Reborn by Blood (8 page)

Another hour and a half found me walking down a country road. Although it was narrow it was just about wide enough to allow two cars to pass each other as they went in opposite directions. It did not have a pavement though, just a grass verge that I could walk along.

Thankfully it had been a dry few days with little rain and the grass beneath my feet was dry and firm. I was listening intently for cars and every time one passed I pressed myself into the dry stone wall that bordered the road.

It was remarkably terrifying to be almost blind and unable to see the cars coming towards you. I spent a good deal of the walk swearing about why Sebastian had a house so far out of the city.

I was crossing a low stone bridge over a shallow stream when the car hit me. It was travelling at speed and I was catapulted off the bonnet and over the side of the bridge to land on the sharp rocks in the stream below.

Consciousness returned and with it the agony of what felt to be a broken arm and several fingers. I could feel the blood leaking from a number of cuts on my face and the cold water was numbing my extremities.

I had lost the shades somewhere, though the dim light below the bridge allowed me to see that I had lost Beth’s phone and Sebastian’s package was lying in some weeds on the banking. I pulled myself off of the rocks and towards the bank of the stream.

As I pulled myself onto the banking an ominous growl sounded from the bridge above me. It was deep and guttural and raised the hairs on the back of my neck as some primeval part of my brain started gibbering in terror at the sound.

I felt more than heard the thump as something big and heavy landed on the banking just beyond the bridge, out in the sunlight where I was unable to see properly. My heart was beating faster and my breaths were coming in shallow gasps as I pressed myself up against the coarse sandstone bricks of the bridge.

The growl sounded again, closer and I cast desperately around for a weapon of some sort. With little to choose from I bent down and grabbed a sizeable rock from the river. As I stood upright I came face to face with a creature of epic proportions.

It was crouched on all fours with thick brown fur covering much of its body; it was almost five feet tall at the shoulder and looked to be pure muscle. Its canine face turned towards me with eyes that glittered golden in the sunlight reflected from the water.

Sharp white teeth showed as it growled once more, low and dangerous. It glanced at the rock in my hand with what I could swear was contempt before looking straight back at me.

My knees were weak and I am sure that the trembling in my limbs was not just from the shock of being hit by a car. I raised the rock anyway, my only defence as against the beast I faced. A final bark that sounded almost like a laugh before it leapt at me.

Blood sprayed over the wall beside me as the beasts teeth tore through my clothes and flesh. Pain exploded through my body with each rake of the sharp claws. The rock fell from nerveless fingers before I even had chance to swing it and I screamed.

I lay on my back and stared into the beast’s malice filled gaze as it pressed me into the ground with one front paw and slowly, oh god so slowly, ripped apart the flesh of my torso with its other.

Finally as I screamed out for death the creature released me. It lowered its muzzle to the crimson life force gushing from my wounds and sniffed. I watched through pain filled gaze as it turned and picked up the package in its jaws before bounding away and out of sight.

My limbs wouldn’t seem to work no matter how I tried and all I could do was lie on the cool riverbank beneath the bridge and weep with pain and fear until I lost consciousness.

Chapter 9

A man’s voice roused me and I lay in the darkness beneath the bridge and whimpered quietly. Every part of my body was awash with pain. It took a tremendous amount of will to just open my eyes and stare up at the stones that formed the bridge.

The man, whoever he may be, was speaking excitedly into a mobile phone and since he was so close to where I lay, I could only assume that he was telling the police that he had found my body. I didn’t need the police anywhere near me as I had no way of explaining why I wasn’t dead.

I clenched my teeth against the pain and tried to move my arms to no avail. The damage done by the creature was too much. The muscles of my arms and legs were shredded and no matter what commands my brain sent, they refused to move.

With an extreme effort I managed to lift my head enough to see beyond the bridge. A man stood on the river bank with his back to me. He had one hand holding a phone pressed against his ear while he made wide gestures with the other.

He had thick wellington boots on with his trousers tucked into them. Mud – at least I hoped it was just mud – covered the boots. His coat looked warm and waterproof as well as expensive. I figured him to be a local out for an evening walk.

I tried to speak but no legible words came out and it occurred to me that the damage to my throat must be just as bad as the rest of my sorry carcass. I let my head drop back to the ground and continued to stare up at the bridge above me.

From what Anna had told me, as well as the little I had read in Sebastian’s book my nasty little parasite would be trying to heal my body and perhaps the only reason I wasn’t dead was because it was keeping me on this side of death. The dreadful thirst that underlay the pain of my wounds indicated that it wanted or perhaps needed fresh blood.

It was hard to concentrate through the pain but since I was unable to move, I needed to find some other way to get some blood before I ended up on an autopsy table.

I lifted my head and stared at the man who was still speaking on his phone and not even giving me the courtesy of looking at my corpse. I frowned as I tried to will the man to put down his phone and walk over to me.

After several minutes of frowning and straining the man still steadfastly refused to move. I dropped my head back to the ground with a thump and a groan.

“Good lord! I think he’s alive.” The man said to whoever he was speaking to. I managed to lift my head enough to see him looking across at me.

I tried to speak and little more than a gurgle emerged from my mouth before the strain of holding my head up became too much and I dropped it back down.

The man ran across to me and knelt beside my damaged body. He had a kind face and I could see that he was an older man, perhaps in his late fifties. He cradled my head in his hands as he leaned close.

“How on earth are you still alive?” he asked before continuing, perhaps knowing that I couldn’t answer. “I’ve called the police, they are on their way. They’ll bring an ambulance too.”

I tried to speak but no words could come out. He leaned closer to try and hear and I desperately wanted him to lean in close enough that my fangs could reach him.

“Its ok lad, we’ll get you help.” He said before muttering, “Come on, where are you.”

