The Vampire's Seduction (21 page)

“And tell the doctors what?” William finally did stop then. He wheeled around to face me. “Here’s my friend, doctor. Pay no mind to those two large puncture marks. Notice the fact that she’s completely drained of blood and yet there’s not a drop on her body or clothing. And, by the way, I’d love to stay and chat with the police but I really must be going before the sun rises.”

“Oh, yeah,” I muttered. “I see what you mean.”

“She’s been marked by Reedrek. She’ll have a better chance with us than at any hospital.”

William resumed his long strides with a raspy, humorless laugh. “For pity’s sake, it’s as if you were mortal only yesterday. After all these decades you still think like a human being and not like a vampire.”

Sometimes I think that’s why William kept me around. It was like I amused him or something. Like I kept him close to his humanity. It really didn’t make any sense, though. I mean, he had Melaphia and Renee for human companionship. They were the real humans. Maybe I was William’s missing link.

“What are we going to do with her?”

I was walking at William’s side now, and he looked over at me gravely. “We’re going to make her.”

“Make her?” I thought for a minute, and then the gravity of the situation hit me. “Make her into a vampire?”

“Yes. But I’m not going to do it.” He looked straight ahead again.

He was talking crazy talk. We couldn’t make a vampire. It was against everything he stood for. Why, I was the only vampire he’d ever made and that was because I . . .

. . . was going to die anyway.

Then the rest of what he’d said sank in. “What do you mean,
you’re
not going to do it?” I asked.

We’d reached the end of the passage. A steel door with a round, chrome handle was set in the rock. William wrenched it open, revealing a wooden panel, which he shoved inward. It swung away from us noiselessly.

“Just as I said, Jack. I’m not going to do it.
You
are.”

Candles flickered from every wall, swirling like fireflies in my tired vision. How was I supposed to make a vampire when I could barely keep my lids open? I watched as William lifted Shari from yet another coffin I hadn’t seen before and placed her on the table.

Naked.

Any other time I might’ve enjoyed the view. I’ve never been one to pass up the opportunity to admire the female form, if you get my drift. But staring at an unconscious, half-dead girl wasn’t sexy or fun. It was creepy. I know I’d said I wanted to know all there was to know about being a vampire, but this was shaping up to be one of those TMI situations. Being told is one thing; doing is a whole different kettle of fish. Even Melaphia had deserted us on the excuse that she had to get Renee off to school. And Melaphia wasn’t scared of anything, living or dead.

I looked at Shari lying there, exposed and vulnerable, her arms hanging limp from her shoulders. She looked like some kind of primitive, ungodly sacrifice, and maybe she was. What were we doing exactly? This was a human being with a soul. And we were about to take it away.

“Are you listening?” William demanded.

The seriousness of what we were going to do hit me like a Freightliner in tenth gear. “Huh?” I said.

“Focus, Jack. We have only a short window of time to perform the ritual. Her existence hangs in the balance.”

“Are you sure about this? I mean, do you think she would want to be one of us? What happens to her soul?”

William’s expression softened and he took a deep breath. “I asked her before she lost consciousness. She wants this. Reedrek told her we would save her. And for your part, you can only do your best. The rest is in the hands of fate.”

That didn’t exactly answer my question about the soul business, but I figured that’s all I was going to get. “So what do I do?”

“You must drain her completely of blood . . .”

That shouldn’t be too difficult. I hadn’t fed in a long time, so I was beginning to feel weak anyway. I was about to ask William if I could start when he finished his thought.

“. . . by biting her in the heart,” he said.

Now that was just waaay too creepy. “Why not the neck?”

“Because she’s female. Go on. You can do it.” William slid his hands underneath Shari’s shoulders so that her chest was elevated. “It’s time,” he said. “Do it.”

“Her heart,” I muttered. Slowly I bent down to her, giving William one more uncertain glance. As my lips got closer to her creamy flesh, I could feel the ebbing life faintly circulating through her body. Her heartbeat was thready, rapid, and weak. I closed my eyes and let myself feel the hunger for human blood.

