chairs for balance. “Dimitri.  You fed from him.” “Never.”  I argued.

“Then you were deceived into it, blood in a cup or glass.”

“He never poured...”  I trailed off, thinking of the dinner he had cooked for me.  The deer...and the wine.  It had been so delicious

“Looks like he did.”  Adam replied with a smirk.

“Why would he...”

“To keep tabs on you likely.  It’s a link thing.”  All of a sudden the crippling fear lifted.  In an instant I went from holding onto the chair back so tightly my knuckles were white to calm. There was no explanation in my mind as to what had occurred. “That’s better.”  Adam voiced what I was feeling.

“He’s not alright is he?”

“No.  He’s not.” Adam looked into the adjacent room, frowning at all the sleeping faces.

“Come with me.”  He reached out and grabbed my arm.

In a flash we were no longer in my home.  The pair of us were in a candle lit living room with a roaring fire.  It was warm, so much more so than my chilly dining room.  The couches were oversized brown leather luxuries, the rug between them appeared to be actual sheepskin with a glass and metal table sitting in the center.  Fine art hung on the walls, a bookcase overflowed with classics in the corner.  The walls appeared light colored from what I could make out by glow of the fire. It was a GQ paradise and one I did not recognize as ever setting foot in before.  On some level I wondered how far away from town he had taken me, or if we were still somewhere in the colony.  I did not know the range of their little transport ability.  Not that it mattered to the immediate topic.

“We have to bring him home.”  I announced, sitting on the mantle so I could warm my hands by the dancing flames.

“Caius won’t let me go up there.  I’m bound to his wishes.”  Adam sprawled on the couch to my left, running his hand over his face in frustration.  On one hand gangly Adam in his ratty clothes looked out of place in this rich
man’s room.  On the other, since I knew what he was it almost made him seem attractive.  For Adam didn’t need fine clothes and hours at the gym to be lethal and respected.

“I’m not.”

“Bullshit, you are too.  We all are.”  Adam let out a curse in a hiss.

“Well then what do we do, just leave him up there? And why are we...feeling this way?”

“We’re linked to him, when he suffers we feel the vibrations of it.  I am his child and it is something that will remain with me always.  You fed from him, unintentionally or not, so you area as well.  I don’t know if it’s something that will fade for you or be a permanent deal.  For now we are both bound in soul, linked to one another physically as well as mentally.  It should also help with his location, allowing us to find him.”

“I can find him?”  My eyes widened at the
thought of internal vampire GPS.

“Just like he can find you. Like when he had me pick you up from downtown.” I had wondered how Adam had come upon me before my death.

“How does that work?”

Adam shrugged. “It’s all touchy feely ethereal shit, I don’t know.”

“I see.”

“Seriously, for all my love of
Sci-Fi and Fantasy...” Adam trailed off running his hands through his brown hair, looking frustrated. “Yeah they could keep this crap.  It’s goddamn maddening.”

“You’ve felt this before haven’t you?  A couple times.”  I asked him.

“I know you know the answer to that.”  Yeah I did.  However, until just now I had figured it was my own mental shock from the incident with Antonia.  Being dumped defenseless in a city swarming with the hungry dead had seemed like a logical explanation.

“We can’t leave him there.”

“We can’t go get him.”

“A reason.  We need a reason to go north.  Something Caius won’t be able to argue with. Something I can get the council to push on.”  I paced around playing with the angel pendant around my neck while I opened every dusty file cabinet in my brain for an angle we could use.

“Good luck.  After what happened with that horde and the caravan deaths I highly doubt they’ll be willing to put anyone outside the wall.”

“There has to be something.”

“Yeah...well.  When you figure that out. Let me know.”  Adam reached out and grabbed my arm.  In an instant I was back in my dining room with no company but my fears.

Spring thaw had started to set in by mid-February. Just when it looked like the all clear was going to sound we were hit with another ten inches of snow, but that was the thing about where we lived. It was a land blessed with extremes; either really damn hot, or really damn cold.

In the summer the temp get up to 104 Degrees Fahrenheit, in the winter it dropped down to the double digit negatives.  There would be a few months of in between where life was nice and the weather was favorable.

There were exceptions of course, in the spring there’d be area floods, although do to our position we weren’t directly impacted by them.  I heard they hit the surrounding graveyard towns by the river’s pretty hard a few years back, the flow taking a bunch of the wandering waterlogged deadheads south with it.  Guess I should feel bad about that but as the old saying goes: shit runs downhill.

If whatever colonies lay in the bible belt happened to be pelted with our soggy dead I was sure their blood drinking citizens would happily wipe up the mess, or maybe not.  Either way it wasn’t my problem.  We focused on our own and the unknown that could hit us here, like prairie fires.  Another downside to Midwest living, or so I heard.  We’d never seen one.  The more nature overtook our little man made cities the more we worried one would strike up in July or August.  Even so no one paid them much mind, what with Caius and his offspring about.

