Sire (11 page)

She ran to her room and threw on a sweater, then headed out the door.

"Don't get pregnant," Alexis called after her.

Outside, Caitlin looked around, not entirely sure where she should go. She knew that Michael was in danger, and that he was in incredible pain, but she had no idea where he was. The room she had seen was totally unfamiliar to her. Finally, she decided to head to Indigo, and hope for the best.

She set off down the trail that led to the Student Life building.

The path through the woods was narrow and winding, and the lights were a little too few, and a little too far, in between. It was like walking through a tunnel of shadows. Caitlin felt like it was designed to give things a place to hide and jump out at you, but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, and kept moving forward.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the SL building, with its bright lights and constant flow of people.

A guy and a girl were making out on the side of the building, and Caitlin couldn't help but stare at them. The way he held her, the way her head fell backward, the way his lips moved across her skin ... it almost looked like he was biting her.

But then the girl laughed and slipped out from under him, and grabbed him by the hand and pulled him back toward the dorms.

Caitlin shook her head and moved on.

She stood at the bus stop, tapping her foot impatiently, wishing that she had her own car. Finally, after what felt like an hour but was probably only five minutes, the shuttle pulled up. Caitlin got inside and threw herself into the seat closest to the door.

There were only a handful of people on the bus, all of them dressed to go clubbing. Three girls sat together in the back, laughing and joking. Four guys across from her, one of them with his arm around his girlfriend. Caitlin bounced in her seat, wishing the driver would hurry up. Finally, the door closed, the air brakes hissed off, and the bus pulled onto the road.

She chewed her lip the entire ride. She tasted blood by the time the bus reached her stop.

And then Caitlin was standing across the street from Indigo, staring at the line of people queued up to drink, dance, and hook up.

And maybe die.

She felt numb, fuzzy, like she was in a dream. She shouldn't be here. It was stupid, dangerous. What if Liam was here? What if he saw her? And really, how was she supposed to find Michael? Nothing in the vision had looked anything like Indigo.

She was just about to walk away when a pair of hands grabbed her and dragged her into the shadows of the alley.

She tried to scream, but a cold hand was clamped over her mouth. She was taken by the shoulder and turned around, and saw ...

Michael.

He looked like hell. His skin was ashen—not his normal, natural hue, and not the chalk-white he turned when his fangs came out, but an in-between gray color that made him look ill. A hole in his shirt revealed a horrible stab wound.

"Oh God, Michael! Are you okay? What happened to you? I was in my dorm, and I
felt
... God, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Liam," he said. His voice was clipped.

Caitlin's eyes widened. "He did that to you?"

"Yeah. Silver. I'm all right. But we have to get you out of the city."

"Wait, what? Out of the
city?
Are you kidding?"

"No," he said harshly. She couldn't tell if he was angry or in pain, or both. "He's looking for you right now."

Caitlin was suddenly very cold.

"We have to get you out of town," Michael repeated. "I can have you on a plane tonight. I'll have someone pack up your things. But for now, let's just get you off the street and somewhere safe."

"No."

"
What?
"

"I said 'no.' I'm not leaving." She looked at him, almost longingly. "I can't."

"Caitlin, you don't understand. Liam is dangerous. He'll—"

"I know he's dangerous, Michael. But you don't understand, either. I can't leave. I just can't."

Anger flashed in Michael's eyes, and he looked around like he was searching for something to attack. "Will you at least come with me, so I can try to keep you safe?"

"Of course," Caitlin said.

"Of course," Michael mimicked. "I'll go home with a vampire, and spend the night in his vampire mansion, and wait for his vampire buddies to come and eat me. That sounds like a great idea."

"You don't have to mock me."

Michael just stared at her. "The car's this way," he said finally.

***

Caitlin had been pretty sure that the ride home was going to kill her.

"Um, Michael? Do you want me to drive?"

Michael was hunched over the steering wheel, his teeth gritted together, his eyes narrowed. He was gripping the steering wheel so hard that it was actually bending in his hands. "I'm fine," he managed to sputter.