It was a hunger I took pride in denying myself, like a priest denies himself sex, or is supposed to. Sure, I’d fed off humans from time to time, even killed more than a few over the past hundred or so years. But never had I fed off an innocent just to satisfy my thirst for human blood.

Make no mistake, human blood is different from animal blood. As I’ve said before, I keep myself alive on blood from butcher shops, but a vampire is made to drink human blood, and human blood is what makes our blood, bone, and sinew sing. For lack of a better description, it makes us high. The hunger can drive you if you let it take over. But there’s room for only one driver in my skin.

As my lips met her flesh, I felt my fangs extend, almost painfully. A sexual rush I wasn’t proud of brought my body to alert. The vampire in me knew instinctively just how deep the heart was, and I bit down and down until blood rushed over my fangs and filled my mouth. She whimpered like a trapped animal without hope. I drank, thirstily, heartily, and long until—with my last swallow—I felt something inside her let go. Her heart stilled and began to cool. She was now truly dead. But not, hopefully, for long.

I felt dizzy, sluggish, like I was drunk on some sweet wine. I teetered on the edge of both nausea and euphoria. King of the world. Hot damn. Every artery in my body seemed as if it was bulging. I felt the holy water in my pocket begin to warm again as a reaction to the unholy action I’d just taken. That really sobered me up. I’d just taken a life, and now I was about to take a soul and forever cut it off from the grace of God. I’d never felt so damned, so evil, and yet so alive. I understood, for the first time, what it was to be a vampire.

“Focus, Jack! Now you must call her back to you. Take some of your mingled blood and make the sign of the four winds of spirit on her flesh. That is the blood benediction.” William touched Shari on the heart, the forehead, and each shoulder.

Busy enjoying the wild spurt of energy shooting through me, I gave him a fangy grin. I felt like I’d grown a foot taller, so I looked down to see if I’d actually levitated.

A huff of annoyance came from William’s direction as he grasped my wrist and plunged his thumbnail into my skin.

“Ow,” I yelped, my euphoria level dropping like a car slipping off the blocks.

He dipped his thumb into the blood that was rising from the wound and touched Shari’s forehead. “Call her, Jack,” he ordered.

I thought briefly of saying “Jack” but decided against it. William might not appreciate my humor at a time like this. And I was pretty sure Shari wouldn’t get the joke. I looked down at the girl I’d just killed.

“Shari?” I shook her shoulder. “Shari, wake up!”

William frowned, but instead of giving me more orders, he bent down, sliding his face next to Shari’s ear. “Shaaari?” he whispered.

The hair on my arms rose. I recognized the power of that call. He’d once called to me in the same tone. I pulled my hand away but William grasped it, forcing my palm against the wound in Shari’s chest.

“Shari? Come back to us, love. You are ours now.” He kept his voice to a whisper but I felt the same vibration I’d felt back in Bonaventure when William had called to Olivia. Scrabbling noises in the darkened corners made me want to look and close my eyes at the same time. There were dead people in the room—I could feel them. Restless bees drawn by William’s honeyed voice.

William pulled me down close to Shari’s other ear. “Say it, Jack. Tell her you want her.”

I swallowed. One thing I wanted for sure was to get this over with. I did my best to imitate his tone. “Shari, darlin’? Come on back now. We’re—um, I’m waitin’ for you.” I felt a breath of air move against my skin.

“Shari?”

Her body trembled slightly. Her heart fluttered feebly against my palm.

William straightened. “Now you must let her drink of your blood. Tear the artery in your wrist and put it to her lips. Let her drink until you begin to hear her pulse pounding in your ears. Then stop. Don’t let her weaken you too much.”

Time to share. I patted my jeans and couldn’t find my pocketknife. Aw, screw it.

I bit savagely into my own wrist. “Sonofabitch!” I yelled to anyone within ten feet. Shari was way past caring. “That hurt like a rat bastard!”

I tilted Shari’s head back and let my blood flow into her open mouth. Her mouth filled almost to overflowing. “Swallow, punkin,” I coaxed. “Swallow for Daddy Jack.” Just as I had begun to worry, she did just that.