It was March 5th 2023, a sunny day with the temp edging up into the thirties, maybe even forties, when my Dad threw open the windows and declared he had-and I quote-‘had enough of this snow shit.’  Unofficially ending the winter lockdown.

Honestly I couldn’t wait to get outside and go find Cole, but there was something else I needed to do first.  My target was curled on the couch in the living room by the front window, a nail file in her hands and a frown on her pretty face.

“Candice?”  I approached her slowly, as one did a poisonous snake.  No, that was a bad analogy, she wasn’t poison. I was.  If she struck, it was probably because I still deserved it.

Her light brown eyes flipped up to my own, expression unreadable.  “What do you want?”

“Will you come upstairs with me for a sec?”   I asked quietly.  I wasn’t going to push or prod or demand, I was in no position to do so, I could only request and see if she was willing to come with me of her own free will.  Holding my breath I awaited her response, trying to keep the worry off my face.

“Alright.”  Her reservations clear as she rose to her feet, tucking her hands into the pockets of her bulky maroon fleece.

Without another word I turned around, walking slowly to the stairs that led up to my room.  As I counted each one of the twelve wooden steps I heard the echoes of her ugs behind me.  My heart started to beat in tandem with the sound, anxiety building at how the next scene would play out.  This would be the first time I had to apologize to a girlfriend since I had kinda sorta taken Crystal’s spot on the junior cheer team in 8th grade.  I was rusty and flat out horrible at this mushy stuff.  No, it was just I was horrible at being wrong.  I hated to admit it to myself, let alone throw it out there for anyone else.  There was a vulnerability involved with admitting a fault, especially when also asking for forgiveness.  It left the one pleading prostrate before the other, purely at the mercy of their acceptance.  A humbling condition in a world that ate the weak.  I had avoided vulnerability since I was fourteen. The first time I had to smash in the head of something that was once a person I had hardened my own skin, trying desperately to separate myself from emotions derived from social interaction, as unfair as that was to those who knew me. But here I go again, making excuses for my behavior rather than owning it.

Turning the knob on the door to my room I exhaled the breath I didn’t know I was holding.  The door opened with a creek, the air still frigid from being closed in all winter, morning light seeping in through the curtains of my antiquated retreat.

“What's this all about?”  Candice asked from behind me, her tone wary.  I turned around, clearing my throat. I had expected to find her ready to hit me again but her posture was not currently aggressive. If anything she was cautiously neutral.  Her hands stuffed in her pockets, her feet in a casual stance.  Usually when Candice was in a bad mood it was arm crossed, hip out and head ready to start bobbing at any minute while she chewed your ass for whatever offense she believed had been committed.

“I wanted to apologize to you.”

“Oh really?  Little late don’t you think?”  Candice didn’t say it in a bitchy way, it was just her usual snark.  I put my hands up anyway to pause her.

“Hear me out.  I know my words are junk so.”  Walking over to the armoire I pulled out a wrapped parcel.  The fruits of my labor that Zoe had helped me with over those frigid months. It had been taxing for sure, having to sew by hand when I could barely feel my fingers, as I hadn’t wanted Candice to have any idea what I was working on I had to come upstairs in the afternoons and work on the gown.  She was worth it though, our friendship was worth it.

  My wrapping skills were rudimentary at best, but I still felt my chest swell with pride as I took the light weight of the item into my hands.    “I made this for you.”  I finished my sentence, holding the gift out for her to accept.  The dress had been concealed with plain white linen and ribbon from Zoe’s collection of craft store raids.

“What is...?”  She trailed off as she untied the bow. The thin silk layers fell out of the wrapping over the edge of her hands causing her to fumble with it for a moment.  Eyes widening, she dropped the packaging, holding the garment up by the spaghetti straps.

“It’s for the Spring festival.  I made it for you,” I cleared my throat, I had already said that hadn’t I?  Shit. 

“Zoe helped me with your dimensions and stuff.”

“Wow, you made this?”

“Yeah.”  I swallowed hard, my eyes focused on my shoes.  Grey double lined boots that I loved so much in the winter. Their little plaid edging, the wool lining so very worn over the years.  “Look Candice, I don’t expect you to forgive me.  You are right I have been an awful friend.  A self-centered bitty who’s not given a crap about anyone else around her.  I didn’t tell you because well, I just figured it would all work itself out.  I thought he would just be another one of those fly by night guys and it never clicked in my mind that you really cared about him. Permanence is something I’m having a really tough time with, ever since well, the world broke. Because of my own
messed up views on transience I tend to see everything through ‘now’ glasses rather than long term.  It never dawned on me that you would get hurt.”  Running my fingers through my hair I continued, the words pouring out of my mouth unchecked.  “I just wanted you to know that I am sorry.  I should have told you.  Anything like that ever happens again I will.  I didn’t make this because I wanted you to forgive me, I made this for you because I wanted you to have something nice to wear to the spring festival.  Because you are an amazing person-smart, funny, kind, everything I’m not-and you deserve to be happy and there are plenty of other guys out there besides jerks like ben and I hope you find one and stuff.”