"Um, okay. It's just that you almost hit that woman. And that car. And that other car."

Another wave of pain hit Michael, and his body swayed to the right. The car followed with him, and Caitlin tried to brace herself in the seat. But Michael recovered in time to keep them on the road.

Caitlin was exhausted by the time they got to Michael's, but at least they made it there safely. Michael nearly fell to his knees when he got out of the car, and Caitlin worked her way under his arm and helped him into the house.

William was waiting inside for them. "Good evening, Master. Would you—" He stopped in the middle of his sentence. "Not again," he said, and sighed. "What happened this time?"

"Lost a fight," Michael said, and stumbled toward the kitchen. Caitlin walked along side him, trying to keep him upright. William followed close behind.

Michael waved Caitlin away when they reached a cooler full of blood. She watched, fascinated, as he drained two containers. He looked like a frat boy shotgunning beers.

The color returned to his skin almost instantly, and the wound on his chest flowed shut. The life returned to his eyes, and he stood up straight. He looked like a different person. Caitlin walked over and placed a hand on his chest, touching his skin through the hole in his shirt. "That's incredible," she said, awestruck.

Michael rolled his eyes.

William cleared his throat. "Master? Is there anything you require?"

"Just privacy, please, William. Thank you."

The butler vanished in a puff of British manners, and Michael led Caitlin into the living room. Michael threw himself into one of the arm chairs, and Caitlin sat on the ottoman in front of him.

"So ... why did Liam do that to you?"

"Because he's a dick," Michael said.

"Well, yeah, I get that, but ... what specifically set him off?"

Michael smirked. "I tried to stab him, and ended up on the wrong end of the knife."

Caitlin's eyebrows shot up. "Why did you do that?"

"He threatened you." He said it off-handedly, like it was no big deal.

"What did he say?" Caitlin asked.

"It was all vague threats and intimations. That's Liam's style. He wanted to leave it up to my imagination."

"What you'd come up with yourself is worse than anything he could say?"

Michael thought for a moment. "No, not really. He's a pretty creative son of a bitch." Caitlin blanched. "Sorry," Michael said.

"But what does he even want from me? Why did he pick me? Why did he ... you know?"

"You've got blond hair and a D-cup." Caitlin blushed, and pulled her sweater a little more closed. "That's enough for him. He gets ... fixated on people. On girls. You're pretty and you're new, and he doesn't have you. There isn't some deeper meaning to it. He's like a cat playing with a mouse."

"I'm not mousey," Caitlin said automatically.

Michael grinned. "No, you certainly aren't. But you are in danger, Caitlin. I can't protect you from him. I've tried before. He's ... he's just too much."

"He's that much stronger than you?"

"Yeah. He's two-hundred and something years old. I'm not in the same league as him. Hell, I'm not even in the same sport."

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen," Michael said.

"No, I mean how old are you really? How long have you been nineteen?"

Michael blinked, and the expression fell from his face. "I'm nineteen, Caitlin. I died less than a year ago."

Oh.
"I'm, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean ... I thought ... God, I'm so sorry."

Michael dismissed her apology with a wave of his hand. "It's all right. Like I said, I got better."

Caitlin watched him to see if he was lying, but he gave nothing away. "How did it happen?" She finally asked.

Michael's eyes went somewhere far away. "I met a girl. At Indigo. I was a Freshman, like you. She was ... the most beautiful thing I had ever seen." His eyes snapped back to reality. "I'm an artist. Portraits are my thing. And I've had a lot of beautiful girls sit for me. But no one like her."

Caitlin could believe that. Michael was absolutely beautiful himself, easily the most gorgeous man she'd seen anywhere outside of a movie. And if he had the whole sensitive artist, see the true beauty within thing going for him, too? Girls must have been lining up to have him draw their portraits.

And whatever else he wanted to do, too.

But she also felt a swell of jealousy. Hearing him talk about other girls like that, so casually, so matter-of-factly, hurt. And hearing him call another girl beautiful, hearing him say that no one had ever struck him the way she had, made Caitlin
angry.