She coughed enough to spray the blue jacket with another dose of blood and then swallowed again. Her eyes flew open. They were amber, almost yellow. Like a feral cat’s. You could tell she didn’t know who, where, or what she was. The only thing she knew was that she was thirsty for blood and for the life force it offered. Her hands locked around my forearm and I was afraid I’d need a crowbar to break the vacuum seal she had on my artery.

When I started seeing spots in front of my eyes, I put the heel of my free hand against her forehead and tried to pry my arm away. And not a moment too soon. It took every bit of my strength to loosen her grip.

“All right. What else?”

“Put her in the coffin I had delivered for Olivia. In fact, lock her in. She must sleep for the remainder of the daylight hours. During this time, her transformation will take place. It’s a time of agony. She may cry out to you, curse, scream, perhaps. But whatever she says to you,
do not let her out of that coffin.
To do so would cause death to her physical body and unimaginable suffering to her spirit. She must be restrained until the agony has passed. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I understand,” I said. “So that’s the end of it? She wakes up and presto chango, she’s one of us?”

“There is one more step you must perform to ensure the survival of a female.”

“Lay it on me,” I said.

“You must have sex with her, immediately after she rises.”

“Huh? Why? I never laid eyes on this girl until tonight.”

William smoothed blond curls away from Shari’s pretty, pale face. It was a small gesture of affection for a girl clinging to life but on the brink of eternal darkness. “It’s all about power. A woman’s power, her essence, is her ability to create life. That is taken away when a female becomes a vampire. When that reproductive power is lost during the metamorphosis, it creates a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum. And even this unnatural process is ruled by nature. The loss must be filled by the power of the maker through the act that in mortals creates life. That’s why makers of female vampires must be male. This is the female’s compensation for their loss of the ability to conceive—instead of taking the seed of the male to make life, they take the strength. Thus the balance of nature, to some degree, is restored.”

“That’s all well and good, but is giving my power to Shari going to make me weaker?” I tried not to sound suspicious, but I was starting to wonder why I had to be the one to make Shari a vampire instead of William. I could see the wheels turning behind William’s eyes. He knew what I was thinking.

“No, Jack,” he said wearily. “Having sex with Olivia will make you weaker. Any strength you lose temporarily this first time with Shari will be more than compensated for by the power you get from making her into a vampire. I, as your sire, will share a portion of that strength, but the benefit to Reedrek in a single making will be insignificant. That’s why you must make Shari and not I.”

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah.”

I lifted Shari off the table and carried her to Olivia’s coffin. I set her in it, none too gently as she’d locked her arms around my neck and began to nuzzle for the artery there. She was half vampire already. I guess I’d done a pretty good job. I closed the coffin lid and latched it.

I collapsed over the coffin, silently congratulating myself for a job well done.

Then she started to scream.

William

“You may as well get some rest, Jack. Shari’s making is out of our hands now. The keepers of the dark will either help her or take her to them . . .”
to wander, soulless and alone.

A panicked, scratching noise came from the coffin. Jack winced but thankfully didn’t ask any more questions. Frankly, whether Jack agreed or not, there are many things in this world one is better off not knowing, the process of making a vampire being one of them. The only comfort I’d found in my sweet Diana’s death had been the knowledge that she hadn’t had to suffer as Shari was suffering now. As I had suffered. And my son Will, thank the gods, had been too young to be useful to Reedrek as anything other than food.

Always, Reedrek.

I left Jack to his own choices. I was proud of him for doing what must’ve been distasteful to one so attuned to humans. But there was no time to congratulate ourselves; I had to check for messages from the Abductors. And I had to find Reedrek and Olivia. As I opened the door to the house proper, I nearly stumbled over Reyha and Deylaud waiting just inside. Another scream echoed down the hallway behind me, causing the candle flames at the altars to flutter and sputter. A cold gust of air wafted around us. Reyha dropped to the carpet and clamped her paws over her ears. Deylaud watched me with sad eyes as though he wished to help. I slid a hand over his head and he pushed his face against me. “She is on the journey. There’s naught we can do now but wait.”

They followed me to my office, whether to comfort me or to escape the terrible sounds rising from the vault, I couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter, I’d grown to appreciate their silent company. I had my own dark business to attend.