Biting my lip I looked up from my feet to her face. Her eyes were watering, the dress clutched tight to her chest.

“Damn it Liv.”  She mumbled, wiping her left eye with the back of her hand.

I don’t know who stepped forward, if it was me or her.  More likely we just met in the middle.  My arms wrapped around her, her head on my shoulder as we hugged.

“I’m sorry I punched you.”  She mumbled into my hair.

“Don’t be, I deserved the wakeup call.”  Taking a deep breath I closed my eyes.  I guess that’s how it works.  You put yourself out there, open up and bare your soul and sometimes it was enough.  Sometimes after all the bull, fluff and filler was broken away there truly was a relationship left underneath worth saving.  Candice, as much as I had wronged her, was still a sister to me.

She pulled back, her perfect features brightening as a smile spread across her face.  Her hands tight on my biceps.

“I can’t believe you did this!  I can’t wait to wear it.”  In fact she wasted no time.

Despite the freezing temperature in my room Candice started peeling off the layers.

“I think I have someone I can introduce you to as well...if you’re interested.”  Pictures of tall dark and
Rylie danced in my head.  Just the kind of business oriented guy she would love. Not that I had ever seen him date, but an introduction wouldn’t hurt right?  Watching Candice kick off the last of her thermals I came to the conclusion Rylie probably wouldn’t mind at all. She was definitely well endowed, with muscle in all the right places.  If I gave a shit about body image, I’d be slightly jealous.

“Get out!  Who?”  She squeaked, slipping the silk on over her head.  It slid down over her body with ease, proving Zoe had definitely gotten the measurements right.

“You’ll see.” Candice flipped her hair out from the back of the garment and walked over to my mirror.

“Wow. That really looks amazing on you.”  I murmured. Overall Candice killed the look, her blond hair making her appear as Barbie’s incarnate before me.  The bright pink that would have made me pale out looked vibrant on her skin.  It was a golden age America masterpiece, from the fitted bodice to the layers of skirting that ended just at the knee.

Just like that we were back to the way we were, the way things had been for years. Sitting in my room chatting it up while she wriggled out of the dress and back into her layers of layers.

Despite the fact that Dad had declared the snow season d-u-n, it was still pretty chilly upstairs away from the fire.  Soon as she as all bundled up and had her dress in hand, we headed back down stairs.

Zoe was hovering around the doorway to the kitchen, looking eager and anxious in one hybrid stance.  Before she could spit out her question, Candice bounced over to her and wrapped her big sister in a bear hug.

“You are such a little sneak!”  She jokingly chastised her with a grin.  “I love it, thank you my big ninja
sista!” Candice ruffled up her hair while Zoe tried to downplay her involvement in the whole thing.

“No take the compliment, I couldn’t have done it without you.”  I chimed in.  Before Zoe could get a protest out Mark’s booming voice cut in from behind me.

“Well looks like you ladies put the drama to bed.  Zoe, I’m going to take the boys outside to play, do you want to come with?”

“Yes dear, would love to.”

“Me too!”  Candice added, “how about you Liv?”

“Sure I’ll be out in a bit, I have to change.”  With a smile exchanged, I took the stairs two at a time back up stairs.   At the top of the stairs, I was surprised to find my father’s door open. He was leaning against the frame looking polished, leading me to believe he had ducked into his room to freshen up.  Dad was wearing a white polo shirt under a rust colored sweater with a dark grey fleece layered over for warmth, his ‘business jeans’ covering most of his loafers.  I knew under that fleece he had a nine millimeter at his hip.  He always did, even though he hadn’t used it in almost a decade.

Well, aside from that nasty business at the wall before the freeze.  I’m sure he got a few shots off that day.

“That was a good thing you did.  With Candice.”  He commented casually, a hint of pride glimmering in his tired eyes.

“You heard all that?”

“Old houses have thin walls.”  He responded in a noncommittal fashion.  Rather than argue the point I simply shrugged.

“You going into work today?”  Considering his clothing, I already knew the answer.  Just wanted to make conversation.  It seemed Dad and I still had little to talk about that wasn’t small or overly serious.  Both extremes got on my nerves.

“Figured I’d get with Richard and Jonathan, sort out this spring business.  I saw runners door to door a few moments ago, won’t be long before everyone’s chomping
at the bit.”

“Oh I know.”   My head auto-nodded in response.  Spring meant hurry up and plant, hurry up and clean, hurry up and celebrate.  Well, at least it had a theme.

“We could use you at hall today, lot of work to sort out.”

“Yeah, I’ll come in.  Mind if I run a little late?”