Michael was still talking. "It was just ...
easy
, being with her. The way she laughed, the way her eyes sparkled, the way she would touch my arm. All of the little things. I always felt so happy when I was around her.

"But she started acting weird. Started talking about getting old, and losing your health, your vitality. She talked about eternity and forever a lot. Freaked me out. I thought she was pushing for a marriage proposal or something.

"Then she started asking me if I would
avoid
getting old, if I could. Avoid death. I figured this was just some freshmen philosophy crap, and I said sure, of course I would. Who wouldn't?

"She asked me if I thought it was worth it, what you'd have to give up. Watching the people you love grow old and die. Starting over every few years, hiding your immortality ... and I told her yeah, that would suck, but what you'd get out of it ... an eternity to learn and grow and play?" He nodded. "Yeah, that would be worth it.

"That's when she told me what she was."

Caitlin leaned forward, eager.

"We had just finished—" Michael began, then cut himself off. "We were alone together. And she said she had to show me something, and asked me to promise not to freak out on her. I said okay, and she told me to look into her eyes.

Michael's face hardened, and for just a second, his eyes glittered with crimson. "She had been feeding off of me for months, and then giving me her own blood in return. Took my memories away when she was done. That night, she undid the compulsion, and all those memories came flooding back. Lying there, helpless, while she fed on me. It wasn't even that I was
scared,
it was that I couldn't
move.
She told me to lay there calmly, and I did. I had to."

"What did you do? When you remembered?" Caitlin asked.

"I freaked out. Ran away. Ran out of the dorms and headed for the woods. But she was always there, right in front of me, wherever I ran. Waiting for me. Calm as the ocean, white as a ghost. Telling me it was all right, that nothing had changed.

"Eventually I couldn't run anymore. I fell down and leaned against a tree, and closed my eyes.

"And then she was next to me. 'I'm sorry,' she said, 'but I couldn't tell you until I was sure. Sure that you were ready. Sure that you were the kind of person that would
want
to know.'"

"And I was. I
was
the kind of person that wanted to know. Wanted the truth, no matter how bad it was.

"She sat there with me, until I had my breath back, until I could talk, and I asked her what happened next.

"She said that it was up to me. If I wanted, she'd take it all away, make it like it was. Take my memories away again. Or, if I wanted, I could be like her.

"That's what she was offering me. Forever. With her. An endless night."

"And you said yes?" Caitlin asked.

Michael laughed. "No. I told her I wasn't sure. I told her I couldn't make that kind of commitment until I knew everything.

"So she showed me her world, told me the truth about St. Troy.

"Angelica built this city. She's the Regent, the most powerful vampire within a hundred miles. All of this is hers. Indigo. Most of the businesses. Even the University belongs to her."

"Wait, the University? It belongs to
vampires?
"

Michael nodded.

"So what, it's like a giant hunting ground?"

"Kind of," Michael said. "But it's not like you think. Vampires aren't all evil. A lot of them just want to live peacefully. Angelica built this city to be a safe haven for vampires, and she realized that the only way to do that was to make it safe for humans, too. Her rules are very clear. Any vampire that kills a human answers to the Council."

"But, I thought you didn't eat human blood," Caitlin said. "If it doesn't hurt people ...?"

"Sometimes it does hurt them, Caitlin." His voice trailed off, and she could almost see when his brain jumped to a different topic.
 

"The University ... it's kind of like a farm team for her. Angelica has a thing for beauty. Beautiful people, and people who create beautiful things. That's why the university has such a strong arts program. It brings in the best from all over the world. The best dancers, the best singers, the best painters," he nodded at Caitlin, "the best photographers."

"Oh, I wouldn't call myself the best," she said.

"I would. Because I know Angelica. Her people only accept the best."

"And what happens to them? To, um, to us?"

"Usually? Nothing. But every once in a while she finds someone that's special, different. Someone that she thinks is better than everyone else. And when she finds someone like that, she makes them the same offer she made me. Eternity." His eyebrows knit together. "Though she doesn't sleep with most of them."