Since I assumed he meant the police, I really didn’t want to know the answer. I strained that much more as I tried to lift my head a little further, or perhaps an arm.

“Don’t try and speak, save your strength. God, how are you alive...” he trailed off as the faintest sound of sirens could be heard in the distance.

Whatever happened I didn’t want to be lying here when the police arrived and something told me that Sebastian would be furious if I were. He had set fire to my flat because a small amount of blood may have been there to link me to the dead teen.

Now you would have to walk a dozen feet in every direction from where I lay to not be touching my blood. With mounting panic I strained even harder to get some movement from my limbs and succeeded in doing little more than thrashing around in the old man’s arms.

“Hey now, stop that before you do yourself some harm” the man muttered as he leant forward to try and hold me still, which put his neck and that beautiful glowing artery with striking distance of my fangs.

He may have screamed as I bit into his neck, I didn’t notice, I wouldn’t have noticed if a bomb had gone off beside me as the warmth filled my mouth and suffused my body with a pleasure that surpassed anything I had ever experienced.

With every gulp of his blood I could feel heat within my battered frame as my Vampiric parasite, perhaps sensing my need for haste was forcibly repairing the damage to my body. The pain increased as muscles, tendons and flesh knitted together. My broken bones twisted of their own accord and fused back as one.

The blood began to slow as did the old man’s heartbeat. I was getting close to drawing too much of his blood, reaching that point where he wouldn’t be able to recover. I was far from fully healed as I pulled back and withdrew my fangs from his neck.

I could move my arms and legs. Each movement sent waves of agony through my body and as I looked down at myself I could see that the wounds were still open and leaking just a small amount of blood.

With a quick swipe of my finger through some of the crimson fluid that was leaking slowly from my own wounds, I pressed that red stained finger against the puncture wounds in the old man’s neck which soon stopped his bleeding.

He had a pulse and he was incredibly pale and no longer conscious but he was alive and the sirens were coming closer. I could do nothing at all about the blood splashed all around the river bank but I could at least leave before the police came. The old man who had cared enough to try and help me would be safe with them.

I managed to stumble a short way along the riverbank and ducked behind a tree as the flashing lights of the police car appeared on the bridge.

When I saw that the police were making their way down to the river bank with their torches in hand and I was confident they would find the old man, I set off along the river and back to Beth’s flat.

The package for Sebastian was lost, a great deal of my blood was splashed around an unconscious man and some creature had done its damndest to hurt me. Not kill me, I was sure of that, it had intended to cause me a great deal of pain but had stopped short at killing me.

I would need to call Sebastian and I was not looking forward to that phone call at all. I certainly didn’t intend to do it without a great deal of rest and some more blood. I could still feel the thirst and my wounds needed a great deal of healing.

My only consolation was that I could see incredibly well in the darkness. I had no idea of the time or how long I had been unconscious but I wasn’t blinded by the sun. It was, I decided, the little things that made all the difference.

With one last glance over my shoulder at the still flashing lights of the police car, I was satisfied that I at least hadn’t yet become the monster everyone expected. The old man should survive and I had healed enough to make my painful walk home. It was going to be a long night.

I arrived back at the block of flats where Beth lived, well before dawn. My clothes were in tatters and covered in dry blood but my flesh had mostly healed and the thirst had been sated.

Of course it hadn’t been easy to find blood on a Monday night when most normal folk were in bed, but a dog and two cats had proved to be slow enough to catch and filling, if somewhat sour to the taste.

The animals would no doubt be fine with a bit of food and rest so I didn’t have their deaths on the tattered scrap of conscience that I was struggling to keep hold of.

I approached the block of flats from the rear and took a moment to rest behind the overflowing bins to decide on how best to get into Beth’s flat without being noticed. I barely had the chance to consider my options before the stench of the bins drove me away.

With little choice in the matter I approached the front entrance cautiously. It was early enough that no one was around and only the occasional car would pass by on the road. Few people drove through Beth’s area if they could avoid it.

The front entrance was locked but I still had Beth’s spare keys so that posed no problem, nor did the lack of lights that had been turned off for the night. With my superior night vision I had no problem making my way to the lift and riding it up to Beth’s floor.

A cautious look down either side of the hallway to make sure that no one happened to be about before I stepped off the elevator and opened Beth’s front door. I quietly locked it behind me and looked around the living room.

Beth’s jacket and shoes were absent which meant that she had found someone to spend the night with. I could at least hope that she would be in a pleasant mood in the morning when she finally turned up, unless she hooked up with her ex-girlfriend, in which case I would be best to avoid her for the next few days.

I left my shoes by the door and lay on the couch. I was far too exhausted to take off my clothes or shower and since I had no clothes to change into anyway, it didn’t really make much difference.

My first priority in the morning would be to contact Sebastian and let him know what had happened. That was a conversation that I was not looking forward to having. With a deep sigh, I lay back and closed my eyes. I was asleep in moments.

Chapter 10

Beth let the front door shut with a bang that sounded overly loud in the tiny flat and woke me from my much needed rest. I sat up and rubbed at my eyes as I yawned.

“Wow, you look like shit” Beth said as dropped her jacket on the kitchen counter and sat beside me on the couch.

“Yeah, thanks. I feel like it too.”

“What happened to you?”

I spent the next few minutes telling her about what had happened when we parted ways and how I had been attacked on the way to Sebastian’s.

“Ah crap. I’m sorry.” Beth said her face twisted with remorse. “I should have driven you.”

“Not your fault. If you had been there, you would probably be dead.” I pointed out and she nodded.

“What do you think attacked you?”

“I have no idea. It was big and hairy and ripped me apart quite easily.”

“Sebastian won’t have been happy.”

“Well, I haven’t actually told him yet.” I said without looking at her and added, “I also may have lost your phone.”